Relay for Life connects many to raise funds to fight cancer

Shelby Gunderson, Jessica Behling, Nichole Springer and Lupe Granados reflect for a moment after the luminaria ceremony before joining in the festivities (Kait Vosswinkel/Madison Commons).

Relay for Life, a fundraising event organized by the American Cancer Society in order to support cancer research, brought thousands of UW-Madison students and community members together on Friday in order to remember those lost to cancer and to celebrate survivors of the disease.

According to one of Relay for Life's co-directors, Madeline Bireley, between 1,500 and 1,600 people attended. Bireley, who has been involved with Relay for Life for several years, believes that the event is an important way to bring community members and survivors together while raising awareness concerning cancer research.

“Both of my grandmas died of cancer, so I'm just really passionate about it,” Bireley says. “It's a great way to do something to give back.” 

The event began at 6 p.m. on Friday and continued for twelve hours, featuring performance groups: Madeline Bireley, a co-director of the luminaria portion of Relay for Life, closes the ceremony and introduces one of the night's performance groups (Kait Vosswinkel/Madison Commons) like tap dancers and a capella singers, free-throw competitions and ice skating. Participants form teams and walk laps around the track and celebrate Relay for Life's four main themes: celebrate, remember, fight back, and hope.

Melissa Behling, a Relay for Life participant, was moved to participate in the fundraising event after she lost a friend to a brain tumor. Behling formed a team with her sister and several friends who have also been affected by cancer.

“Our friend, Shelby, her mom passed away from cancer, so we kind of started this team for her,” Behling says. Also, Lupe, another of our friends, her mom is struggling with cancer. She's still fighting.”

One of the fundraiser's main events is a luminaria, a memorial ceremony, where cancer survivors shared their stories while others mourned the loss of friends and family by lighting the track at Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center with electric “candles” in personalized paper bags.

“The luminaria portion of this is what it's all about,” Behling says. “You can feel this energy that you've never felt before. Feeling connected to all these people who are trying to deal with this horrible disease. I can't even imagine losing my mom or my sister to something like this.”

Personalized bags with electric "candles" lit the indoor track at the Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center, honoring friends and family lost to cancer (Kait Vosswinkel/Madison Commons).

As survivors share their stories, the stage is lit by paper bags illustrating Relay for Life's four main themes: celebrate, remember, fight back and hope (Kait Vosswinkel/Madison Commons)