Daily Reporter staff reports
GREENFIELD — Relay for Life is making a comeback in Hancock County after being canceled due to COVID last year.
The event takes place from 5 to 10 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 28, on the track behind Greenfield-Central Junior High School.
Mike Reder and his wife, Connie, have taken over the reins since former longtime organizer, Julie McKinley, stepped down after years of service.
This year’s Relay for Life will take place over the course of five hours, rather than the overnight event of years’ past, when teams would compete to see who could raise the most money by the end of the two-day period.
Instead, everyone is invited to come out to the track and raise as much money as possible for the American Cancer Society, without team competitions.
“We’re one big team now,” said Reder, whose family has seen their share of cancer survivors as well as lives lost to the disease.
Relay for Life is a great way to celebrate those survivors and honor those who have died, he said.
Survivors are invited to take a victory lap around the track that night, and attend a free survivor’s dinner in the school cafeteria afterward.
As always, a luminary lighting will take place around 9:15 p.m., for which people’s names can be written on paper luminaries that are placed around the track.
The cost to sponsor a luminary with someone’s name is $10, although people often donate more, said Reder.
“We want to bring as many survivors as we can. They give us inspiration and hope to all those who have been or may end up being diagnosed in the future,” he said. “Hope is going to be this year’s theme.”
For more information about this year’s Relay for Life, or to donate, visit connect.relayforlife.org and search for the local event.
