Recreation for cancer research
Students raise over $40,000 for the American Cancer Society
By Nicole Milstead/ Activities Editor
Published: Monday, April 18, 2005
Last year Eastern had 20 teams participate, raising over $20,000. This year Eastern's relay had 33 teams and raised over $40,000, with money still coming in, Griffin said.
During Relay for Life, teams walk laps through the night on a candle-lit path.
Each candle is lit in remembrance of a different person who has fought the battle with cancer. Every hour the relay has a theme lap where one member of each team dresses up differently for that lap. Some of the theme laps included EIU pride, American pride, mismatched person, Hawaiian and Hope Lap where everyone dressed in yellow.
Greek Organizations such as
Alpha Phi sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity participated in the relay.
Alpha Phi also had 25 students participate and raised $2,200.
"We are here because I had cancer and we want to relay for all the survivors and people in our lives who have cancer," said Kelly O'Malley, a sophomore health studies major and the
Alpha Phi team captain. "It is a blessing to be a survivor."