Relay for Life provides hope

Nov. 1, 2016 | Relay for Life |

“I remember being sick — being nauseous all the time, being tired all the time,” Allison Slagter, a junior from Dorr Michigan, said. “I had to wear a mask all the time when I got pneumonia because my immune system was low, and I hated it because what 6-year-old wants to wear a mask and sit in the hospital?”

Slagter was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was just five years old. She was part of a clinical trial during her yearlong treatment and has been cancer-free since. Though she was young, Slagter said she still remembers her battle with cancer.

“I got teased a couple times,” Slagter said. “My hat blew off at recess once, and girls were laughing at me saying, ‘She looks like boy.’ And me being super upset, I just didn’t say anything about it.”

Driven by her experience, Slagter felt compelled to get involved with Relay for Life, the main fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, that Harding hosted Friday, Oct. 21. Approximately $14,500 was raised for from the event.

“Anything I see that is something involving cancer research, I really like to be involved in,” Slagter said. “It is always so close to my heart, and I know that touches so many people.”

The fundraiser is coordinated by more than 5,200 communities in 20 different countries each year. Harding has hosted Relay for Life for approximately 9 years. A record of 30 teams and 700 individuals participated in this year’s event.

Senior Amber Adams is a service director for women’s social club Chi Omega Pi, which offered face painting during the event to raise funds for ACS. She said the fundraiser enhances community within her club in addition to the fellowship on campus.

“Relay brings my club together for a different purpose,” Adams said, “When we typically gather together it is usually for the purpose of fellowship, but Relay for Life adds something to that. We fellowship to help the suffering that we have all seen and been affected by.”

Each Relay for Life event includes a designated course or track around which teams compete laps, with each team being required to have a participant on the track at all times. The event includes a “survivor lap” which is a designated time for participating survivors to take a lap around the path as a group. Harding’s faculty coordinator for the event, Lisa Bryant, said the survivor lap is her favorite part of the event.

“The survivor lap is very powerful and emotional for the survivors and their families,” Bryant said. “Everyone is cheering for them because they have survived cancer, and for those of us who relay because we have lost family members, it is proof that God is answering our prayer for a cure and hope for the future.”

Luminaries with names written on them of loved ones who are victims and survivors of cancer were placed around the front lawn. Slagter said observing the luminaries is an emotional moment.

“In Relay, doing the walk around and looking at everybody’s bags, I don’t know these people, but I still grow tears in my eyes because I know that it is rough,” Slagter said.

Relay ended at 5 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22. According to Bryant, the 12-hour transition from dark to light, with students continuously walking the track, symbolizes the continuous and full-circle fight against cancer.

“I was part of a clinical trial — that’s research — we need money for that,” Slagter said. “I think Relay for Life helps people see that people are willing to give money and to help, and that provides hope in itself because the research is really important.”