Relay for Life 2015

For those who have followed my blog for a while, you have probably seen me write about Relay for Life, which is one of the largest fundraisers for the American Cancer Society. We got involved with this organization while my Dad was fighting cancer & have obviously stayed involved through the years since I have since had grandparents & a husband touched by cancer as well. Last year was our first year to participate in the Frisco event & I was pretty disappointed. For the size of our city, it was a pretty small event, so when I was asked to help co-chair the event this year, I said yes immediately! First I am passionate about this organization & second, I knew we could grow our event with the booming city of Frisco. I am proud to say that we had our event this past weekend & we surpassed last year's numbers. We had 34 teams, over a 1,000 people & we raised around $55,000! We still have a lot of room to grow, but I am so excited to see the improvement over last year:

 

 

Our family decided to come up with a team name this year & we had most of our family participate. My Mom, my sister & my mother-n-law really took the lead & ordered shirts, set up our camp site, did an onsite fundraiser, made luminarias & so much more:

 

 

 

 

I was also encouraged to see a lot of our family friends stop by to support the event. The kids had a blast eating, playing & running around all night:

 

 

Two of our babysitters even stopped by later in the evening to check it out:

 

 

I organized a fire truck & a police car to stop by so the kids could meet the officers & check our their vehicles:

 

 

Opening ceremony started at 7:00 & we had our emcee announce the Mayor & FISD Superintendent, followed by the singing of our national anthem & flag presentation by the boy scouts:

 

 

I love having the community involved! After our opening ceremony, we officially kicked off our event with the survivor lap:

 

 

As you can see, all of the survivors wear purple. Our Mayor is also a survivor & he helped Bryan carry the banner. When they finish the first lap, their caregivers get to join them for the second lap:

 

 

After those two laps are finished, the track is open to all participants & the goal is to have someone from your team on the track at all times throughout the night:

 

 

The kids had a blast & ran most of the night. I mean seriously, I have no idea how many laps Sadie ran. I saw her run 3 continuously without stopping, but half the night she was running by herself or with friends/family:

 

 

We had live music provided by NAMS throughout the evening:

 

 

The Wakeland high school cheerleaders & mascots performed:

 

 

We had some friends set up a photo booth:

 

 

One of my committee members let people pie him in the face for money:

 

 

And our survivors were spoiled at their own tent. We had Raising Cane's sponsor food, Market Street donated desserts & we had a licensed massage therapist provide free massages:

 

 

My favorite part of the night was when it got dark & we had the luminaria ceremony. Our speaker this year was Judy Lamm, who is a 10 year survivor:

 

 

After she spoke, we had a violinist play music while we watched the luminaria slideshow honoring those who have fought & remembering those who we lost:

 

 

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we turned the lights off at the stadium for the luminaria ceremony & all of the luminarias were lit around the track:

 

 

When the ceremony is finished, we have one walk in silence where everyone joins together. It is always very emotional but was even sweeter this year because Judy asked if Sadie would dress up like an angel with her granddaughter, Riley, to lead the walk:

 

 

I was a little nervous how they would do, but they did amazing!

 

 

Thank you Natalie for taking pictures all night! Honestly, I was so busy during the event, that I probably wouldn't have gotten a single one. And a huge thank you to all of my family, friends & community supporters who helped make this event happen. I am definitely taking a break this summer, but will be ready to lead again next year: