Collegiate Times

In preparation for Relay For Life, one team was chosen out of the hundreds participating at Virginia Tech to shine a little light on the process of preparing for the event. Hundreds of teams, one event, thousands of stories - this is simply one of them.

Anna Tobia, a freshman hailing from Philadelphia, has spent the past three years of her life perpetually surrounded by Relay For Life.

"My sister Liz goes to Georgetown (University), and she has been doing Relay since she was a freshman, so I have been going to Georgetown events since I was a junior in high school," Tobia said.

But even with this extensive RFL experience, the cause itself had never really hit her.

"Two of my great aunts had passed away from lung and skin cancer, but they died when I was 7 and then when I was 10, so it was hard to be really affected," Tobia said, "So my junior and senior years when I did Relay atmy high school I just don't think it had really hit me."

But earlier this year, tragedy struck Anna's life in a way she will never forget. Anna's grandmother Rita Tobia, or "Mummum," lost her battle with breast cancer on Valentine's Day at the age of 82. 

"She was never sick, until she actually was," Tobia said. "Even when she was in hospice, she was hilarious. She was always making everyone around her laugh."

All Anna could do was sit on the couch remembering fond memories of the woman for whom she Relays.

"She held out for after Friday 13," Anna said. "She was just a loud Italian woman who was always saying, 'Eat more!' We just loved being around each other."

Anna went home to grieve with her family in Philadelphia, but returned with a determination to raise as much money as she could for the American Cancer Society.

Donations came pouring in from family members, and sibling rivalry only added to the drive to fundraise.

"Liz and I have always been kind of competitive, and she is one of the directors for Georgetown's Relay For Life, so we have been competing a little bit to see who can raise more," Anna said. "I mean, it's not that bad if we're getting competitive, because I figure it's all going to a good cause."

Relay For Rita is currently in fifth place in the standings for all of the teams participating in Tech's Relay, a sizable accomplishment for a team composed entirely of freshmen, most of who are participating in RFL for the first time. So far they have raised $4,473 for the American Cancer Society, and they are looking to raise more at the event itself. 

Anna has even become one of the top five individual fundraisers for the entire VT Relay. Anna employed the people on her hall as a means of Relay funds.

"I put a vase outside my door in my hall, and I put up signs all over the place asking for spare change and posters trying to get people involved, and I covered bulletin boards with signs for Relay," Anna said. "It was a little hard to motivate people, even on my own team sometimes because we are freshmen and some of them have never been to a college Relay For Life, so they don't really get how big of a deal it is yet." 

But motivation was never a problem for Anna.

"I felt so corny, I wrote 'change lives' on the side of the vase and put up really cheesy posters begging people to donate," Anna said with a laugh, "But it really paid off because I got over $30 from that vase. Who knew all those pennies really add up?"

The team held weekly meetings to plan out the event, its own theme, camping plans, and who was going to bring what in terms of food. But it was more than just planning - it was friends, some of whom have known each other since the sixth grade, coming together for a cause. 

"We really are just a bunch of friends trying to raise some money," Anna said. "We have a really great plan for fund raising at Relay, our theme is

MargaRITAville, and we're going all out. We have baby pools, a ton of leis, and a great tent with a huge poster hanging off the front of it. I got really crafty."

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