Relay for Life fights cancer a mile at a time

See a photo slideshow of the Relay for Life here.

"Cancer never sleeps, so tonight neither will we."

This was the motto of the 1,774 participants in Penn's 2009 Relay for Life this weekend.

This year's Relay for Life, an annual event that raises money for the American Cancer Society, involved 171 teams and raised over $150,000. The teams walked laps around Franklin Field all Friday night to signify that cancer never sleeps. Although the event was originally scheduled to run from 8 p.m. on Friday till 8 a.m. on Saturday, the Relay ended at 4 a.m. this year due to bad weather conditions.

For many, the highlight of the night was the Luminaria Ceremony. All lights in the stadium were turned off, so each luminaria - a lit candle inside a paper lampshade - stood out in the dark. The lights were arranged on the stands to spell out the word "hope."

Against this backdrop, three cancer survivors from the Penn community - Wharton sophomore Andrew Brodsky, Nursing junior Lindsey Goldhagen and Admissions staff member Doris Cochran-Fikes - spoke of their experiences with the disease and what they learned from it.

After they told their stories, they led the participants through a survivor lap around the field. During the lap, the formation of the luminarias was changed to spell out "cure." The ceremony captured the three main objectives of Relay for Life: "celebrate, remember and fight back."

The night featured performances by various Penn groups ranging from Onda Latina and Penn Masti to Strictly Funk. There were also numerous other activities on the field, such as Quizzo, The Daily Pennsylvanian's Root-beer Pong Contest and the Balls 4 Balls meatball-eating contest.

Allison Capone, a senior in the Engineering School and one of the two student chairwomen of the Relay, said she thought the event was a success thanks to the enthusiasm of the crowd. She was especially impressed by the fact that there were still people on the track despite the rain.

"It's a great gathering of the Penn community for the cause of cancer - celebrating survivors and honoring those who were lost," she said.

Students' responses to the event were positive as well. Ashima Sukhdev, a freshman in the College, said she was moved. "It was an opportunity to fight back on a large scale, to find the positive in something as devastating as cancer. The event symbolized hope," she said.

Claire Le Guen, a freshman in the Engineering School, said she was "proud to see such a wide variety of students come together, united for a cause."

Donations will continue to be accepted at www.relayatpenn.org until the end of July.

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