Hundreds to Relay for Cancer Awareness in Newark This Weekend

“Celebrate. Remember. Fight back.”

That’s what 200 community members will do during this weekend’s Relay for Life, a 24-hour walk/run for cancer awareness. The event is held annually in cities across the country to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, 30 teams will camp out overnight at Newark Memorial High School. A member from each team must remain on the track at all times because “cancer never sleeps.”

Teams include groups such as Boy Scout troops and the Newark Optimists to community leaders such as Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski.

The event will be dedicated to longtime Newark Memorial football coach Rich Swift, who passed away in February from an undiagnosed brain tumor.

“This year is bigger than any other Relay we’ve had in the past,” said Mike Bucci, this year’s event chairman.

Part of that is credited to the Relay committee’s extensive community outreach.

Those purple ribbons you’ve seen all around town? That’s them.

The free Movies in the Park series that brings hundreds out to Community Center Park? One of the Relay committee’s anchor events.

“A lot of people have enjoyed the movie nights,” Bucci said. “It can get expensive to take your family to the theater. For four or five people, it can come out to $80.”

According to Bucci, the events draw more than 300 people. He plays a Relay recruitment video before the movies start, and hopes the crowd will come out to support participants this weekend. (The Croods, which isn’t available on DVD yet, plays this Friday night.)

In addition to the relay, the event will feature special remembrance ceremonies, education booths, a kid’s zone, live music, a magician, fundraising games, activities, info booths and entertainment for the entire community. Among the main attractions at every Relay for Life are the Survivor’s Lap and the luminaria ceremony. Luminarias are paper bag lanterns lit in honor of someone who has cancer or who has passed. The lanterns line the track, keeping it lit throughout the night.

The public is encouraged to join the festivities.

Teams will also be selling items for donations, all of which will go to the American Cancer Society to support programs such as Look Good…Feel Better, which helps boost cancer patients’ self-esteem and confidence; Hope Lodge, which provides patients with free housing when visiting health centers across the country; and a 24-hour hotline for those with cancer to receive support, ask questions and seek help, among other American Cancer Society Services.

“It’s just a great, great cause,” Bucci said.

Bucci himself has participated in Relay for the past five years. It’s an event he cherishes as several of his loved ones have been affected by cancer.

His parents are cancer survivors, and he lost his close friend, Sgt. 1st Class Alison Reynolds to pancreatic cancer last September. Last year, Bucci’s fiancé was diagnosed with muscle sarcoma in one of her legs and had a portion of the thigh removed.

Bucci signed up for Relay five years ago “and it all happened from there,” said Bucci who is serving as the Relay event chair for the first time this year.

He continues to participate in their honor.

This year, the Newark committee hopes to raise $40,000 through Relay for Life. They’ve already raised $25,000 so far through participant registration and fundraising events, according to Bucci.

Bucci hopes more people will join by this weekend.

Online registration will be open until the event begins, with on-site registration available Saturday morning. To register your team for Relay for Life or learn more about the event, visit the Newark Relay for Life website.

“It’s one of those events that where if you come out once, you’ll be a relayer for life,” Bucci said. “When you leave, you feel proud knowing you were a part of something larger than yourself.”