Archive: Around Town

Nearly 700 people participated in Ithaca's Relay For Life Friday night, raising $152,800 (and counting -- the final tally will come next month) to fight cancer.  This year's theme was Dr. Seuss, which meant multiple Cat In The Hats, Thing Ones and Thing Twos, Sneetches, and all the other beloved Seussical characters.

"We're here to celebrate, remember, and fight back," says event chair Alexis Falise.  "We celebrate our cancer survivors.  We remember the people that we've lost.  And we're here to fight back and take a stand in our community.  We raise money that stays right here in the Southern Tier of New York State that is allocated based on need.  So people can feel good about donating money that stays right in their community."

Tompkins County participants formed 60 teams to raise money and walk the Lansing High School track with an average team size of 15 people.  This is the fourth year the event has been held in Lansing, and because of budget constraints the first time the school district has charged to hold the event there.  But Falise says that is to be expected.

"They've got to keep their books even," she says.  "We use their space.  There is a charge, so we work extra hard to try to raise those dollars to cover those costs."

Everyone at the event had a story to tell.  Many are cancer survivors themselves, the others have survivors in their families or have lost loved ones to cancer.  Cargill engineer Albert Kunz's father is one such survivor.  Kunz was part of the Cargill team that was walking the track all night as well as raffling hand made blankets and an apple peeler.

"I've lost three very dear family members to cancer," Falise says.  "Not even a year ago my mother passed away from cancer.  It's near and dear to my heart.  I want to do something about it.  Oftentimes people who are affected by cancer feel every helpless.  This is something we all can do.  We can raise money to encourage research that will make dealing with this disease better."


The Tompkins Trust Company team of star-bellied sneetches was led by co-captains Tammie Dean and Sarah Torrence.  Theirs was one of the larger teams, numbering 25 sneetches in all.

"My mother passed away from cancer," Dean says.  "That's why I'm here."

Some of the highlights of the event were fireworks donated by Little Bigshots in Lansing.  A kids tent hosted activities throughout the night, and the annual survivor's lap and dinner were a premier part or the relay.  The Spreading Hope team offered massages, Crossroads the Clown performed, a jam session was held just after midnight, and at 1am contestants competed in a chicken wing eating contest.  Cayuga Radio Group on-air personalities MCed and DJed the whole event.  Other events included a rhyming Trivial Pursuit game, a frozen T-shirt contest, Horton hears A Who scavenger hunt, and Butter Battle Toast Wars.


"New this year we have Tompkins Got Talent! run by Cayuga Radio Group," Falise notes.  "We have The Lorax Recycles, a rhyming Trivial Pursuit game, a toast war.  We always have our Five-a-Day lap when we promote healthy eating.  We give away fruits and veggies for people walking around the track to eat."

For many people the highlight of the event is the Luminaria ceremony.  Paper bags are placed all around the track, each one dedicated to a cancer survivor or someone who has succumbed to cancer.  After dark candles are lit within each bag, giving the field an eerie and glow.  The effect is emotional and palpable.

"The Cayuga Chamber Orchestra performs during that ceremony, which makes it a really beautiful, memorable occasion," Falise says.

Lee Ann Capogrossi and Eileen Coller of the Lansing Jazzercise studio had a team 25 strong, double the size of last year's team.  They held a full-hour Jazzercise class in the morning to help keep everybody awake and feeling good with Cayuga Radio Group playing their music and 4 or 5 instructors leading routines.  The studio has been very successful since opening in Lansing and Capogrossi says they have opened a second studio in Cortland.

"I really enjoy seeing all the people and being part of the community," she says.  "Lansing has been so good to us.  We love being able to give back and being here is spectacular."

American Cancer Society Community Executive Tiffany Bechtold moved to Ithaca from Virginia two years ago.  She acts as the liaison between the American Cancer  Society and the volunteers who make Relay For Life happen here.

"The one thing I don't have to provide its the passion," she says.  "They definitely all have that."

This year Camp Good Days opened an Ithaca office in the Village of Lansing, and Office Coordinator for the Southern Tier Marcie Kreydt was on hand to tell people about it.  The 13 acre camp on Keyuka Lake in Branchport, New York is for kids with cancer as well as their siblings and families.  In its first year the camp served 62 kids, and that number has grown to over 41,000 today.  Kreydt was celebrating the camp's 30th year as well as the new local office.


"Founder Gary Mervis founded Camp Good Days when his daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor," she says.  "He did not want his daughter to feel isolated or different from other kids.  He created this camp so she could be a part of something that other people were experiencing.  It started out for kids with cancer, and now we have women's programs, men's programs, family programs, and programs for siblings of children with cancer or with parents who have passed away from cancer."

Kreydt says her office will offer many local events to support the Ithaca and Tompkins County community.  This week she participated in the Cortland Air Fest, and she says a group of kids will be going to the Jets training camp, and the organization is organizing an Ithaca / St. John Fisher football game in October.

While the underlying purpose of Relay For Life is deadly serious, organizers say they want it to be fun and a celebration of survivors and progress that is being made in cancer research.

"We try to have as much entertainment and fun in the event as we can," Falise says.  "The event is challenging as it is.  We have people walking with their teams for 12 hours all night long.  That's challenging.  The reason it's challenging is that we know fighting cancer is challenging."

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