June 22, 2008 — The clouds opened up Saturday night and again in the morning, but participants in the seventh annual St. Thomas Relay for Life kept pace during the overnight walking marathon, hoping to raise $250,000 to battle cancer. Soggy conditions prompted an early halt to the efforts, but didn't dampen expectations about reaching the relay's goal, which was $50,000 more than what was brought in last year.
Organizers were still tallying figures and enjoying last minute donations as of Sunday morning, but whatever amount was raised, they see the strong community spirit that drove the event as an equal measure of its success.
Ninety-two teams with at least 15 walkers each participated in the overnight relay at Charlotte Amalie High School, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. A full slate of family activities and musical entertainment drew supporters, and relay chairman Bevin Dorsett estimated some 5,200 people may have been on the field during the relay's climax at 9 p.m. Saturday.
That's when field lights were extinguished and paper-bag encased candle luminaries, each bearing the name of a cancer victim, lined the track. All members of the relay teams left the track, except for cancer survivors, who walked one lap in solidarity around the field, leaving some onlookers choked up.
"I got a little weepy. It's heavy," said Janelle Zachman, a member of Ya Ya Sisters Team No. 1, whose members raised $9,000 for the relay.
"To see everyone cheering, and all the community coming together, it's fabulous," said fellow team member Kathy Gibson, as the pair lugged their gear off the field Sunday morning, eager for a change of clothes and a bed.
Jerry John, who chaired the relay's logistics committee and was busy tending the field throughout the event, said he was taken aback as he began clearing the name-bearing luminaries following the ceremony.
"I saw some names I didn't remember, folks I had broken bread with and who are no longer with us," he said wistfully. "I was sightseeing — remembering — instead of cleaning up."
Dorsett was also surprised when he determined that this year's poster child for the relay, 7-year-old Miguel Bougeneau, was, in fact, the son of old friends. Bougeaneau is a first grader at Calvary Christian Academy and has leukemia.
"I have known these people, the father for 20 years and the mother for 17 years, and here we have a poster child and I didn't realize who he was," Dorsett exclaimed. "It hits you close."
The relay began at 4 p.m. Saturday and continued until after dawn Sunday, at which point another deluge and concerns over damaging the school's field prompted organizers to wind things up. Each team was expected to have members walking the track throughout the relay, usually in one-hour increments.
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