The Gantcher Center indoor track turned into an source of emotion and hope on Friday night during the Relay For Life benefit for the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The annual event, now in its seventh year at Tufts, brought over 640 participants out to raise money for cancer research. Student organizations and groups of friends formed 67 teams and came out in force for the all-night event, which took over Gantcher from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Relay for Life is the premier fundraising event for the ACS. Campuses and communities around the world host their own relays, aiming to raise money and awareness as well as honor cancer survivors.
The event had raised $79,564 as of last night. Organizers expect to easily surpass their goal of $81,000 as more donations trickle in and as they continue to tally up proceeds.
During the event, participants walked laps on the indoor track, watched performances by student groups and performers and ate free food from local eateries. A moon bounce on hand proved popular, and students also had the opportunity to tie-dye T-shirts.
Survivors, eight of whom were registered for the relay, walked the first lap.
Relay co-chair senior Zach Parris was the top individual fundraiser, bringing in $4,305. Senior Douglas Keller took second place with $4,100 raised, and senior Carly Helfand, who is also the executive sports editor for the Daily, placed in third with $2,043 in donations.
Team Theta Delta Chi (123) won in the team category, raising $9,610, and Team Leslie Parris and Team Hodgdon Hall took second and third place with $4,955 and $4,670, respectively.
The luminary ceremony, where the lights were turned off and paper bags with glow sticks illuminated the track for a special lap, brought in some contributions, too.
Organizers said that they stressed this year that the event was truly an all-night affair, and they said that they thought they were successful in getting their message across. Rumors had circulated prior to the event that students would be locked into Gantcher and forced to stay until the end; those concerns turned out to be false, although no one was allowed in after 10 p.m.
"We can give up 12 hours of our time to honor people who have gone through so much more," said senior Tracy Mayfield, the event's other co-chair.
Parris, who has co-chaired Relay for three years, said he was ecstatic with the turnout and the work put in by the event's 37-member-strong organizing committee.
"You can feel the energy," Parris said late Friday night. "It's so good to feel and see such a tangible result … It's very, very rewarding."
For Parris, Relay is particularly emotional. His mother Leslie was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was in eighth grade.
She went through chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments, and by the end of the school year had seemed to have fought it off. Doctors told her she had a 95 percent chance of never seeing cancer again.
But a couple of months later, the cancer returned — in a much more aggressive form.
Parris' mother died during his freshman year of high school. "To a certain extent, it really was kind of a premature end to my childhood," he said.
During his freshman year of college, a friend encouraged him to join her in participating in Relay for Life, which he had never heard of. He enjoyed the first year, volunteered to participate more and was immediately selected to head up the event when the event's previous organizers graduated.
Sophomore Maxwell Gray, philanthropy chair for Theta Delta Chi, said his father fought off prostate cancer two years ago.
"I think every one of us has been touched by cancer at some point," he said.
Sophomore Sarah Hacking, a cancer survivor, was leading the tie-dye T-shirt table for a portion of the event. Hacking has worked for the American Cancer Society and said she was appreciative of its services.
"I underwent chemo from when I was about two years old until I was about six," she said. "I just want to give back to a cause that's helped a lot."
Sophomore Brittany Robbins, whose grandmother died of breast cancer when Robbins was six years old, is a coordinator of cancer outreach for the Leonard Carmichael Society and was one of two members of the advocacy committee for Relay for Life.
She said she became more intensely involved with causes related to cancer, such as the Ronald McDonald House Charities, after she heard a story about a child her uncle met when he was dressed up as Santa Claus at an event for children. The infant was sick with cancer and only had six more months to live.
"It always struck me that it's so unjust for … anybody to die of something that we have the intelligence in this country to cure," she said.
