— Holly Grosch

VOORHEESVILLE — Friday night, tents pitched along the woods hugged the left side of the high school track, as more tents looped around to the side of the school building and into an open field by the bandstand. Their occupants stayed the night to raise funds — $115,000 in all — to fight cancer.

RV’s pulled into parking spots, one right next to the other, and the high school’s parking lot was full of cars. Even with overflow parking nearby at Cornell Cooperative extension, vans lined busy Route 85.

More than a thousand people attended Voorheesville’s Relay for Life.

Dick Ramsey on the Kiwanis relay team said it was the largest event he has ever seen in Voorheesville.

Cancer survivor Jordan Glover, who has just finished her first year at Elmira College was diagnosed with cancer at 12 years when she was a Voorheesville student. There is a strong symbolism in the relay being an overnight event, she said.
"We start out strong with the sun shining," she said. Then the wee hours of the morning represent a time that is lonely and dark for a person who is trying to beat cancer. And since you’ve been up all night walking, as the sun rises, you start to get ready to get back to life, to go about your ordinary day a little tired, Jordan said, much like a cancer patient who has received a chemotherapy treatment but then heads off to work to face the day.
"When you say community, that’s exactly what Voorheesville brings to it," said Laura Minnick as she took her first lap around the track, walking with a team who called themselves "Beaded Babes," and carried a banner emblazoned with the name.

They were a group of mothers whose children were in the same elementary-school class. Since their children had formed a team, these mothers had formed a group of their own with a Mardi Gras theme. As Minnick walked she was handing out beads with a smile.
As an individual, Minnick said, she doesn’t like asking people for money or fund-raising but, with everyone on the team bringing in a $100 in pledges, she concludes, "you can make an impact as a whole team."

Relay for Life is a fund-raising event for the American Cancer Society held at about 4,000 communities across the nation each year.

This was Voorheesville’s first year hosting. Committees comprised of parents, teachers, community members, and students organized and ran the event with business sponsors and individual donations.

At the opening ceremonies, Carol Bishop-Panepinto from the American Cancer Society thanked school board member Richard Brackett for coming to her and suggesting that Relay for Life come to Voorheesville this year.

He and his family have participated for a number of years at Relay for Life in Colonie. His mother died of cancer when he was a child.
"Pretty much it’s what I knew it could be," Brackett told The Enterprise later in the evening as he leaned on the track’s metal fence looking at the walkers in the dusk.

Each relay team, which at Voorheesville seemed on averaged to have about 10 to 15 people, comes up with a team name; makes a team banner; and, throughout the night from 7 p.m. till morning when the sun rises, has at least one person walking on the track.

Survivors first
The first walk around the track was reserved for cancer survivors, and those currently struggling with cancer. "They are why we are here; we are celebrating their lives," Bishop-Panepinto said.
Glover cut the ceremonial tape that draped over the starting position on the track. The survivors then walked hand-in-hand, wearing their matching purple T-shirts which had the word "survivor" written in black across their shoulders.

The second lap was for survivors and their care takers.
"When people see a person like Lance Armstrong and me — they see that we beat the odds ...we’re a symbol for hope," Jordan Glover told The Enterprise.
"You can come out of it, you can survive — I did make it and other people can make it too," she said.

Glover had been diagnosed with cancer in 1999. She had two brain surgeries, seven months of chemotherapy, and then radiation. Her last blood transfusion was in January of 2000, she said.
"I don’t find it hard to talk about it... I didn’t give up and I’m here today," she said.
It was very special for Relay for Life to be held in her hometown this year, allowing her to share the experience with the same people "who helped me through my cancer," Glover said.
"I hope people learn to fight... If they want to live, they have to fight. Even if doctors say they have a 1-percent chance to over come the cancer, they can make it," Glover said. And with more help, education, and support, that person’s chances of making it become much higher she said.

Greater than expectations
The community exceeded the American Cancer Society’s initial projections for Voorheesville.

In August, Bishop-Panepinto addressed the school board, saying that she estimates about 200 people would participate, which is a realistic goal for a small school in the first year. Colonie, which is much larger, had hosted for six years, and last June had 600 walkers who raised $78,000, she said.

Voorheesville pulled out all the stops; over 900 people signed up to walk with even more showing up on the night of the event to participate in the celebration.

Brackett estimated 1,500 people were on hand at the peak of the evening.

Early on, last fall, the fund-raising goal was set at $38,000, but, Voorheesville raised $115,000.

The American Cancer Society will spend the money locally toward cancer research, education, advocacy, and awareness programs.

Besides the walkers collecting pledges, a number of teams also set up booths, with bake sales, drawings, and items to purchase.

The Apple Blossom team comprised of 18 people from the Orchard Park Neighborhood Association, for example, had drawings for golf packages and gift certificates, which they had received as donations from corporations.
"Everyone has someone" affected by cancer
Eileen Kroencke, a member of the Apple Blossom team, said that she wanted to be involved in the relay because "everyone has someone in the family who has been affected by cancer."
The American Music Abroad choral group, which has high school singers from Voorheesville in the ensemble, opened the ceremonies on Friday by singing, "Over the hilltop, down in the valley — never alone for you, walk with me."

Shortly after the song, a sea of people walked around the track together — some in support of a particular cancer survivor, others in memory of a loved one who died from cancer, and all in an effort to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
"I’m not a rocket scientist; I’m not going to find a cure for cancer. This makes me feel like I’m doing something...that I’m making a difference," Brackett said.

He said his motivation for being an active participator and organizer of Relay for Life is so that other children don’t have to go through what he did when he was 11 years old and lost his mother to cancer. He said that she was a single mother who worked really hard and tried her best.
Mike Guerette, a teacher at the elementary school was on the team "Blue Shine," named after the band he is in. Guerette’s father died from cancer, he said, and the band had come out to walk for a great cause.
After three hours, Guerette said that it was the "sense of championship and spirit of the event" that was his favorite aspects of the night. He said it was a "fresh, positive experience."
School Superintendent Alan McCartney said this Monday that, as he walked around the relay encampment, he saw two-thirds of the district staff. "That says something," he noted.
Minnick said because Voorheesville is small, "half of the town is here, it’s a true community gathering...everyone knows everyone else," she said, adding that, as a result, she felt free to let her kids go; they could run around and be safe.
As third-grader P.J. Bache skipped along the track with his father, he said, "It’s a lot of exercise and fun — We get to walk around with family and friends and even some of our teachers are here!"

Coming together
As darkness began to set in, attendees started making campfires and pre-teen girls headed into their tents, laughing and giggling as they gossiped.

The New Scotland Kiwanis had a barbecue grill going. As an elder, Warren Schlickender flipped a burger, he checked his watch to see when it was his turn to head to the track and walk his laps.

Flashlights scanned over brownies and cookies as people picked out a snack from the bake sales. And teenage rock bands of four or five Clayton A. Bouton students kept the enthusiasm going as their music was pumped over the loudspeakers.

At 10 p.m., luminaries lit the track. Candles where placed in white waxed lunch bags. Each was decorated and colored and had a name, in memory of someone who had died from cancer, or in recognition of a cancer survivor.

The high school clubs had teams: the Builder’s club, the Key Club, the drama club.
Clusters of children came up with their own teams. Members of a New Scotland girls’ soccer team called themselves "Ponytail Posse."
The town government had a team, appropriately nicknaming themselves, "The Townies."

Mike Young, a nine-year-old was recognized in the opening ceremony for raising $1,500 by himself.
"Cancer has touched all of us," Fran Gorka said as she walked with her team.

Phil Bache said that a friend of his from work is a cancer survivor and that he was walking that night in support of him.
"I think a lot of people as individuals in the community are very giving but when they come together as one —," Brackett said they are even stronger. He rolled his eyes and sighed in admiration.

Jenn Lysenko, a senior at Clayton A. Bouton High was the student chair of Relay for Life. She said she saw her main job as getting the word out, rallying teams and finding corporate sponsors.

She went to each club at the school, civic organizations in the community, and local churches to rally walking teams.

Mountainview Evangelical parishioners walked around the track carrying a green and white banner that matched their mountain name.

Starting in the fall, Lysenko ran PowerPoint presentations, and talked to local businesses and organizations to garner sponsors.
Friday, the track was surrounded with a complete circle of signs on the inner athletic field. The square signs were placed just two-and-a-half feet apart from each other reading, "A community event sponsored by ..." and then a name of a business.

Lysenko said, when she signed up to participate, before she went to the first information session, she thought it was just going to be a group of her friends walking around the track, but once she learned the scope, she immediately wanted to take on a leadership role.

She wanted to do everything she could to help because her seven-year-old cousin had died of cancer last February, she said.

Lysenko had made a presentation to a regional group of Key Club members but, she was shocked, she said when a full bus load arrived from Bethlehem High School on Friday night.

Two weeks ago, she realized how big it was going to be when they passed the funding goals, before it was even bank night.

Community organizations had held car washes and dinners beforehand to add contributions to the total.

Then at bank night, last Tuesday, all the walkers brought in their pledge dollars, totally $85,000.

Then $30,000 thousand more was made just during the event.
Lysenko’s favorite creative money-raiser Friday night was from a team from the elementary school. They made bracelets to sell that said, "Chip and Changer are fighting cancer," referring o the two therapy dogs at the elementary school. The four legged friends could be seen walking around the track as well.
For the first 45 minutes, Lysenko just walked around in awe. "I was so amazed, and so grateful," she said. "Everything is going so very well and everyone is so enthusiastic."

Being the student chair for Relay for Life was one of the most amazing experiences in her high school career, she said.
"We have a very close-knit community. It’s something I’ve grown up with and grown to appreciate, and now as a senior, it’s something I’ve come to recognize more," Lysenko said.
There is already a buzz of everyone wanting to host Relay for Life again next year; the phrase "first annual" was being thrown around Friday night.
"I know this community is going to want it," Lysenko said.