Relay For Life fund-raiser brings community together
By Kathleen Acuff, Town Crier Staff Writer
 Cancer survivor Tita McCall gives Jane Bigelow a hug during the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life kickoff Saturday. |
“It’s got to stop,” Steve McCoy said as he halted on the Los Altos High School track Saturday afternoon. He was the only volunteer standing still as he took time out of his 24-hour commitment to the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life fund- and awareness-raising event to answer questions.
McCoy was first diagnosed with cancer at 31. He underwent surgery, radiation treatments and chemotherapy, followed by the routine of monthly checkups the first year, quarterly checkups the second and semiannual checkups the third. After he passed the five-year milestone, the point at which a patient’s cancer is considered cured if it has been inactive since treatment - the point at which there is only a 1 percent chance of recurrence - his cancer reappeared. He is now in his third “clean” year since his second round of surgery and treatment, and he is taking it one year at a time.
But like the hundreds of cancer survivors - children and adults — and more than 1,250 volunteers of all ages who walked the track for some part of the round-the-clock relay, McCoy, who will turn 43 in July, is concerned about more than his own mortality.
“It’s hit my aunts, my uncles, my friends and it’s got to stop,” he said. “The only way to make it happen is to crusade for a cure.”
Proceeds surpass goal
McCoy was buoyed by the community’s support of the project, spearheaded by Jeanne MacVicar and Jane Bigelow. With the help of more than 20 volunteer committees, MacVicar and Bigelow pulled off the No. 1 Relay For Life event in the United States in only their second year with the ACS project. Last year’s relay was the ACS best rookie event in the state and ranked No. 2 in the nation.
By Sunday morning, organizers had raised more than $431,000 from all sources, surpassing their goal of $375,000. On Friday night, the local relay was already No. 1 in the country in online credit card donations, said the relay’s webmaster, Chris Pennington. Fund raising will continue through the end of the ACS fiscal year, Aug. 31. Organizers have set a new goal of $500,000.
Pennington’s wife, Bryn MacVicar Pennington, served as co-chairwoman, with Karen Smith, of the luminaria committee. Beside a big sandbox ringed by adults, she watched volunteers fill bags with ballast for the luminarias that would be set along the perimeter of the track. She had been counting bags all day.
“I lost track at about 4,500,” she said with a laugh.
In a tent a few feet away, Emily Tang, a rising sophomore and member of the LAHS Key Club, spent the day at a laptop, keying in information about luminaria sales. By early Saturday afternoon, she was able to report that 2,375 persons were being honored with luminarias, but that number was less than the actual number of luminarias sold.
A slow walk around the track to read the names and messages on the bags holding the votive candles was illuminating. Many honorees had at least a dozen luminarias from friends and family in support of their fight against cancer or in their memory. Bob Cranmer-Brown, walking for the full 24 hours again this year, passed the long line of votive tributes to his mother for the 60th time Saturday before midafternoon.
“It’s all about love and anger and the need to give a voice to the fight against cancer,” MacVicar said. “And it’s a celebration of life.”
Schools take action
No one can celebrate life like a child. Local schoolchildren decorated more than 500 of the luminarias that ringed the field. Buyers added names and messages. Every elementary school in the Los Altos School District participated in Relay For Life this year, catching the enthusiasm of Cindy Walden, a Santa Rita parent who involved her school last year.
The six schools set a collective goal of 10 percent of the total relay goal. By 7:30 Saturday morning, they had raised more than that - about $40,500. During the school year, the children held bake sales and sold wristbands and necklaces to raise money for the cause. Their adults held a pancake breakfast and wine-tasting and margarita parties. At the relay, parents, LASD staff and at least one student were among the cancer survivors walking and taking part in other activities. They were joined by 96 friends and family members, 72 students and 14 teachers.
Joyce Musselman, co-captain with Carol Casas of the Covington team, said the love students, parents and staff felt for Franz Anderson inspired the Coyotes’ participation this year. Anderson, a beloved school aide whom cancer could not keep away from his work with the children of Covington and Springer, died during the school year. His granddaughters, Katie and Isabel Virga, who both attended Covington this year, walked with the school’s team Saturday.
As McCoy said, “A lot of people in the Los Altos area are passionate about finding a cure. We’ve all been affected in so many ways by cancer.”
They also serve who only sit and knit. In the Knit a Row tent, Hollis Bischoff and others were knitting pull-on caps for chemotherapy patients. Elspeth Olson of Generation Next was knitting scarves as a fund-raiser.
About 60 teams of volunteers - 22 more than last year - were on the school grounds between 10 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday. René Lepiane, ACS director of Relay For Life for the Silicon Valley-Central Coast region, said, “This is a phenomenal community, a phenomenal group of volunteers. Relay For Life is a community that takes up the fight against cancer. And it’s so much fun to watch people and hear their stories.”
Emotional opening
From the release of doves to the first lap - for survivors only - and the second lap, for caregivers, Saturday’s opening ceremony was “extremely emotional,” McCoy said. Los Altos Mayor David Casas and Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District Superintendent Rich Fischer, the Los Altan of the Year, spoke encouraging words to the early walkers. Casas was later spotted lapping the track. Fischer couldn’t be missed as he made his rounds in a cap that looked like a large bass with a fishing rod dangling from its mouth. Fischer and his wife Cheri continued to walk laps into the midnight hour.
Debra Thaler-Demers, a cancer survivor and Stanford Hospital oncology nurse, spoke to survivors at lunchtime on “Cancer Survivor Toolbox.” Survivor Joel ben Izzy, winner of the Blessings and Curses Award for his storytelling, spoke to fellow survivors and other relay participants. Denis D’Aoust led his band in upbeat classic rock standards, and a jazz combo took over in midafternoon. Dr. Lewis Lanier of the University of San Francisco Cancer Research Institute spoke at 8 p.m. His talk was followed by the luminaria ceremony. Survivors Renée Levy and Tracey Downing read the names of the honorees. Connie Bergquist sang and D’Aoust played keyboard.
“It’s a truly moving time when the candles are lit in memory of people who passed away and in honor of survivors, and ‘HOPE’ is spelled out with luminarias in the grandstand,” McCoy said.
At the entrance to the grassy field dotted with sponsors’ tents south of the track, signs with answers were blowing in the wind: “9.6 million Americans alive today are cancer survivors.” “Every 2.5 minutes, a woman learns she has breast cancer.” “One out of every 100 Americans participates in Relay For Life.” “Cancer costs Americans more than $170 billion a year.”
Survivors supplied their own answers in the survivors’ tent, a sanctuary where they could rest and get a massage. Pens and scalloped write-on place mats on round tables were for statements beginning: “Cancer cannot … “
In the survivors’ tent, an athletic-looking woman who asked to be identified only as a survivor stretched while waiting for the masseur, working at his table behind a floor screen. She had clocked 11 miles since 10 a.m. in shoes she was breaking in for the upcoming Avon Walk, she said.
For more information about Relay For Life, visit www.losaltosrelay.org.
Right, the 24-hour event had more than a thousand volunteers walking the Los Altos High School track to raise funds for cancer research.
