Sunday, June 11, 2006
Relay for Life Update
I posted earlier this spring that I was going to join a member of my congregation in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life. That happened on Friday night, and we did awesome! Our team (the Mad Hatters) won a trophy for collecting the most donations for a single team in our district. With the help of our congregations, families and friends, we collected over $6500! My goal for our team was to raise $5000, so we exceeded that by quite a bit~
Anyways - I mentioned in my request for pledges that I had a lot of admiration for Karen Callsen, our team captain. I just wanted to post for you a speech she made at an awareness raising event for Relay for Life. She is truly an amazing person!
"Why I Relay" by Karen Callsen:
Good evening everyone and welcome. The latest statistics show that 1 out of 3 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Huge odds wouldn’t you say? If someone told me that I had a 1 in 3 chance of winning a million on this week’s Lotto 649, you can be sure that I’d be buying a ticket ……or 10-and I think you would too. With odds like that, I’d be thinking that it was almost a sure thing that I’d be a winner. The fact is, we spend hundreds of thousands of $$ on lottery tickets every week, when our odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 64 million. There is a steady stream of hopefuls at the lottery counter and few are winners. So with the odds at 3 to 1 of being diagnosed with cancer, why isn’t this room filled to capacity? Why don’t we have more teams registered for Relay for Life than we can even accommodate? If we’re lucky enough to live our life cancer free, the odds are that someone close to us won’t be so lucky. That is why I relay.
This June, I will celebrate my 2nd anniversary as a cancer survivor. And what a celebration it will be! Two years ago, I felt incredibly alone and vulnerable as I stepped on the track to walk the Survivor lap. But the next thing I knew, I was swallowed up in a sea of yellow t-shirts. Strangers are only friends we haven’t met yet, and I was surrounded by friends who through their being there to walk with me that night, gave me the gift of HOPE. And I have drawn on the strength of that gift every day since. My hero Lance Armstrong, says that those of us that are survivors have an “obligation of the cure”. Because our life has been spared-at least for now, we must stand up and tell our story. As survivors we have become lifetime members of a sorority that we didn’t ask to join. And with that membership comes the responsibility of “paying it forward”. As survivors we are responsible for passing on the message of HOPE to others. I don’t take that responsibility lightly and that is why I Relay.
I don’t think that there is a person in this room that hasn’t been touched by cancer. And I think I am safe in saying that most of us have lost someone we love very, very much to the disease. We must keep their memory alive! By being involved in Relay for Life, we are showing our respect for those who fought the good fight, but lost the battle. We owe it to them and to ourselves to keep searching for a cure. But we can only do that by the money raised in events such as this. That is why I Relay.
When you’re going through chemotherapy, you don’t get to take a day off. The nasty side effects of treatment are with you 24/7. When your body is protesting against the burning rays of radiation, you’re usually not given the opportunity of “sitting this one out”. Cancer never sleeps….that is why we stay up all night and relay. However small, it’s our way of making a sacrifice. It’s our way of showing that we care about those who are struggling with the disease. It’s our way of saying, “I am here for you, I support you and I will do everything in my power to put an end to cancer’s rampage.” That is why I Relay.
Relay for Life is 12 hours of fun and friendship and fundraising. There is a sense of family and belonging at Relay for Life, that you won’t find anywhere else. And unless you experience it for yourself, you will never get that warm fuzzy feeling and sense of accomplishment the rest of us get after a night at the Relay. You are missing out on a life-changing event if you don’t come and see for yourself what I am talking about. It’s a high like no other. And that is why I Relay.
You may be thinking….I’m just one person, will it really make any difference if I Relay or not? Don’t ever underestimate the power of one. I’d like to close with the following story….
Once a man and a woman were walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance they saw someone going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. Back and forth the figure went, as if they were dancing. As the couple approached they could see that the figure was that of a young girl and she wasn’t dancing at all. There were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide and the young girl was bending down, picking up the starfish one by one, and throwing them into the ocean.
The man and the women were stuck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish in the hot sun and the dry sand. As they walked closer, they watched as the girl continued the task of picking up starfish, one by one, and throwing them into the surf. When they reached her the man said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with these starfish." The woman added, "You can't possibly think that you alone can make a difference." The young girl looked at the man and then at the woman. And then she stooped down and picked up yet another starfish and threw it back into the ocean. As it met the water she said. “ It sure made a difference to that one”.
And that my friends, is the reason I Relay.
Anyways - I mentioned in my request for pledges that I had a lot of admiration for Karen Callsen, our team captain. I just wanted to post for you a speech she made at an awareness raising event for Relay for Life. She is truly an amazing person!
"Why I Relay" by Karen Callsen:
Good evening everyone and welcome. The latest statistics show that 1 out of 3 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Huge odds wouldn’t you say? If someone told me that I had a 1 in 3 chance of winning a million on this week’s Lotto 649, you can be sure that I’d be buying a ticket ……or 10-and I think you would too. With odds like that, I’d be thinking that it was almost a sure thing that I’d be a winner. The fact is, we spend hundreds of thousands of $$ on lottery tickets every week, when our odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 64 million. There is a steady stream of hopefuls at the lottery counter and few are winners. So with the odds at 3 to 1 of being diagnosed with cancer, why isn’t this room filled to capacity? Why don’t we have more teams registered for Relay for Life than we can even accommodate? If we’re lucky enough to live our life cancer free, the odds are that someone close to us won’t be so lucky. That is why I relay.
This June, I will celebrate my 2nd anniversary as a cancer survivor. And what a celebration it will be! Two years ago, I felt incredibly alone and vulnerable as I stepped on the track to walk the Survivor lap. But the next thing I knew, I was swallowed up in a sea of yellow t-shirts. Strangers are only friends we haven’t met yet, and I was surrounded by friends who through their being there to walk with me that night, gave me the gift of HOPE. And I have drawn on the strength of that gift every day since. My hero Lance Armstrong, says that those of us that are survivors have an “obligation of the cure”. Because our life has been spared-at least for now, we must stand up and tell our story. As survivors we have become lifetime members of a sorority that we didn’t ask to join. And with that membership comes the responsibility of “paying it forward”. As survivors we are responsible for passing on the message of HOPE to others. I don’t take that responsibility lightly and that is why I Relay.
I don’t think that there is a person in this room that hasn’t been touched by cancer. And I think I am safe in saying that most of us have lost someone we love very, very much to the disease. We must keep their memory alive! By being involved in Relay for Life, we are showing our respect for those who fought the good fight, but lost the battle. We owe it to them and to ourselves to keep searching for a cure. But we can only do that by the money raised in events such as this. That is why I Relay.
When you’re going through chemotherapy, you don’t get to take a day off. The nasty side effects of treatment are with you 24/7. When your body is protesting against the burning rays of radiation, you’re usually not given the opportunity of “sitting this one out”. Cancer never sleeps….that is why we stay up all night and relay. However small, it’s our way of making a sacrifice. It’s our way of showing that we care about those who are struggling with the disease. It’s our way of saying, “I am here for you, I support you and I will do everything in my power to put an end to cancer’s rampage.” That is why I Relay.
Relay for Life is 12 hours of fun and friendship and fundraising. There is a sense of family and belonging at Relay for Life, that you won’t find anywhere else. And unless you experience it for yourself, you will never get that warm fuzzy feeling and sense of accomplishment the rest of us get after a night at the Relay. You are missing out on a life-changing event if you don’t come and see for yourself what I am talking about. It’s a high like no other. And that is why I Relay.
You may be thinking….I’m just one person, will it really make any difference if I Relay or not? Don’t ever underestimate the power of one. I’d like to close with the following story….
Once a man and a woman were walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance they saw someone going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. Back and forth the figure went, as if they were dancing. As the couple approached they could see that the figure was that of a young girl and she wasn’t dancing at all. There were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide and the young girl was bending down, picking up the starfish one by one, and throwing them into the ocean.
The man and the women were stuck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish in the hot sun and the dry sand. As they walked closer, they watched as the girl continued the task of picking up starfish, one by one, and throwing them into the surf. When they reached her the man said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with these starfish." The woman added, "You can't possibly think that you alone can make a difference." The young girl looked at the man and then at the woman. And then she stooped down and picked up yet another starfish and threw it back into the ocean. As it met the water she said. “ It sure made a difference to that one”.
And that my friends, is the reason I Relay.
