Relay surpasses first-year goals </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 11:45 PM on Thursday, June 18, 2009

Relay surpasses first-year goals

By McKibben Jackinsky
Staff writer

With 20 teams, 40 cancer survivor participants and $20,000 as a goal for Homer's first Relay for Life, Homer blew expectations out of the water.

According to event organizer Carolyn Bishop, there were, indeed, 22 teams, at least 60 survivors and a whopping $61,481 raised to battle the war against cancer.

"There are a lot of tired, exhausted, happy people," Bishop said or the effort to make the event a success.

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky

Preparing Friday for the first lap of Homer's first Relay for Life are, from left, cancer survivors Ken Van Valkenburgh, Stella Scott, Janice Freeman, Ginger Van Wagoner, Kay Sebade, Susan Saxton, Karen Hodge and Lorelei Collins.

WAKO -- We All Know One -- was the top fund-raising team, with $11,000. Scott Harding, a cancer survivor and WAKO's team captain, took top honors as the individual raising the most money.

Harding single-handedly raised more than $3,000. Seven individuals also took honors for each raising $1,000, a distinction that won them admission into the K-Club.

"There's still money coming in," Bishop said. "It's pretty exciting."

The roots of Relay for Life are linked to Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon from Tacoma, Wash., who, in the mid-1980s, raised $27,000 in pledges to fight cancer by spending 24 hours circling the track at the University of Puget Sound's Baker Stadium.

Patterned after Klatt's success, but designed as a relay involving teams of individuals, the American Cancer Society has developed Relay for Life to involve more than 3.5 million participants worldwide.

"Yes, there will be more Relays for Life," Bishop said of plans underway for next year. "There are teams already starting to think about how to do fundraising events and I have at least one committee chairman who said she'd be more than happy to do it next year. I'm looking for more people that want to hop on board.

"Anybody that wants to help is more than welcome."