Relay For Life offers powerful inspiration

When the DJ at the Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro [Massachusetts], Nate Adams, played that iconic Beatles’ song near the end of the 24th annual team fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, it was the perfect choice. “Here Comes the Sun,” from the Beatles 1969 “Abbey Road” album, perfectly summed up how everyone who attended the mid-June overnight event at the Norton [Massachusetts] Middle School felt.

The relay, the first full one since the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizers to hold a virtual event in 2020 and two smaller in-person runs last year, brought smiles to participants’ faces. And, as the Beatles first sang 53 years ago, it indeed seemed “like years” since the sun had last shined on the mid-June event. I was a part of that event for the 23rd year, when more than $72,000 was donated to the cancer society.

Spirits were raised along with the money. The nearly 30 teams and about 300 participants and accompanying family members and friends at the 16-hour event did what these relays help them do best: they remembered and embraced loved ones affected by cancer while renewing hope that a cure for the disease will be found.

Throughout the relay, as people walked along a field (the event’s usual site that included a track wasn’t available) lined by luminarias – candles lit by glow sticks in honor of cancer survivors and in memory of victims – there were as many stories of courage, perseverance and determination as there were people. All could be considered mini-miracles. Here are just a few of the stories:

About 50 cancer survivors led the opening lap of the relay on Friday night. The survivors, who are at the heart of relays, were loudly cheered as they circled the field. For those not familiar, the first relay in the nation was held in 1985, when Dr. Gordon “Gordy” Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Washington, raising $27,000. In the 37 years since that first relay, Relays For Life worldwide have raised more than $5 billion.

The Attleboro Arts Museum had formed a team in 2020, but COVID-19 stole the members’ chance to do any laps that year. So there was a palpable joy in their steps, as they circled the field Friday night, and each had their own reason for being there.

Attleboro Public Library Director Amy Rhilinger walked for her father Tim, who died of lung cancer.

Museum Executive Director Mim Fawcett did laps for her parents, both of whom died of cancers, her mother from breast cancer and her father from lymphoma.

Kerry St. Pierre, the museum’s office manager, walked for all four grandparents who died of cancer and for her sister Kristin Hoffman, a cancer survivor.

Abby Rovaldi, the museum’s programs coordinator, walked for her uncle Gene, who died of leukemia, an aunt who died of pancreatic cancer and a cousin who died of breast cancer.

Tom and Deb Maher, of Rehoboth, walked to celebrate Deb, a 19-year thyroid cancer survivor.

Megan DeMoura, the captain of Team Lady Bugs and a member of the relay’s organizing committee, was participating in her 10th relay, the previous nine in Taunton, Massachusetts. “We relay for our many grandparents, friends and family” members, she said.

John Yoder, of Medway, Massachusetts, not only volunteered on Friday afternoon to help get the field ready for the opening ceremony after the grounds were drenched by a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, but he was still doing laps Saturday morning.

A member of the Bam Bam’s Beauties team, Yoder is a survivor of skin and prostate cancers. He’s been doing relays for more than 30 years. “I just felt like it was a good thing to do to support my friends and relatives,” he said.

Two poets from the relay’s second Slam Cancer event in May, which invited people to write poems and essays about how the disease affected them, gave inspiring speeches.

Tara Lines of Wrentham, Massachusetts, spoke during the opening ceremony about being a childhood leukemia survivor and how the side effects from the treatments she received affected her later in life.

Allan Fournier, of North Attleboro, a member with his wife, Margaret, of the Walking With Grace team, during the luminaria ceremony read “Unfinished Business: Overtime,” an original poem that invokes the indomitable spirit that’s personified by cancer survivors.

That ceremony felt more powerful than ever after a three-year absence. Led by the solemn tunes of bagpipers from the Colonial Pipers Bagpipe Band, the walkers paid silent tribute to their loved ones.

Perhaps the most notable miracle of the relay was the fact that in this world still afflicted by a pandemic, people of all ages, backgrounds, religions and races were able to put aside their differences and unite without the need for masks or social distancing in a common purpose: to contribute to the effort to eradicate cancer.

LARRY KESSLER (larrythek65@gmail.com) is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro. He blogs at  larrytheklineup.blogspot.com