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Cancer survivors celebrate
Relay for Life brings emotions about dreaded disease to the forefront
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
Ellen Grimm of Mechanicsville gives out high fives as she participates in the survivor lap during the Relay for Life at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf. Grimm is a 39-year survivor of breast cancer.
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Cancer survivors paraded around the track at Regency Furniture Stadium, home of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Friday night for the 13th annual Charles County Relay for Life.
As they made their way around the stadium — some in wheelchairs, some arm in arm with a spouse, friend or relative and some by themselves — people left their tents lining the edges of the outfield and stood up and clapped for their loved ones. Some even ran out onto the track and exchanged hugs.
About 2,000 people showed up for the event, which lasted from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and raised more than $257,884.
Charles County Orphans Court Judge Lorraine Berry, a two-time breast cancer survivor, walked with the Piney Patriots team from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Piney Parish in Waldorf.
"Since 2000, my grandson, [Wes Hamilton,] walks with me [in the survivor walk] every year," Berry said while wearing her survivor sash, adding that he is now 16.
"I think it means a lot to her, and it's for a good cause," Hamilton said after the walk as he stood by their team's table. The American Cancer Society "deserves everything it gets."
Although he didn't necessarily understand cancer when he was little, it didn't make a difference to him. He still wanted to be with his grandmother, he said.
Welcome resident Barry King, a survivor of melanoma — one of cancer's deadliest forms — said, "When you walk in the [survivor] walk, you always look around for people that you remember from the year before and you always hope you never see anyone new."
He added, "It feels good to see the community behind the American Cancer Society because there are other people that need whatever money is raised — that really need it. Like people need in-home care, they need wigs; they need the outside support that it brings."
For Pam Starkey, leader of the College of Southern Maryland Hawks team, the survivor walk is inspirational.
"When I hear of other survivors who have survived longer than I have, it gives me hope," she said.
Starkey was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 39; she is now 52. Her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 39 and died at 40.
At 9 p.m., the stadium lights faded and people were invited to light the luminaries, white paper bags with candles inside, which lined the outer edge of the field. On each bag were the names of those who have battled cancer. Some people walked around the track looking for their bags and others moved them in front of their sites.
"It's definitely an emotional time," said Cristina Vandroff, Charles County's Relay for Life chairwoman. "You will see a lot of wiping of the eyes while the bags are being lit."
Liz Davey, director of emerging markets with the Relay for Life South Atlantic Division, heard about the Charles County event in North Carolina and came north for the weekend. She also attended two relays in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
"It's the first I've seen in a baseball stadium," she said. "Two things that really impressed me are the use of the stadium and 100 percent school involvement. They made it work amazingly well. It could be a model for relays held in a baseball stadium."
Staff from Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School had a rockin' tent with a '50s theme featuring records dangling from the ceiling.
As NiYa Costley, a special education teacher, danced in her red poodle skirt, she said that the school has a couple of cancer survivors on staff and lost an educational interpreter to cancer five years ago.
"I think being able to raise awareness and funds to support the cause at the same time is important," she said. By participating in the Relay for Life, "we are actually helping someone who may not have the resources."
Nearby, four students from Benjamin Stoddert Middle School sold fresh lemonade, brownies and cookies in a yellow lemonade stand made of wood. "We thought we could make a difference," said Tavion Brake, a sixth-grader at the school. "It's a lot of fun what our school does to raise money."
Seventh-grader Marissa Sylver added, "We think there should be a cure for all cancer. Cancer affects all ages, men, women and children."
"Everyone should live," Tavion said.
Like the students from Stoddert, Rebecca Abell, a senior at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and member of the Live Wires team, also was selling something to benefit the American Cancer Society.
"I remember thinking, ‘What could I do that would go with the theme, Let's Stomp Out Cancer,'" she said, as she showed some of her custom hand-painted, Ked-style shoes. "Everyone says they love it and it's a really cool idea." Designs included watermelon, polka dot, argyle and spirit colors.
Abell said her father died in 2007 of melanoma.
Jeanette Sudik, a member of the Starkey Stars team from the Charles County Board of Education, joined the relay last year after her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
"It hit very close to home," she said. Cancer "becomes a reality. We all walk for someone."
The Relay for Life is still collecting money from some of the schools and plans to hold Bark for Life at 10 a.m. July 24 at Turkey Hill Park to raise the additional funds to meet their goal of $300,000.
"People can enter their dog as the participant," Vandroff said. "It's a different way for people to get involved, and it's a much shorter event — only three to four hours."
Vandroff first joined a Relay for Life team in 2006 to honor her grandmother who died of leukemia when she worked for Southern Maryland Oil. After her first year, she was recruited to join the planning committee.
A popular Relay for Life saying is "Celebrate, remember, fight back," she said. "That was my decision to fight back."
