However, at least 80 survivors were slated for participation in last Friday’s landmark event, and by Saturday morning, April 19, the all-night Relay had topped organizers’ “dream goal” of $100,000. All of this at one of the only Relays held on a high school campus. Beyond all that, the event managed to bring together many facets of Culver’s various communities.
Academies teams with names like Eagles for Others, Major’s Girls, Benson Babes, and Team Wellness joined Culver community teams representing Culver High School’s CAVS and BPA, and community organizations including the Lions Club and Culver-Union Twp. EMS, to make up 62 teams and well over 600 particpants.
The Academies’ running track and football field on State Road 10 became a swarming ocean of people from all walks of life and partically all geographic points, walking, talking, eating, laughing, and of course focusing attention not only on raising funds to fight cancer -- the goal of the Relay -- but also on honoring cancer survivors and those lost to the disease.
Tents crowded the landscape, evidence of the many participants who stayed through the night, which was marked occasionally by rain showers. A wide array of activities and events wasn’t hampered by the weather, however, including the solemn luminaria ceremony, in which hundreds of paper bags decorated to honor survivors and deceased were lit in silence, here by “glow sticks’ instead of candles used at many events. After a moment of silence, Culver’s Legion issued a 21-gun salture and “Taps” was played, followed by a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace.” This was followed by participants’ placing glowsticks into the luminara bag they have dedicated.
Not all was solemnity: the “Mr. Relay” pageant began around 11:30 p.m., made up of male participants in women’s attire, a tough contest won by Culver’s own Dan Adams.
Musical performance also kept the Relay rolling, and included the Culver Academies’ marching band, jazz trio “Best Kept Ssecret,” the Culver Academies’ Gospel Choir, and Hanna Klondaris. Musicians, however, weren’t always needed; those still asleep managed to avoid the “Macarena” and the “Funky Chicken” dances around 4:30 a.m.
In that early morning chill, efforts also began towards closing the gap to attain the $100,000 goal, including a 5:30 a.m. auction and a flurry of concession sales and donations, once the announcement came that the goal was in sight. Academies’ Relay committee chair -- and one of the initial organizers of the event -- Ashley Eberhart made the announcement before the 7:30 a.m. closing ceremony that the goal had been reached. Eberhart contributed her thoughts to the Culver Academies’ Vedette newsmagazine staff’s all-night “blog” of the event (online at
www.culver.org/relayforlifeblog ): “Tonight, our dream became tangible, our words became actions, and our (pledged) dollars translated themselves into real dollars, checks, and even quarters, dimes, and nickels.”
Near the close of the event, CGA junior Sarah Freymiller added to the blog a summation of what most participants surely felt: “What we’ve done here...will move beyond this place, through our county and through other connections that, once again, we can’t even see...dog tired, damp, and slightly grubby, we’ll show everyone that, yes, we can make a difference.”
Thanks to Catherine Battersby and the Vedette staff for their assistance in this article.
