Thursday, September 14, 2006

Relay for Life - The beginning

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When we arrived at Relay for Life, the first thing we did was go into the "stop, drop and roll" area. This area was where teams could drop off their things and go to park their car before taking their things to their team site. I immediately took charge of Calem, and was introduced to several people in the drop-off area. Normally I don't like to hug people I just meet, but it didn't feel odd, hugging these people I have heard about, people who chose to honor Laurianne with this Relay.

We worked on setting up the tents, canopy, and other things. Dan and I were introduced to team members. I don't think I even knew everyone's name. Right away, we wondered where Laurianne's banner was, because we were told it would be featured prominently. We didn't see it.

We each had to go to a table to get a wristband to show we were walking. This would entitle us to food that was donated to this event, like pizza from Mary's Pizza Shack. The survivors in our group - Dan, my aunt Angie, Marie (the doctor who delivered Calem) - all registered at a separate table where they got a survivor's package. I was told the survivors were treated like royalty, and it seemed to be true. Dan even brought me 3/4's of a chocolate muffin, and every survivor on our team shared fruit. What was also really cool was when the ceremony began, all our survivors except one held the banner. The fourth survivor was the son of my mom's coworker, who had a rare cancer as a baby. His name was Brandon. I didn't actually talk with him personally, but he is the red-headed young man below in the pictures I posted with the newspaper text.

As the survivor's walked people stood around the track and clapped for them. This upset Calem. He is sensitive to clapping and cheering. My mom ran down the track with him, and I chased her down and took him when she was a quarter way down the track. I took him and pressed him against my shoulder and covered his other ear, and started humming a song my dad sings to him. After I did this he almost instantly fell asleep. then as we approached the stage where they were going to do the opening ceremony and we saw it...
Laurianne's banner.



During the opening cermony, they introduced the people that made this all happen. They talked about Laurianne, and her dedication to Relay last year, and how this Relay was dedicated to her. Then they asked our family to cut the ribbon and begin the first lap. I was grateful when my dad took Calem from me after we walked about a quarter way. One year old is a heavy age. :)



While we were walking, Mary Callahan came to talk with us. We invited her back to our tent, impressed that the Press Democrat wanted to talk to us. But I will talk more about that tomorrow....

Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) :: 7:52 PM :: 1 people are more aware ---------------------------------------