Countdown To Relay 2010: ‘It’s All About More Birthdays’

Just a few years ago, Sandy Hook resident Addie Sandler heard about the Newtown Relay For Life, and sought to get involved by joining one of the many local teams that would come together for the moving overnight fundraising and community-building event to support the American Cancer Society. Flash forward to the present, just three years after she ever set foot on a Relay track, and Ms Sandler has risen to the top position of chair for Newtown’s 2010 Relay For Life.

“Three years ago I filled an open spot on the Walking for a Silver Lining Relay team to honor my mom, who suffered with and survived breast cancer along with a number of other related challenges; and in memory of my late father-in-law, who lost his fight with pancreatic cancer,” Ms Sandler told The Bee as she sat preparing for the official 2010 kickoff celebration, which is scheduled for next Thursday.

Ms Sandler and the current contingent of more than a dozen committee heads and several dozen volunteers are inviting the community to join them at Newtown Middle School on February 4 as the countdown to Relay 2010 begins with a song, and a few surprises. If this sounds like the kind of thing one would do at a birthday celebration — it will be a fitting orientation to this year’s universal Relay theme: More Birthdays.

“I love the theme,” Ms Sandler &said. “It’s really meaningful — focus on survivorship, celebrating life... I mean, a world with less cancer is a world with more birthdays, right?”

Ms Sandler said she continues to be inspired by her mom, who is still going strong despite a few setbacks since her first cancer diagnosis some time ago.

“My mother is a great example. She never got sad or hung up about her birthday,” Ms Sandler said. “She’s always celebrating because she’s so happy to be alive.”

The 2010 chairperson believes this spirit is infectious. And she is hoping it will draw more residents, families, and supporters than ever before to get to know, and hopefully walk away inspired or at least better educated, by the Relay experience.

“Maybe this will help some people stop viewing advancing age and more birthdays as a negative thing,” she said.

The Relay kickoff is open to the public, is free, and requires no obligation on the part of residents who come to the middle school event next week except to join in whatever way is most comfortable to them, something Ms Sandler hopes to expand around the entire Relay event coming up June 5–6.

“We just want people to visit and find out what Relay ids all about,” Ms Sandler said. “They can meet last year’s honorary chair Ken Ayles, and be there when he hands off his title to a brand-new honorary chair for 2010, which is a secret until our February 4 kickoff event.”

The kickoff will feature a guest speaker talking about the basics of how to form a Relay team, or for those with limited time and a desire to help in some smaller way, how to organize a Relay fundraiser.

“We’ll have a birthday party-themed game with prizes,” Ms Sandler said. “And last year’s top fundraising team, Las Mamacitas, will be coming with cupcakes.”

This year Ms Sandler is also looking to make being involved in Relay in any capacity less time-consuming. So she has borrowed from a well-known pizza chain and adopted a “40-minute guarantee.” That means each of the four organizational meetings she will lead between February 4 and late May will complete their official agenda in 40 minutes or less.

“If I fail to keep these meetings short, I will draw from a bowl of penalties which might include having to dye my hair purple, or to sit for 15 minutes in the dunk tank,” Ms Sandler said. Each of the subsequent meetings will begin with the chair drawing a “penalty card” that will outline what she will have to do if the meeting runs over 40 minutes.

“Then we’ll all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to keep us in the spirit of things,” she said. “We want this to be fun for the public. And we want to get away from people thinking this is some kind of sports competition versus a big community celebration of life and lives lost to cancer.”

Last year, Newtown’s Relay raised more than $230,000 to help the American Cancer Society fight cancer, and with the community’s help, this year the goal is to have one of the most successful Relays in New England, attracting more survivors than ever before.

“This year our goal is to surpass the $2 million dollar mark in our fundraising efforts,” Ms Sandler said. “Over the past six years our community has raised over $1.8 million dollars to help in the fight against cancer.”

Visit the local Relay’s new website, www.relayforlife.org/newtownct, to learn more. And Ms Sandler reminds anyone who is suffering with, or knows somebody dealing with cancer, that the American Cancer Society is available anytime, day or night, to provide information, day-to-day help, and emotional support.

Call 800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org for more information.