St. Croix residents laced up their walking shoes to support cancer research at the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life fundraiser.
The event began with fanfare and celebration as the St. Croix Central High School marching band led the participants in a parade around the track. A lone Mocko Jumbie joined the procession, dancing to the delight of the children in the crowd.
After some brief remarks, the participants got down to business. Wearing ankle monitors to track their progress, representatives from each of the 39 registered teams began circling the track at the St. Croix Educational Complex, something they’d do in turns for the next 18 hours.
Started as a local event in Tacoma, Wash., in 1985, Relay for Life has grown into the American Cancer Society’s largest and most recognizable fundraising event. More than 53,000 relay events take place every year across the United States, and similar fundraisers have sprung up in 20 other countries.
Teams collect donations in the form of pledges for the laps they complete.
Bit everyone there Saturday would tell you the event is far more than a fundraiser. It’s an opportunity for those who have been affected by cancer to come together as one community, celebrate the survivors and remember those who succumbed to the disease.
Dr. Rabindranath Bachan, an oncologist, said the event provided much needed support to patients and their families.
He said over the course of the night, he sees many of his former or current patients and they get a chance to mingle away from the lab coats and sterile smell of the medical world.
“They’re happy to see us in regular clothes,” he said jokingly.
Bachan said there was once a time when people did not want to speak about cancer, and society swept mention of it under the rug. Relay for Life is a vast and positive change from that.
“I think it helps the patients. It helps the families. It provides social support and it increases awareness of cancer in the community,” he said.
For Donna Phillip, the event is an opportunity to support those battling the disease and a reminder of her own struggle with cancer.
A 14-year survivor of breast cancer, Phillip is now a board-certified fitter of mastectomy prostheses for those who lost who lost their whole or parts of their breasts to cancer.
She said her work can create “mixed feelings” for her sometimes, but she considers it a calling.
“I have a passion for it. I do it because I know what it is. I have empathy,” she said.
“When I was diagnosed I wanted to hear from someone who walked the walk, you know, walked in these shoes and had survived so they could give me that camaraderie and that support I needed,” she continued.
Survivors of cancer were honored at the event with distinctive purple shirts. There were dozens present at the beginning of the relay, and while each had their own stories of hardship, the event was anything but morose. Everyone present chose to celebrate the years of life they’d won rather than dwell on the pain of the battle.
The track quickly took on a festival feel. Each team had set up its own tent along the edges of the infield, and the smell of pate was thick in the air. A disc jockey was playing upbeat tunes from a stage in one of the end zones, and children were zipping back and forth across the field.
Asherray Crump, a member of the Frederiksted Twin City Leos youth club, said this was her third year at the event, and every year she has a fantastic time, even though it rained during both of her previous relays.
She said people mingle from tent to tent and by nightfall it becomes a little community.
“We stayed late [last year] at it was still hype. Everybody was playing and running. People came over from different tents and they had hula hoops,” she said. “It’s a free field and people feel free.”
Later in the evening, the survivors were treated to a formal sit-down dinner under a large tent. Urylee Burke, chairperson of the Relay for Life committee, said in previous years they had just offered a buffet, but they wanted to step it up this year. Local restaurants from across the island had donated food to treat the survivors to a special evening.
As the sun began to sink, walkers were still going strong. Some had confessed they were planning to leave, sleep in their own beds and return in the morning, but many said they’d keep the faith and push through the night.
“The relay reminds people that cancer never sleeps,” said Lorraine Baa, executive director of the Virgin Islands chapter of the American Cancer Society. “When we walk together we’re bigger than cancer.”
