With all the music, food, dancing, and entertainment, it might as well have been a party. But there was a serious purpose to last weekend’s Relay for Life in Secaucus.
An annual fund-raiser held to benefit the American Cancer Society (ACS), this was the fourth year the town has held such an event, which attracts participants from throughout Hudson County.
“This is just a great way to get recharged. You know, there is hope. That’s the take-away message,” said Cindy Kraus of Clark, a 12-year breast cancer survivor who helped organize the “survivor’s tent” at the Relay.
Kraus said she lost her mother and three aunts to breast cancer, and, like herself, her sister has also battled breast cancer. “I feel very strongly that we shouldn’t lose our faith that there will be a cure one day,” she said.
In keeping with tradition, survivors participated in a special opening lap around the Relay track at the start of the event, which attracted 25 survivors, Kraus said.
Secaucus brings in the bucks
Organizers topped last year’s Relay total, raising more than $50,000 from registered teams of walkers and other fund-raisers – bake sales, raffles, etc. – held in conjunction with the event.
After raising $70,000 in its 2007 debut, Relay for Life-Secaucus generated about $30,000 in 2008 and a similar amount last year.
Ryan Carbone, the 2010 Relay chair, said in April that organizers hoped to bring in about $60,000 this year, a total that’s still possible since many people continue to make donations to Relay after the event has ended.
Students involved
Hours after the Relay kick-off, Secaucus High School student Yamil Cedeno, a member of the Bronze Team, was busy selling baked goods and jewelry to raise money for the ACS, while other members of the team walked the Relay track.
“I think that supporting the Relay for Life is a good benefit, and it’s nice to help people in the society, even if it’s not for you,” she said. “And there’s, like, an internal reward for me personally, too.”
Cedeno, whose best friend invited her to participate, said the team had already raised $3,625 before the Relay began.
Other students throughout the Secaucus school district also participated. Sixth graders at Clarendon, for example, raised $850 for Relay by selling items at school.
The event attracted 24 teams and more than 240 people who participated in the Relay, many of whom had a personal motivation to be there.
Angela Phillips said that her family organized the Caring Angels team after her chronically ill daughter, Amanda, underwent a lung transplant in January.
“She was at the Ronald McDonald house and there were a number of children battling cancer and they were teens, just like her,” she said. “So seeing that she became friends with them, she feels now that she has to give back to the community and to give back to those kids that are sick.”
The Caring Angels, a team completely comprised of children and teens, had already raised $1,000 by 9 p.m. on Friday.
Team Reyes
Ann Marie Meijidee, a resident of North Bergen, named her group Team Reyes after her sister, Shelly Reyes.
“She was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago,” Meijidee said. “She was cancer-free for four years. Two months ago, it came back.”
After her sister’s second diagnosis, Meijidee decided to put together a Relay team.
“I want a cure for this,” she said.
“Everybody out here has a story,” said Team Reyes member Catherine Busso, who said cancer runs in her sister-in-law’s family. “And some of them are very heartbreaking, sad stories.”
But a lot of them are inspiring, too, said Kraus.
“Fortunately every year, there’s more and more of us,” she said. “To me, this is celebrating life. Even one lap around the track is special because we [cancer survivors] understand where we’ve been and where we are.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.