Countdown To June 5—

Newtown Relay Organizers

Issue Their ‘Happy Birthday Challenge’ Statewide

With just a little more than five weeks to go until thousands of supporters sharing messages of hope on behalf of those surviving or fighting cancer converge on Fairfield Hills for Newtown’s fifth annual Relay For Life, organizers and teams are beginning to percolate. And this year, they are hoping to share Newtown’s unique brand of enthusiasm and creativity with every Relay community in Connecticut.

From youth teams to corporate sponsors, hundreds of community members are engaged in team building or fundraising activities, many of which will culminate on the evening of June 5, when more than 1,000 Relay supporters, cancer survivors, and friends are expected to pitch tents and celebrate lives.

Anyone from the community who has heard of the townwide activity, and who is considering participating in some way, is invited to join volunteers and organizers the last information/captain meeting at 7 pm May 6 in the Newtown Middle School cafeteria.

Picking up on the 2010 national Relay theme of “more birthdays,” Newtown has developed a way to celebrate cancer survivors and those lost to cancer, by issuing a statewide “Happy Birthday Challenge,” to every other community hosting a Relay For Life this year.

Newtown Relay organizers came up with the challenge to inspire themselves, and any other Relay in Connecticut, to attract more previously unaffiliated community members than ever before to their respective Relay opening ceremonies.

Newtown has challenged all other Connecticut Relay community to come out en masse, for an hour or two, to not only celebrate the birthdays of all cancer survivors in attendance, but their own and their own family members’ birthdays as well.

According to 2010 Relay Chair Addie Sandler, each participating Relay is encouraged to use as many creative ways as possible to attract community members and supporters who might not otherwise attend their local Relay, because they are not a sponsor, or on a team.

“Newtown’s Relay organizers see 2010 as the year local Relays can reach out and touch virtually every single person in every city or town, simply by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to each and every person attending opening ceremonies — led by attending survivors,” Ms Sandler said.

United by the single initiative of singing “Happy Birthday” to as many attendees as possible at each Connecticut Relay, the “Challenge” leaves a lot of room for each participating Relay to customize this outreach and activity to make it uniquely their own.

“Thankfully, not every person in every community will be touched by cancer directly, but statistically, virtually every person who is celebrating a birthday in 2010 knows someone who is or has been affected by this disease,” Ms Sandler added.

It is hoped that Newtown’s challenge will help in attracting more visitors than ever to Relays across the state, who are coming out to celebrate their own birthdays, and the 2010 Relay theme of “More Birthdays” for each and every neighbor who has been or is being affected by cancer.

Every team that accepts Newtown’s challenge will be entered into a drawing — and the winning team will have a massive custom-baked birthday cake hand delivered to their community by Ms Sandler and other Newtown organizers sometime this fall.

 

Bank Partnership Flourishes

Among the local corporate sponsors dating back to the community’s first Relay, Newtown Savings Bank is continuing to work with the American Cancer Society to help eliminate cancer in our lifetime. In addition to donating $10,000 at the corporate level, bank employees have formed three Relay For Life teams that will participate in the Newtown, Monroe/Trumbull, and Tribury Relays.

Leading up to these events, several fundraising events will take place throughout the nine towns where the bank maintains 14 branches including the following:

*Can & Bottle Drive — During the entire month of May, all branches will conduct a can and bottle drive. Returnable bottles and cans may be dropped off at any branch office during business hours. *Mother’s Day Raffle — The new Clock Tower Square Branch in Monroe has a raffle going on for a chance to win some beautiful garden-themed gifts donated by local merchants just in time for Mother’s Day. Raffle tickets cost $2 and $5.

*Car Wash — Employees will conduct a car wash Saturday, May 15, from 9 am to noon at the bank’s Newtown headquarters at 39 Main Street.

*Luminaria Sales — All branches will sell luminarias later in May; specific details will be vary and will be available at each location.

For more information and location details on the NSB Relay activities, visit nsbonline.com or call 800-461-0672. 

Local teams are also busy fundraising either through commercial sponsorships or with local activities. The Hawley’s Heroes Relay team recently accepted the first installment of $1,000 in donations through Quality Gem in Bethel, which is accepting old and broken jewelry and returning ten percent of the collected proceeds back to team captains Mary Walsh and Leslie Regensburger.

On May 14, Team Blessed Wings is holding a country line dance fundraiser at the Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company’s headquarters, and Silpada Designs rep Lynne Erhardt has agreed to donate 20 percent of any Silpada jewelry sale to Team Giggles for Cure.

 

Great Big Party

Relay Entertainment Chair John Voket is hoping the 2010 birthday theme will result in one of the biggest celebrations Newtown has ever seen. This year Mr Voket’s co-workers at The Newtown Bee are forming a team in honor of Associate Editor and cancer survivor Shannon Hicks, and will be hosting a huge Pin The Stinger On The Bee contest during the evening.

The Relay will once again host Connecticut resident and recording artist Javier Colon, who is scheduled to perform at the opening ceremonies. In addition, the popular local ensemble The Bandolins have agreed to perform a set of their homespun mix of folk, bluegrass, and acoustic tunes as part of the early evening festivities.

Themed relay laps will include the immensely popular “Miss Relay” competition, where some of Newtown’s most attractive gentlemen will strut their stuff for donations and the honor of wearing the 2010 Miss Relay tiara. Other activities during the overnight event will include a cupcake-eating contest, a scavenger hunt, DJ Rodd Blessey’s “Buck On – Five Off” music request selections, a piggyback lap sponsored by Team Shenanigans, a “Walk With A Hero” auction featuring some of Newtown’s bravest and finest fire, emergency, and police volunteers, and more activities are being added by the day.

Mr Voket is requesting all teams to hold at least one general activity that is based on a popular birthday party game, with an eye on hosting that activity as part of the evening’s entertainment at the main stage.

The relay will also include a number of inspiring and moving activities, including the opening survivor’s lap, the luminary ceremony just after dark, a “fight back” ceremony and both Catholic and nondenominational services.

Additional entertainment and activities will be announced as the 2010 Relay grows closer. In the meantime, everyone in the community is encouraged to come out to sing “Happy Birthday” during the 5:30 pm opening ceremonies, and to hang around for all the fun and entertainment until midnight.

The public is also welcome to the last information/captain meeting at 7 pm May 6 in the Newtown Middle School cafeteria. For all the details, visit www.relayforlife.org/newtownct.