EDITORIAL: Students, faculty can help reach, exceed $70,000 goal at Relay For Life on Saturday
Cancer never sleeps.
For people diagnosed with the disease, it is a constant, round-the-clock battle.
To symbolize that fight, more than 300 participants will walk around the Indoor Athletic Complex's track for 12-straight hours on Saturday for the 21st annual Relay For Life fundraiser at Central Michigan University.
Relay For Life raised $50,600 in 2016. Colleges Against Cancer at CMU, the registered student organization sponsoring the event, is hoping to raise $70,000 this weekend.
We urge the CMU community to answer the call to not only meet, but surpass the group's goal of $70,000.
As of Wednesday, the group raised $27,149.27 — more than $40,000 short of the $70,000 goal. To help reach the goal, we encourage all students, faculty and staff to attend. Everyone has a reason to walk, even if cancer hasn't directly affected their lives or the lives of their loved ones.
According to the American Cancer Society, there are 15.5 million people living in the U.S. with a history of cancer. The ACS projects there will be 57,600 new cancer cases diagnosed in Michigan in 2017 and more than 1.6 million across the nation.
More than 600,000 people are expected to die from cancer this year. That includes babies, children, teenagers and grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, students, teachers, coaches and administrators.
The money you can help raise goes toward helping these people. It helps the American Cancer Society fund research, critical patient care services, education, prevention initiatives and much more.
We can all relay for someone or something.
Saturday is a chance to honor the people you know who have survived cancer, those currently receiving treatment, those who have cared for patients and those who have lost their lives.
If nothing else, Relay for Life is a great, memorable way to spend a Saturday.
Team tables will have food available and there will be interactive games like bubble soccer, lip-synch battles and line dancing, crafts and additional ways to donate. Even the smallest donations help.
It's fun, yet thought provoking, healing and unifying. Those with any questions about the event can email cmichrelay@gmail.com. For more information to sign up or donate, visit Relay For Life's website.
The event brings students, professors, community members and more together on one track. Hundreds of people moving in one direction, walking with a unified goal in mind: to bring awareness and hopefully an end to a disease that has taken the lives of too many. One that doesn't discriminate against skin color, religion, gender identification, sexual preference or political stance.
Go for the students who worked hard to organize the event, your former classmate who took a year off of school because they got sick, your roommate whose grandmother is dying from lung cancer or your friend's mom or dad diagnosed with breast or prostate cancer.
Cancer knows no boundaries. It does not sleep.
So we won't either.
