Hundreds of people came out to the 32nd annual Relay for Life event in Hoquiam on Friday, an event that raises money for cancer research and honors survivors and those lost to the disease.
The event takes place in hundreds of communities around the world, and is the signature fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.
There were 42 teams this year that signed up to have one person walking all 24 hours the event runs, a jump up from the 36 that participated last year.
The event ends this afternoon.
While perhaps not as well-attended as the event was a decade or two ago, there were dozens of tents set up around Hoquiam High School’s athletic fields for those staying overnight, and a large crowd that walked the first lap primarily wearing purple shirts to represent cancer survivors.
Around the track are many different booths with food, crafts, and game stations where people can buy raffle tickets for prizes or bid on prizes. All of the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society to fund research. At the end of August, the organizers announce which teams have raised the most money throughout the year.
Many of those who attend and set up booths dedicate their walk to family and friends they’ve lost to cancer, and inside the track are boards with hundreds of names of those lost.
Bob Muhlhauser, who is part of Team Bob, was last year’s top fundraiser in part due to the pepperoni sticks he started buying from Oregon every year and now sells at local sporting events and elsewhere. He said the turnout wasn’t as big this year as it has in recent ones.
“I think a lot of it is burnout,” said Muhlhauser. “It’s a lot of work, you’ve got teams with 12 people on them, but only three are doing anything (during the walk).”
Muhlhauser was given an award at the start of the event for donating more than $250,000 since he started participating in the relay 13 years ago, not including this year.
One of the first people to finish a lap was Susan Thompson, who is a breast cancer survivor and has walked in the Relay at Grays Harbor for 13 years.
At one of the relays a few years ago, Thompson said she could recall the first lap taking way longer due to how many more cancer survivors would show up and back up the crowd around the entire track.
“It took a really long time for the survivors to make it around, because there were so many,” said Thompson.
On the back of her head she has a tattooed butterfly and a date to represent the last day in 2011 she had chemotherapy.
Thompson, who works at Little Hoquiam Childcare, ran into one of her students, Penelope, at the event with her parents,
“She said ‘I want to go with Susan’s walk!’ So she got to go with me.”
On Thompson’s back is a cape for Anytime Fitness in Hoquiam, where she works out and convinced to have a team participate in the walk next year.
The Relay for Life continues today with the “Finish The Fight” Final Lap scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
LOUIS KRAUSS | THE DAILY WORLD Susan Thompson, a cancer survivor, poses with her day care student Penelope Smith at the Relay for Life 24-hour walk in Hoquiam on Friday.
LOUIS KRAUSS | THE DAILY WORLD Susan Thompson, a cancer survivor, poses with her day care student Penelope Smith at the Relay for Life 24-hour walk in Hoquiam on Friday.
