The Canadian Cancer Society will be hosting the annual Relay For Life and this year is special because they are celebrating their 75th anniversary.
In honour of this milestone, Kipp Scott GMC has partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society. “For the 75th anniversary of the Canadian Cancer Society we have decided to team up with them and we will be offering up a vehicle as a prize,” said Garrett Scott general manager of the dealership.
Participants will receive one entry to win the vehicle for every $750 they raise. The winner will have the choice between two vehicles: the GMC Terrain and the Buick Encore each worth approximately $30,000.
“We are very excited for this year and this incentive prize and we are thrilled to be partnered up with Kipp Scott GMC,” said Trish King, revenue development coordinator with the Canadian Cancer Society.
This year for the Relay for Life the goal is to have 750 participants in the four relays, in Red Deer, Innisfail, Rocky Mountain House and Stettler, to raise $750 each and to reach a final total of $750,000 raised in Central Alberta.
This is a much loftier goal than those in past years. Last year Red Deer raised $207,881, Innisfail raised $74,950, and Stettler raised $148,673. Rocky Mountain House did not participate last year, however, Ponoka held an event and they managed to raise $5,000 which brought the total for Central Alberta to $436,505.
However King is hoping the donated vehicles will help beat last year’s numbers.
“Hopefully the incentive prize will bring participants back who haven’t done it in a few years, and get people to raise more money. Ideally that is the biggest goal is to raise more funds in Central Alberta and become one of the top Relay For Life fundraisers in the division,” said King.
Relay For Life will be in Rocky Mountain House on May 24th, Innisfail will have theirs on June 7th and Red Deer and Stettler will have their Relays on June 14th. In Red Deer registration will start by 5 p.m. and the walk will commence at 7 p.m.
“We will have the celebration ceremonies of course with the Survivor’s Victory Lap which is pretty powerful. You see all of the yellow shirts worn by people who have survived and beaten cancer or are fighting cancer,” said King. “The Remember Ceremony is very, very powerful when we light the luminaries at dusk. There are lots of tears and lots of Kleenex. And then there is Fight Back in the morning where you just gear up for how you are going to fight cancer for the next 364 days.”
People wanting to participate in this fundraiser are now able to sign up online.
“The captain can sign up and send out an email to everyone they want on their team and people can join at a later time,” said King.
The Canadian Cancer Society’s web site www.relayforlife.ca allows participants to get their team started, to send emails to people asking for pledges and to send thank-you emails.
Registration fees are online for $15 per person and $20 per person in person.
treid@reddeerexpress.com
