Archive: Around Town

Cancer Relay for LifeLast week you could walk through the front door of the Lake Watch Inn in Lansing and find yourself in the land of Oz.  The 9th annual Tompkins County Relay for Life's kick-off event was themed "Follow the Yellow Brick Road to a Cure" this year, and volunteers dressed as Oz characters to greet participants, give them dinner, information about cancer, cures, forming relay teams and to have a good time. With an estimated 88,230 new cancer cases in New York State this year, local volunteers are trying to make a difference.

This year the event will be at Lansing High School.  "For the past eight years it has been at the Ithaca High School track," says American Cancer Society Staff Partner Alison Knoth, who is decked out as Dorothy.  "This year they're going to be ripping up that track.  I approached Lansing's Ed Redmond, and he graciously offered to host the event this year."


Volunteer Coordinator Deb Mohlenhoss appears as Glinda the Good Witch of the North.  "We felt so welcome by everybody up at Lansing High School," she says, "and they've done everything they can, bent over backwards.  They've been great.  We've seen new people saying, 'Oh the relay is going to be in Lansing.  We're so excited about it.'"  She coordinates the community service program at Ithaca College, and puts her experience in working with volunteers to use managing the relay's volunteers and approximately 1300 participants.

With the exception of Knoth the entire event is run by volunteers.  It revolves around a relay in which a community member forms a team, getting sponsors to donate money.  At any given time during the 15 hour relay there should be at least one member of the team walking around the track.  A dinner for cancer survivors precedes the event, and they are invited to walk for an hour before the relay begins.  The track is lined with luminaria, bags with candles lit inside, to honor cancer victims and survivors.  "That's an astonishing piece of the event that's not to be missed," Mohlenhoss says.


One of those survivors is Barbara Abrams, the food chairperson for the relay.  She says a lot of people who are struggling with cancer come to the relay.   "They do get that kind of support and they see all the other people who are willing to help.  That gives them a boost."

The event is also personal for volunteers who have not had cancer.  "Unfortunately I have friends, family members, colleagues, co-workers and young children in my life that have passed away from and are continuing to suffer from cancer," says Mohlenhoss .  "I've seen what the programs of the American Cancer Society have been able to do for families, and it's very important for me to figure out a way to give back in whatever way I can."


Knoth says, "We have about forty people who walk for the entire event.  Cancer never sleeps, so why should we?"  One of those is WHCU personality Casey Stevens.  "I happen to have been up all night the night before June Lasorto came on the air with me on May second, 2000.  Somewhere in the midst of that very tired morning I said, 'If people send me money I'll walk all night.'  I meant it, but I forgot that I said it.  Two days later I got five checks in the mail and I said, 'Oh my God, what am I going to do?' and they said, 'You're going to walk all night!'"

He's been walking the full 15 hours ever since, asking radio listeners to send money for his "Morning News Watch team and to form their own teams.  "We're hoping for a hundred teams this year, and that's my emphasis, not my team.  Be here, start something, get a couple of people together and go from there."  The first year he raised about $15,000 contributing to a milestone when the relay topped $100,000 for the first time.  Now he emphasizes others frorming new teams.  On his own he averages around $5000 to $6000 per year.


Frank White is another all-night walker who has been seen participating in pajamas.  He got involved when he joined the AES Cayuga team at work.  "Somebody said 'you couldn't walk all night'  and I said 'I can,' and that was six years ago.  I've walked the whole 15 hours every year," he says.  He missed last year when his ankle was rebuilt, but he came to cheer on the other walkers.  This year he hopes to help his daughter form a team.

Last year the event hosted 160 survivors at the pre-relay dinner.  "It provides a lot of the moral and emotional support for people with cancer and for their families," says Abrams.  "A lot of money stays here in the community to help support research, so I think that's a really good thing."

The relay raised $200,532.26 last year, including money raised by 75 community teams and 2764 sponsored luminaria.  Mohlenhoss says the group hopes to have 100 teams and to get as close to $240,000 as possible this year.

The Relay for Life will be at the Lansing High School track July 14 and 15.  There is no rain date.  "People walk in the rain," says Mohlenhoss.  "Not that we're happy about the fact that its raining, but it really didn't dampen the spirit of anyone in the relay."  Then as Glinda she adds, "It's not going to rain this year, and if it does there'll be a rainbow."

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