Community Update

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY RELAY FOR LIFE - EASTON
RAISES MORE THAN $67,000 FOR LOCAL CANCER WORK

The American Cancer Society Relay For Life – Easton held at Lafayette College’s Metzgar Field June 14-15, 2013, raised more than $67,000 and donations will continue to come in for the next month.

The Easton 2013 Relay included 37 teams with more than 500 registered participants. The Luminaria ceremony, in which candles are lit inside bags filled with sand, each one bearing the name of a person touched by cancer, featured approximately 700 luminaria around the track. The celebratory survivor lap, an emotional example of how Relay participants are creating a world with more birthdays like those of each individual on the track, honored the more than 150 survivors registered with the Easton Relay.

The money raised at the Easton Relay stays in the American Cancer Society (ACS) East Central Division, which includes Ohio and Pennsylvania. Last year, the ACS awarded 84 grants totaling $47,700,000 to research efforts at institutions in these states, including the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University and more. The American Cancer Society dedicates more money to cancer research than any other private, not-for-profit, non-government funded cancer research organization in the United States.

In addition, the Easton Relay funds go to programs that help people get well and stay well. In 2012 in the ACS East Central Division:

* 10,880 patients and caregivers received free transportation to and from their cancer treatments or free overnight housing to assist them in accessing their cancer treatments when treatment options were far from home.

* 2,830 patients and caregivers stayed at one of four Hope Lodge facilities in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Hershey and Philadelphia, saving them approximately $4.2 million in lodging costs.

* 11,140 patients and caregivers received emotional support from cancer survivors; help dealing with the cosmetic effects of cancer treatment; and online or group education and support.

“We are pleased to have raised money that goes directly to help researchers find cures and cancer patients and caregivers get well, stay well and fight back,” said Susan Bulette, Easton Relay For Life chair. “Together we really are making a difference.”

The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is an event that gives everyone in the community a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. Teams of people camp out and take turns walking or running around a track. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, the Relay is overnight, 24 hours in length. Teams host games, sell food and other items, and raffle gift baskets at tents around the track in a festival-like atmosphere. Many teams work all year to fundraise for the event.

For more information call 610-921-2329 or visit relayforlife.org/paeaston.

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Photo Credits: Jennifer Mecchi