Collegiate Times

Last year, the SGA's Relay for Life, some of which is pictured above, had the greatest participation for a similar collegiate event nationwide.

After being ranked No.1 in the nation in 2008, the Virginia Tech chapter of Relay for Life aims to bolster its success further in this year's campaign.

"It's been growing here," said Josh Burnheimer, senior financial planning major and director for the 2008 Relay for Life event at Tech. "Word has gotten around, and the students here are very service oriented."

Tech's 2008 Relay was ranked first on the collegiate level for total number of participants with 3,100 and second in total fundraising on the collegiate level with $294,000 brought in. Relay for Life, the signature event of the American Cancer Society, brings together communities nationwide to raise money for cancer research and treatment. Those involved with Tech's 2008 Relay were excited with how successful the event was.

"This university has 26,000 people, so the sky's the limit," Wagner said. "Our real goal is to have 26,000 students."

Members of Tech's Student Government Association have already started their preparations for the 2009 event. Tech's Relay for Life co-directors Alice Wagner and Chris Armstrong hope for a turnout of 350 teams and 3,500 total participants, bringing in a total of $350,000 for the 2009 event.

A major emphasis for those planning the 2009 event is to keep the focus throughout the year.

"This year we're trying to make Relay a movement," said Wagner, a senior psychology major. "People do think that Relay for Life is an event in the spring. We're trying to get people informed and educate students about cancer."

The year-round focus reflects the relentless nature of the disease.

"Cancer is a year-round thing, not just something that happens in the spring," Burnheimer said.

To reach their fundraising goals, Relay officials are working to reach out with participants on raising money.

"Any kind of personal interaction with every participant in Relay for Life this year, by our planning committee's standpoint will really help," said Armstrong, a senior civil engineering major.

Along with dining hall table cards, flyers and posters, a major aspect of the personal interaction that Armstrong and others will provide is the assignment of mentors to each of the teams signed up for the event. The level of interaction will be dependent on a classification of a team as red, yellow or green.

"People in the red haven't even done the first registration fee, they don't have full teams, and they haven't done any fundraisers. Teams in the yellow have begun the process, and teams in the green are the ones that are leading the way," Armstrong said.

Armstrong stressed that any contact wouldn't be overbearing for Relay participants. Contact for team leaders will start with e-mails, and depending on the progress of a team, additional contact may be made with a team leader.

"We'll start things with e-mail, keep things comfortable," Armstrong said. "We're not going to try to overwhelm people."

As the event comes closer, the mentors will work to ensure teams are reaching their goals.

"We'll analyze the teams in the spring to see how they're doing. If they are in the green, we aren't going to focus on them as much, because they're doing well," Wagner said. "The red and the yellow we're going to encourage. Sometimes it takes that extra little kick to get them going."

 Armstrong is confident that Tech's Relay will reach its goals, even in difficult financial times.

"The American Cancer Society even the year before saw a decrease because of financial difficulties," Armstrong said. "Our Relay has grown each year. It may not have grown as much as what we'd thought we would, but we've still grown."

Armstrong pointed to the importance of the money raised to his hope of the planned funds being raised.

"Cancer's not going away. It doesn't matter if we are in hard financial times, it doesn't matter if times are good and people are buying houses and cars," Armstrong said. "We would encourage people to donate, because this is something that we can take care of now."

As of Oct. 16, 525 participants on 164 teams had raised $15,581.47. The 2009 Relay for Life event will take place April 24.