Hundreds to Participate in 24-Hour Cancer Awareness Event

Community members are invited to join in the festivities at Union City’s Relay for Life, a national fundraiser to help fight cancer. The 24-hour event starts Saturday at 10 a.m. at the track and will feature a variety of fundraising games, activities and live entertainment to help battle cancer.

So far, 344 individuals, split between 43 teams, have registered to participate and about $35,000 has already been raised, according to the Union City Relay for Life website.

During the event, participants will camp out on the Logan track with a representative from each team walking or running at all times. Cancer survivors will start the relay by walking the first lap.

You don’t have to be registered to join the fun, says Jennifer Dudley, the Relay for Life event chair.

“We hope that everyone finds the time to stop by and visit us. Come for an hour, come for the day, or spend the night,” she said. “You can still hear a great band, have a great lunch, or spend $5 on something fun, and that money goes to fight cancer.”

Each of the participating teams will conduct its own on-site fundraising by hosting games and sales, ranging from Dudley’s team’s $1 Wack-a-Mole for toys to the New Haven Teachers Assocaition’s bra toss and breast cancer dunk.

The day’s performers include Hula Halau Ko Olina, Zumba by Heidi, Tru Dance, Heirs 2 Royalty dance group, Tre & Family Gospel and Rendezvous Dance Band, among others. (See full lineup in the attached program.)

Activities will also include a rooster crowing contest, a scavenger hunt and a cardboard car show and relay to highlight the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery transportation program. The program provides patients with free rides to doctor and hospital appointments. The cardboard cars will be on display throughout the day, with the relay portion — where runners will pick up “patients” along the track — beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Event sponsors, as well as community organizations, will provide food throughout the day.

The Alameda County Firefighters Association IAFF-55 will provide a barbecue dinner Saturday, with the New Haven Teachers Association providing ice cream for dessert. Members of the Union City Lions Club will provide breakfast Sunday morning.

“What’s important about this is community,” Dudley said. “My goal is to come together with a common enemy and leave together as a bonded community.”

This is the sixth year the event has been held in Union City, and the first that Dudley has participated in. Dudley, a Union City resident for eight years, only learned about the event last year and wanted to get involved.

“I needed my community to know that this was out here,” she said.

The theme for this year’s Relay for Life is “Celebrate. Remember. Fight back.”

“We want to celebrate people who beat cancer and those who have unfortunately lost that battle,” Dudley said. “We also want people to be aware of what they can do in their own homes to keep cancer at bay.”

Each team will have its own “fight back message” that speaks to them, she said.

Organizers will also be selling luminarias (paper bag lanterns) for $10 donations. Those who buy them can write notes or draw pictures for their loved ones. When the sun goes down, the luminarias will be lit via glowsticks and lined up along the track, Dudley said.

Dudley has also made a pledge to shave her head on stage Sunday morning if the event raises $50,000.

“A lot of cancer patients lose their hair,” Dudley said. “For some people, it’s tragic. For others, it’s a badge of courage. For me, it’s a statement of my commitment.”

She has high hopes for the event and expects to not only raise funds to help beat cancer, but to unite residents.

“I want a thousand people to walk through these gates Saturday," she said. "I want them to cry, make friends and get involved in whatever way that helps make our community stronger.”

Relay for Life begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27 at James Logan High School. For more information, view the attached program or visit the Union City Relay for Life website here.