‘Relay’ a celebration, fundraiser, memorial

WASILLA — If you didn’t get a “Save the Date” notice from Relay for Life of Mat-Su via the American Cancer Society last year, mark your calendar now for the event June 26-27.

Event organizer Jousette McKeel, who led the event in Palmer last year and in Juneau for two years before that, said the Mat-Su Relay committee has booked entertainment for nearly the entire 18-hour period from 6 p.m. that Friday to noon Saturday.

The Miss Relay competition — where men dress up and garner votes for their get-ups — and Zumba dance-exercise classes are back this year, and attendees can also participate in a chili cook-off, silent auction and various games. Bake sales and massages also will be offered.

New this year is a pet parade at 9 a.m. on Saturday, face painting and a performance by All About Dance students on Friday. And, the event won’t be held at a high school this year.

Relay for Life of Mat-Su has traveled all over the Valley, hosting events at Palmer, Colony and Wasilla high schools over the years. While it was nice to have a set track to run or walk around, McKeel said, the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center offers participants an indoor option in case of inclement weather.

The outdoor “track” will be set up around the main parking lot at the sports center, with parking available in the surrounding lots. Vendors and teams also will set up in the main lot around the walkway.

McKeel said the committee typically chooses a location a year in advance to avoid conflicts later.

“The hardest thing of planning an event of this magnitude, for the entire Mat-Su Valley, is not competing with any other things going on,” McKeel said. “We don’t wanna pull people from doing something else, and we don’t want people to lose the opportunity of joining us.”

Because cancer is always personal.

Four and half years ago, McKeel lost her father to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She and her daughter were his caregivers and wanted to “give back in a way that would honor him,” so they started working with the Relay in Juneau.

Wasilla Curves owner Angie Washington, who has worked with the local Curves Relay team for the last 10 years, has also lost loved ones to cancer. While preparing for Relay, she’s been visiting her daughter-in-law’s mother in the hospital as her fight with brain cancer becomes increasingly difficult.

As stressful as that is, it makes her all the more determined, she said.

“When I go to the hospital I see why I need to keep fighting,” Washington said.

As an organization, however, Washington and her teammates from Curves are paying special homage to former Alaska Children’s Choir Director Janet Stotts, who passed away from breast cancer in April. Stotts frequented Curves for exercise and helped Washington through the loss of her niece to cancer two years ago.

“Whenever we lose someone it’s always sad, but we try to really make that Relay about them,” Washington said.

So they’re selling special “Luminaria” bags for Janet, to light the Luminaria Lap at midnight, where participants remember those lost to cancer. They also hope to have Stotts’ former students perform at the event.

Fourteen-time cancer survivor and author Care Tuk said the Luminaria and the Survivor Laps are the most emotional for her — as a survivor and one who’s experienced loss to the disease, but also for the caregivers.

“Caregivers to me are really the heroes,” Tuk said. “You’re pretty sick when you’re actively battling cancer, and you don’t always look in mirror. They look at you 24/7, make meals for you and take time off of work …”

In short, they see the deterioration of their patient, friend, family member.

But Relay for Life is for survivors at all stages.

“Anybody who’s heard the words ‘you have cancer’ is a survivor,” Tuk said. “From day one … you’re a survivor.”

And Tuk has proven over the years that she is just that — a survivor. But now it’s time to hand the Relay baton to someone else, she says.

“I’m learning to live with cancer, and the side effects of living with cancer don’t always allow you to be as active as you would like to be,” Tuk said.

So she won’t be at next year’s Relay in a leadership capacity, but will keep working to live up to her 2012 Hero of Hope award.

“Once a Hero of Hope, always a Hero of Hope,” she said.

The numbers

• According to Tuk, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in Alaska will die from cancer at the current rate

• For last year’s Relay, Mat-Su residents raised somewhere around $80,000 for Alaska’s American Cancer Society, McKeel said. Most of that money was returned to the Mat-Su for Valley patient services — transportation, lodging, support and classes.

• Forty percent of every dollar raised by Relay teams goes to cancer research. The rest goes to local programs, Tuk said.

• Curves of Wasilla has been the top fundraiser at Relay for Life of Mat-Su for the past three years with $15,000 raised last year

• About 30 teams and 40 vendors are signed up to attend this year’s Relay for Life at the Menard Center

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.