OLDS — For the first time in years, École Olds High School is holding Relay For Life, a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society.
It will be held June 2 from 8 p.m. to midnight on land near the student parking lot and football field.
It will follow a barbecue during which tribute will be paid to retiring principal Tom Christensen.
The Relay For Life involves people soliciting donations to the Cancer Society. Then on the day of the event, they walk or run in teams around an area.
Usually, the event takes place on a running track of some kind.
However, Zachary Hanna, a co-chair of this year’s event along with Rayne Dallas, says it will be held on the grassy area because there is no track at the high school.
And that grassy area is owned by the Community Learning Campus, a common area for the high school and Olds College.
“We’re going to spray paint the track with the assistance of coaches as well so people know where to walk,” Hanna said during an interview.
Often the relay occurs for eight or 12 hours, right through the night, however, Hanna said “we didn’t want to extend it beyond midnight because that would get pretty late.”
The relay will begin with a lap by survivors of cancer and/or their families and friends.
"It’s the very first lap in the event. Before anybody laps, any survivors or anybody currently fighting cancer, they do their first lap first,” Hanna said.
“There’s a whole celebration of them doing the first lap and then we can start the event officially and then everybody starts doing laps for the event.”
Then, when it’s dark enough, a luminary ceremony will be held.
That involves people writing the names of people affected by cancer on bags that contain tea lights. Those tea lights are then lit, creating a beautiful, glowing tribute.
In many cases, the luminaries are arranged to spell the word ‘Hope.’ Hanna says in Olds, that word will be spelled out on bleachers so it’s easy to see and photos of it can be taken.
“We’re going to have a giant ceremony and lap the track with it as much as possible,” Hanna said.
As far as Hanna knows, the last time the Relay For Life was held at the high school was in 2014. He’s not sure why it wasn’t carried on annually, but he’s hopeful that will happen from now on.
Grade 11 student Hailey Hronek, the marketing captain for this year’s relay, is hopeful the Relay For Life will indeed become an annual event in Olds.
“This is our passion project this year and I’m hoping that if it all goes well, next year that maybe I can take it on and become the co-chair,” Hronek said.
"It’s a great event. It brings in a lot of money for cancer and cancer research and it brings more awareness to the disease as well.”
Hanna said he hadn’t heard of the Relay For Life until he attended a Canadian Student Leadership conference last year. During that conference, a presentation about the Relay For Life was given.
"We just thought we’d host Relay For Life to raise money for cancer because it seemed like a very fun event. Then you have the community and the school involved, all together,” he said.
