With nearly four months to go before Relay for Life, plans to make the American Cancer Society’s two-day-long fundraising event an even bigger success than last year are underway.
According to organizers, the overnight event will be held from March 24 to 25.
Relay for Life, a nationwide event in which participating schools and communities raise funds to support cancer research, debuted at Binghamton University last year and raised more than $70,000. BU surpassed other universities, such as Cornell and New York University, in the amount that was collected for the cancer society.
Participants in the event sign up in teams, and at least one member of each team must be walking at all times during the 12-hour relay. During last year’s event, walkers circled an indoor track set up in the Events Center.
This year, the event will be taped and used as the national example for Relay for Life, and organizers are hoping to garner an even larger turnout and donation.
“I think our entire campus community had been longing for such a massive, all-inclusive event to take place,” said Matthew S. Schneider, last year’s Student Association president, who coordinated the first Relay for Life at BU.
“There’s definitely pressure to make it bigger and better than last year,” said current SA President Mike Smyth, who is organizing the event. He said that Relay for Life hopes to raise $85,000 at BU and expand the fundraiser to include concerts and other activities.
Another addition to this year’s event will also be free beverages and catered food provided by Sodexho.
“(The) Events Center is a larger venue than most campuses can offer,” Smyth said. “We can fit more activities in there.”
Patrick Craig, the SA vice president for University programming, said he has started to contact agencies to book bands that could play during the two-day-long event. Craig said that he was considering having a major band play the day before Relay for Life as a kick-off concert, and that there was a possibility of having smaller bands play during the actual event.
A Showcase Spectacular, which served as entertainment for the participants in the walk last year, is one of the few events that is already definitively scheduled for this year. During the Showcase, participating student groups will perform 10-minute acts, such as choreographed dances, a cappella songs and comedy skits. According to Smyth, there will be nearly half as many groups in the showcase to shorten the length.
Schneider attributed much of the popularity of last year’s event to the showcase. “It was a ‘something-to-talk-about-after-the-weekend’ event,” he said. “Scratch that — a ‘something-to-talk-about-for-the-rest-of-the-year’ event!”