Woodstock Relay For Life: Information Night for Relay 2017 is May 3 at CCS office

Cancer survivor Linda Torkelson will be this year's community champion

Relay committee realizes everyone is a volunteer and we say: THANKS!

By Mark Schadenberg

Co-Chair of Relay 2017

Cancer Changes Everything. So Can You.

The provincial slogan for Relay For Life for 2017 is receiving a lot of positive comments, and it should because it’s a statement that truly represents what the consensus is for the most important annual fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS).

The Woodstock committee continues to be very busy in preparing, and at the same time we know the participants, teams and certainly all the team captains are active in efforts to making Friday, June 9 a terrific Relay at CASS high school.

I’m the first one to point out that everyone involved with Relay on June 9 is a volunteer, except maybe for CCS Oxford staff members Jan Cunningham and Pam Noels, but both of them spend countless hours on all CCS initiatives.

Long-time Woodstock committee member and cancer survivor Linda Torkelson is excited to act as Community Champion for 2017. Her story – about diagnosis and cancer treatments, and support she received from family and friends -- will be part of a future blog entry here. Linda is a familiar face at Relay as coordinator for the Survivors’ tent and organizing the activities surrounding the survivors’ lap as part of the Opening Ceremony at 7 p.m. As a Norwich-area resident, Linda has gratefully acted as liaison with Old Theatre Flowers of Norwich to provide the flowers as distributed to the cancer survivors for their walk. Every member of the Woodstock committee is proud to know Linda and looks forward to hearing her story on various occasions as she plans to speak on Rogers TV’s Daytime Oxford and have her story included also in The Sentinel-Review.

Linda Torkelson

As of April 12, there are 20 teams enrolled in Relay. Some of these are returning teams who we love to see every year such as Cargill / Purina, Community 4H club, Vuteq, 7-Eleven, Salvation Army Church, St. David’s United Church, Holy Trinity Church, and the team entry from our title sponsor Western General Insurance. Many other teams are a gathering of family members to recognize a particular person who has died from cancer or has received many treatments and continues in their battle.

INFORMATION NIGHT

Wednesday, May 3, 5:30 – 7 p.m.

In an effort to invite more new participants to Relay, we remind anyone interested in joining the mission to raise funds for Canada’s best cancer research projects, to attend the Information Night on Wednesday, May 3, 5:30 – 7 p.m. at the CCS office at 65 Springbank North.

There will be tons of background info provided on cancer treatments and on-going clinical trials, so you may learn more about funding, but also the story behind luminaries, how to set fundraising goals and recruit team members, and also a list of agenda items for June 9 beyond the luminary ceremony and survivors’ lap. The May 3rd info night is an open house format, so stop if you have been at Relay a dozen times or never, drop by at your convenience and we would love to chat.

Besides Western General as title sponsor, we are so pleased to have many other sponsors and so many which assist in a different capacity such as media (Heart FM), food tent (Boston Pizza, Swiss Chalet, No Frills, Domino’s, Tim Hortons), promotions (Woodstock Print & Litho), and logistics (Allen Lumber, CRS equipment rentals, Vance Construction, City of Woodstock). Also, Kinsdale Carriers returns as the sponsor for the luminary ceremony.

If you would like to volunteer in any capacity, contact the CCS Oxford community office in Woodstock by email or phone. We need to reach our goal of 30 teams. We need to reach or financial goal of $150,000 as a parallel to the Canada150 celebrations. We would love to see you at Relay.

Remember . . . Cancer Changes Everything. So Can You.