The Boston All University Relay for Life raised over $82,000 for the American Cancer Society (ACS) last weekend, surpassing the ACS's standard first-year goal of $15,000.
The relay, organized by the Boston Intercollegiate Community Service Organization (BICSO), took place at Cassidy Park near Cleveland Circle. It began with an opening ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and lasted until 11 a.m. the next day.
Jon Lennon, BICSO president and A&S '05, said between 80 to 85 teams participated in the event, 60 of which were comprised of Boston College students. At least one representative of each team had to walk on the track at all times during the relay.
Farley's BC Eagles, named after Ryan Farley, a BC student who died of cancer two years ago, raised over $5,000. Farley's sister Kaitlyn Farley, A&S '06, became involved with the walk early in the school year. "Jon Lennon was talking about how BICSO was going to start a relay, so immediately I stopped him and told him I wanted to be a part of it," she said.
The team included BC seniors, who were friends of Ryan, and freshmen friends of Kaitlyn. Farley's BC Eagles had 35 members, making it the largest team at the relay. "They were saying eight to 10, but I wasn't going to turn people away," said Kaitlyn.
Team Todd raised the most money on-line, and made over $6,000. The team is named after Todd Schwartz, a friend of BC student Nicki Pirello, team leader and CSON '06, who died of cancer last November.
Pirello was inspired to raise over $5,000 when she heard that amount is the standard for the platinum level donors. "I sat there and I was like there's no way we're raising any less than $5,000," she said.
Tom Millar, event co-chair and A&S '05, said that the All University Relay for Life was second out of 120 groups nationwide for on-line donations.
Halfway through the relay there was a luminaria lighting ceremony. "All the bags were lit; all the names on the bags are people who have died or still have cancer and are surviving. We read the names individually as people walk," said Jay Washak, ACS coordinator. Due to technical difficulties, the large overhead lights in the field had to remain lit during the ceremony. Before the reading of the names, a cancer survivor from MIT spoke to the participants about his experience fighting cancer as a child and campaigning for a cure years later.
"It was the most amazing sight," said Washak. "I've been doing relays for years, and I've never seen anything like these kids. I was so overwhelmed; even some of my colleagues have commented on the luminarias."
Other colleges involved with the event included UMass, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of New Hampshire, and St. Michael's College. Emerson College had a committee that helped plan the event and had five teams participate in the walk.
The BICSO committee was headed by co-chairs Millar and Matt Meringolo, CSOM '05, who worked very closely with the ACS.
In late March, Meringolo and Millar attended a Youth Leadership Summit for the Relay for Life in Dallas, Texas with Washak. "We just came back even more inspired," said Meringolo.
"I think that this event tonight is a testament to how great the partnership between the ACS and BICSO was, how great our committee was, how hard those kids worked, and how amazing the BC students are," said Millar.
"That's one of the things I love about tonight: every one of these kids is giving up their Friday night to do something good," he said.
The corporate sponsors for the walk included Eagle's Deli, Cataldo Ambulance, Grillman Company, and Groove Boston. Monadnock donated bottles of water throughout the event, Dunkin Donuts gave out free coffee and doughnuts on Saturday morning, and Bertuccis donated pizza.
Mike Halkiotis, the manager of the Bertuccis in the Atrium mall, attended the event.
"I have a personal interest. [Cancer has] affected my family quite a bit so I try to get involved as much as I can with things like this, personally. Also as a company we try to give back to the community as much as we can and get involved with the community as much as possible," said Halkiotis.
A BICSO activities committee planned events throughout the evening including music, a volleyball tournament, and a yoga session in the morning. "The music keeps you going. [The tournaments] make a good atmosphere. It keeps people going when it's not their turn to walk," said Nina Clarke, a Relay For Life participant and LSOE '06.
"It was remarkable to see that not even the inclement weather and exhaustion of the participants would break the spirits of a group of people who set out last night to do something truly amazing," said Lennon. "In many cases, rain might take away the effects of an outdoor, overnight, 18-hour event, but that was not the case."
Though the event was originally scheduled to end at noon on Saturday, it ended at 11 a.m. due to a power generator failure.
The overall success of the walk has inspired BICSO to organize another one next year. "It's our first year putting this together. Neither of us had ever seen a relay before. We're just fired up to make next year bigger and better," said Meringolo.
"BICSO is so proud to have finished the year with this ground-breaking success, and we hope that the door for next year will be open to forever bringing the colleges and universities of Boston together in service," said Lennon.
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