Relay for Life garners support
'50 Days of Relay' raises funds in support of the March 20 event.
Published Feb. 2, 2010
With the Relay for Life 46 days away, the Mizzou Steering Committee is promoting its "50 Days of Relay" campaign to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
The "50 Days of Relay" campaign has a statistic that represents each of 50 days leading up to the Relay for Life and then a suggested donation for each statistic, Co-chairwoman Haleigh Castino said.
The campaign was started at Virginia Tech, which raised $300,000 last year, but it is still unclear whether MU will see similar results since the campaign is four days old, Chairwoman Meredith Miller said.
"One of the ways they raised a lot of their money was through the '50 Days of Relay,'" Miller said. "They just raised a little bit here, a dollar there."
Although it's not necessarily expecting the same results Virginia Tech saw because it is the first time the Mizzou Steering Committee has used the campaign, it should provide a good basis for years to come, Castino said.
"It really gets you to think," Miller said. "It kind of incorporates mission and advocacy and the reasons why we relay into the fundraising. We are hoping it's going to work better because it's telling you why you should donate."
One of the suggestions is to donate a quarter for every research paper you wrote last semester because the American Cancer Society funds more than $100 million in research each year, Co-chairwoman Alexis Brown said.
The Relay for Life event as a whole at MU is experiencing record-high participation, Castino said.
"(It's) absolutely fantastic," Castino said. "We actually have more teams than in past years, and we have seven weeks until the relay, so we are excited to get the word out."
The steering committee is close to surpassing its goal for number of teams, Miller said.
"We wanted to get 110 teams and we are at 107, which is unprecedented for our event," Miller said. "We've never had this many teams this early."
Donation amounts and monetary goals are always a bit tougher than team numbers, especially since the economy started doing poorly, Brown said.
"Last year we raised $87,000, so we obviously want to surpass that," Brown said. "We usually aim for $100,000, but that's kind of hard. The economy has really affected our relay."
A new angle with Relay for Life this year is the Fight Back aspect of the relay, said Miller.
"In the past year, Relay has started the Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back (focus)," Miller said. "Fight Back is new and it's encouraging people in what they can do year round to fight cancer. Things like telling your mother to go do her mammogram or telling your friends to quit smoking or little things like tanning beds are just as toxic as arsenic."
Relay for Life is aiming to increase participation numbers on national and local levels, Miller said.
"We are trying to get more people involved because someone who may have been able to give $10 a year ago may only be able to give five, so if you get two or three involved it's still more," Miller said.
The theme this year is Board Games. In addition to normal concessions and a bounce house that raise money at the actual relay, several teams are already planning games that fit the theme and can raise money, Castino said.