Relay planners hope next year’s event will cater to more groups like fraternities.

“I want to tell you a story about a boy named Sammy,” Nicholas Simmons-Stern, DC ’12, told his audience at midnight last Sat., Apr. 18. Simmons-Stern, who lost his mother to cancer when he was in seventh grade, was narrating his 11-year-old stepbrother’s first Relay for Life event—a fundraiser that prompted him to collect $13,000 to fight back against the disease that took his father. As Simmons-Stern asked his audience to consider the effects of a collective effort as strong as his brother’s, participants voiced their vows—“I pledge to quit smoking; I pledge to get my parents to quit smoking; I pledge to join the Relay committee next year”—culminating in a lap run to the Rocky Horror theme song, the runners empowered by their purpose and inspired to fight back.
On the afternoon of Apr. 18, the leaders of the Yale chapter of Relay for Life kicked off their 18-hour event, “Relay like a Rockstar,” in Payne Whitney Gymnasium. The event—the largest fundraiser at Yale—is part of a cross-country effort to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society (ACS), the nation’s largest anti-cancer nonprofit organization. As ACS’s signature fundraiser, Relay for Life helps raise over $400 million each year to fuel the organization’s cancer research, education, advocacy, and patient services. At Yale, Relay’s three tenets, “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back,” are expressed through a full night of activities, performances, and ceremonies geared to attract participants and donors alike. Yet this year’s relay chairs were not only fighting back to battle cancer—they also fought to revive Relay for Life as Yale’s most notable fundraising success.
In 2007, Relay for Life was one of the biggest events on campus, attracting approximately 1,000 participants. According to this year’s Relay co-chair Avinash Gandhi, PC ’10, the 2007 event raised about $200,000 overall for the ACS that academic year. But then in 2008, Relay’s attendance and donations plummeted, drawing less than half the number of participants from 2007. “Relay chairs from last year assumed everything would go smoothly based on the year before,” Gandhi said. “They weren’t proactive enough, so it essentially collapsed.” With no records of how to run Relay, this year’s four co-chairs began working last semester from scratch, creating guides for fundraising, gathering support from local businesses, spreading the word through fundraisers scattered throughout the year, and regenerating hype among student supporters.
This year, 78 teams and about 700 participants gathered at Payne Whitney to add to the total $66,393 dollars raised thus far—a significant improvement from last year’s efforts. The organizers gathered support from 28 local businesses, donations from major corporate sponsors, and enlisted the founder of the female networking organization 85 Broads, Janet Hanson, to speak during the event’s opening ceremonies. Having little guidance from previous chairs, this year’s organizers worked on a grassroots level to garner support. Committee chair Katie Planey, PC ’09, cornered the CEO of Pepsi at a Master’s Tea, who eventually donated food and drinks for 1,000. Planey also recruited Hanson as a keynote speaker for the event.
Ten Yale group performances and 1000 free Rockstar energy drinks later, Relay for Life had reinstated itself as the most significant fundraising event on campus. “Everyone took a look at what happened last year and we said, ‘We can do better that, and why shouldn’t we?’ We’re all in it for different reasons, but we’re Yalies and can’t resist a challenge. It seems impossible at first, but that always motivates me,” Planey said.
Attracting students to participate in an event that counters a life-threatening disease on a Saturday night is a difficult matter. In his opening statement, Gandhi told the crowd, “Relay isn’t just about raising money—it’s about celebrating those who have survived the battle against cancer, remembering those who have passed, and fighting back against the disease that claims so many of the ones we love.” The majority of the events at Relay itself were geared towards this celebration—hoping to attract students through entertainment: Yale bands played throughout the night, games like twister and blow up jousting maintained a lively spirit, and a post-Toad’s “private” dance party aimed to keep students flowing into the gym until the early morning. Given all of these events, on the surface, Relay’s themes of fighting back and remembering might seem overshadowed by blind celebration.
“You need to have elements that appeal to college students to get participation,” co-chair Margo Lang, SY ’10, said, “But if you come to the event, you’ll see that cancer is most definitely the priority.” All four chairs agreed that the more poignant points of the night gave the event its power. At 9:30 p.m., the “Luminaria Ceremony” honored loved ones who have passed from cancer; at midnight, the “Fight Back Ceremony,” led by online chair Simmons-Stern, inspired the audience to counter cancer through personal life changes. “It’s possible that that way we publicize loses those elements, yes, but I think that anyone who went would have felt the honor towards people who battled cancer,” Lang said.
“Especially for us chairs, we forget why we’re doing this,” co-chair Jonathan Cantalino, SM ’10, said. “I forgot why I was doing everything. At 6 a.m. a 70-year-old man was still walking on the track, and one family, with kids from 8 to 15 years old, stayed there the entire night. Those moments remind me why I do this.” Simmons-Stern, who worked with Relay on regional task forces and national teams in high school, acknowledged Yale’s success. “It’s a great event. I’ve been to hundreds around the country, and it produces the same effects everywhere,” he said.
Yet by Sunday morning, Relay’s motto had gained a personal meaning for those who stayed: Participants celebrated friends battling cancer, remembered lost loved ones, and fought back by pledging to change their own lives. On a national level, the event helped advance work of the ACS; on a local level, Relay revived a holistic form of fundraising and reintroduced Yalies to the importance of actively fighting for a cause. “You’re having a direct impact on something that matters,” Cantalino said, “Awesome people are doing it, there are incredible stories around you, and hearing your friends’ stories makes you just keep wanting to do it for them. That’s why I relay.”