A fairytale-themed Relay for Life is helping raise money to fight cancer as well as take time to honor those who have battled it. Relay begins tonight at 5 p.m. and goes until 5 a.m. Saturday. This year, the event will take place on the front lawn. If there is bad weather, however, it will be moved to the GAC.
According to treasurer of Relay junior Nathan Wilson, one of the goals this year was to have the event be bigger and have more people involved. Executive director of Relay, junior Veronica Rodriguez, said she plans on obtaining student body involvement during the event.
“This year it is a lot more student-led, and we have students that are not involved in a social club but are still trying to get involved,” Rodriguez said. “Our biggest thing is making people aware of cancer and how it is affecting people’s lives.”
According to Rodriguez, this year’s Relay for Life will include several people whose lives were directly affected by cancer. Rodriguez said they wanted to get perspective from people dealing with cancer as well as people who cared for someone who had cancer.
“There is Ann Read, a mother of a student at Harding, who is a cancer survivor that had her last radiation a couple weeks ago. She will be one of our main speakers talking about her story,” Rodriguez said. “There will also be a family that will give the caregiver point of view, having just lost their grandparent a week before this fall semester.”
Rodriguez was on the committee for Relay last year and said she planned for a new approach this year.
“Last year the carnival theme was fun, but I feel like for college students, fairy tales are always a go-to,” Rodriguez said. “It brings out the happiness in people, and it is a common ground for everyone.”
According to Wilson, the committee got more people involved because they started planning for this event last spring. Wilson said there are a lot of different groups other than social clubs that wanted to participate.
“Since we got started so early this year we really wanted to try for a different approach and get more people involved,” Wilson said. “We got more sports teams and some dorms to participate.”
According to Rodriquez, the participating groups have some creative ideas in the works. Different groups are doing their own version of the overall fairy tale theme by using Disney movies.
“ChiO and Omega Phi are getting together and doing a Lion King theme,” Rodriguez said. “They will have kittens as their little lions and they will be decorating their booth with an African theme.”
According to Wilson, the event is going to involve an inflatable slide and bounce house as well as several live performances. There will be food available for students to buy including Whistle Stop Barbecue.
The performances during the event are the Fable and the Fury, Keith Symanowitz from Keef and Co, Four West, Belles and Beaux and the Harding Jazz Band.
