On June 9th, families and friends alike will join forces to conquer cancer at this year’s Relay For Life.

The annual cancer research fundraiser will take place at CrossRoads Church with a goal to raise $50,000.

Many people have been working hard to fundraise on their own pages.

“When they register with their teams they get their own home page on the Canadian Cancer website and they can actually link that to their own Facebook pages to build, so it works on social media both ways,” said Janet Dixie, chair of Red Deer’s Relay For Life.

This year’s event will see three bands perform including the CrossRoads Band, Calgary-based band Metro Beat and Ashley’s Rejekts from Blackfalds.

There will also be a vendors market this year, with local vendors setting up shop similar to the Market at Red Deer from 2 t0 8 p.m.

“It’s our way to get the public out there and them seeing what the relay is about,” said Dixie.

A BBQ will also take place from 4 to 6 p.m.

The event will have 12 themed laps planned throughout the whole event, so every hour they change their theme, so the different teams bring clothes to dress up in.

The teams also participate in eight scheduled Minute to Win it games.

“That’s definitely fairly entertaining to watch them do whatever they have to do to win their Minute to Win it game,” she said.

Dixie said events like Relay For Life are important as Cancer research is still needed.

“In 20 years, we’ve seen the numbers of survivors increase tremendously and it’s because of events like this.”