The rumble of footsteps can almost be heard, even though no one
will take a step for months. In different community gathering
places around the city, you can hear it getting louder. It’s the
sound of Gilroy’s Relay for Life team lacing up its walking shoes
and getting ready for the fight.
The rumble of footsteps can almost be heard, even though no one will take a step for months. In different community gathering places around the city, you can hear it getting louder. It’s the sound of Gilroy’s Relay for Life team lacing up its walking shoes and getting ready for the fight.
The enemy is clear – cancer – in every form that it reaches its ugly hands into our communities and families. Cancer can tend to be a quiet affair, but at least for Relay for Life supporters, the battle has a clear starting and ending line – a track lined with luminaries in honor of those who lost the fight to cancer. For 24 hours at Christmas Hill Park, on June 19 and 20, Gilroy’s residents will walk together and fight together against cancer for an entire night and a day.
Why would anyone want to walk all night? The idea is “cancer doesn’t sleep, so neither will we,” explains American Cancer Society representative, Allison Knapel.
Relay for Life’s 24 hour walking vigil supports the American Cancer Society and has three simple goals: celebrate, remember, fight back. The event celebrates and supports survivors, honors those who lost the fight to cancer, and fights back against cancer through community education.
So far, 25 Relay for Life teams plan to circle the track and more teams are forming and registering. Teams are often run by local businesses but usually at the center, there is a person – an individual story touched by cancer, a life. This year alone it is predicted that 142,070 people will hear the dreaded words “You have cancer” and of that number, some 53,730 will lose their life. With numbers like these it’s no wonder that events like Relay for Life become personal – very personal.
Take team captain Jessica Longoria for example. When Longoria’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, her mother responded by organizing a Relay for Life team made up of friends and family. At that time Longoria’s mother worked for Wells Fargo Bank and, in typical Relay fashion, Longoria mother’s coworkers soon got onboard and the “Stagecoach Strollers” were formed.
The team walked together for several years but when her mother lost the fight against cancer, Longoria and the team didn’t stop – they just renamed the team in her mother’s honor and kept right on going. Now Longoria has participated in Relay for many years and has no plans of quitting. The loyal team of friends and family stills relays as Carol’s Crusaders and everyone in her social circle understands that to know Longoria means you are as good as signed up for the team.
The total community involvement that Relay for Life seems to inspire is as much a part of the event as it is part of the way people respond to cancer.
“Cancer is a family affair, it’s not just the person going through it. Everyone gets involved,” Longoria said.
Just as the teams form for all sorts of reasons, the people working behind the scenes at Relay for Life are often drawn to supporting the event due to the tragic circumstances of a friend or family member being diagnosed with cancer.
It’s Wednesday night and five collapsible tables pushed together in the St. Mary’s community room with about 18 committee members scattered around are at the frontlines of Gilroy’s fight to raise awareness and support those battling cancer.
“It’s 121 days until Relay and we’ve raised $2,190,” announces event Entertainment Chair Mike Sanchez.
Sanchez and his wife Debbi – this year’s Event Chair – are presiding over a lively gathering of committee members in charge of launching Gilroy’s 2009 Relay. With only a few months to go and lots of ground to cover, team members are strategizing how to get the materials they need to host the event in a tight economy.
But even in the midst of what could be mistaken for any ordinary board meeting, the personal nature of the fight hits close to home. Sanchez takes the time to interrupt the flow of planning to acknowledge the recent loss of a friend to cancer.
“I think the committee ought to be a place where is someone loses their battle, we support them,” he says, passing around condolence cards for the entire committee to sign.
Sanchez’ own brush with cancer was close – too close. As close as his wife Debbi, sitting just a few chairs over at the meeting.
“When I had to hear ‘you have cancer,’ was that not the worst day of my life?” remembers Sanchez.
Sanchez called the American Cancer Society and was invited to be involved with Relay for Life.
“Actually that was the first time I was a called a ‘survivor,'” says Sanchez. “Wow, ‘survivor’ – that made me a little scared.”
Sanchez became a team captain with the support of family and friends and went on to co-chair the part of Relay for Life specifically designed to support survivors.
“I co-chaired with another survivor named Ruth Slechta, who by the way, was amazing. Unfortunately, she lost her battle with cancer the following year,” Sanchez said.
Five years later, the couple is still up for the fight.
“I continue to be involved in Relay For Life because there are too many good people who have to hear the words, ‘you have cancer,'” Sanchez said. “I’m fighting for my daughter, my friends, my family, and for you.”
Relay for Life will be holding several outreach meetings leading up to the June event. Anyone whose family has been affected by cancer or who is interested in learning more about the fight against cancer is welcome to attend. Attendees will get a sneak peek of the Relay experience and learn how they can get involved.
Somehow it seems that in the midst of accomplishing it’s three goals, Relay for Life also manages to do one thing more: become family. Sanchez urges survivors, family members, friends and those currently fighting cancer to get involved and be supported by the tight community that Relay for Life affords because cancer is too lonely a fight to be fought alone.
With cancer a very present threat and every set of shoes out on the track this June counting for hope, Gilroy community members have lots of good reasons to get involved. But take it from a five-year attendee with very personal reasons for her involvement in Relay for Life:
“It’s the most amazing thing to take part in,” Sanchez said. “All those people are out there to support you and every other survivor takes your breath away. It gives you strength to keep on fighting.”
