Sun shines on Relay For Life as smiles return --- finally!

Larry Kessler does laps on the morning of Saturday, June 18 at the 24th annual Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro, a team fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society.

This version of my column on this year’s 24^th annual Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro was published in the July edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence. It was inspired both by the many miracles that the relay, an overnight team fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, produces and the hopeful lyrics of the Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun.” That iconic song off of the “Abbey Road” album was an especially appropriate choice this year --- the first full relay since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic --- when, as the lyrics go, the smiles returned to our faces after the relay was forced to go virtual in 2020 and was limited to two smaller in-person events in 2021.

The link to the column, as it appears on the Jewish Rhode Island website, appears at the end of this post.

CUTLINES
First photo: The author does laps on the Norton Middle School field on the Saturday morning of the relay on June 18. (Photo courtesy of Mark Stockwell / The Sun Chronicle)
Second photo: The Attleboro Arts Museum team takes a break from doing laps at the Norton Middle School during the 24th annual Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro, a team fundraiser to fight cancer. Front row from left to right: Kerry St. Pierre, Abby Rovaldi, Museum Executive Director Mim Fawcett, Attleboro Library Director Amy Rhilinger. Back row: Tom and Deb Maher. (Photo by Larry Kessler)

“Here comes the Sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
“Here comes the Sun and I say
“It's all right

“Little darling
“It's been a long cold lonely winter
“Little darling
“It feels like years since it's been here

“Here comes the Sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
“Here comes the Sun and I say
“It's all right

“Little darling
“The smiles returning to the faces
“Little darling
“It seems like years since it's been here.”

When the DJ at the Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro, Nate Adams, played that iconic Beatles’ song near the end of the 24^th annual team fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, it was the perfect choice. That’s because “Here Comes the Sun,” off the Beatles 1969 “Abbey Road” album, perfectly summed up how everyone who attended the mid-June event at the Norton Middle School felt.
The relay, the first full one since the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizers to hold it virtually in 2020 and two smaller in-person ones last year, brought smiles back to participants’ faces. And, as the Beatles first sang 53 years ago, it indeed had seemed “like years” since the sun had last shined on the mid-June event, one I was a part of for the 23^rd year, when more than $76,000 had been donated to the cancer society as of this posting.
But more than money was raised; spirits were buoyed immeasurably as well. The nearly 30 teams and about 300 participants and accompanying family members and friends at the 16-hour event did what relays do best: remember and embrace loved ones affected by cancer while renewing hope that a cure for the disease will be found.
Throughout the relay, as people walked along a field (the event’s usual  site that included a track wasn’t available) lined by luminaries --- candles lit by glow sticks in honor of cancer survivors and in memory of victims --- there were as many stories of courage, perseverance and determination as there were people. All were personal and deeply moving and could be considered mini-miracles. Here are just some of them:
* About 50 cancer survivors led the opening lap of the relay, and were served a complimentary dinner by Waters Church of North Attleboro. The survivors, who are at the heart of relays, were loudly cheered as they circled the field. For those not familiar, the first relay in the nation was held in 1985, when Dr. Gordon "Gordy" Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Wash., raising $27,000. Relays For Life worldwide have raised more than $5 billion in the 37 years since.

The Attleboro Arts Museum team does laps at the Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro.

* The Attleboro Arts Museum had formed a team in 2020, but COVID-19 stole the members’ chance to do any laps that year. So there was a palpable joy in their steps, as they circled the field Friday night, and each had their own reason for being there.
Attleboro Public Library Director Amy Rhilinger walked for her father Tim, who died of lung cancer.
Museum Executive Director Mim Fawcett did laps for her parents, both of whom died of cancers, her mother from breast cancer and her father from lymphoma.
Kerry St. Pierre, the museum’s office manager, walked for all four grandparents who died of cancer and for her sister Kristin Hoffman, a cancer survivor.
Abby Rovaldi, the museum’s programs coordinator, walked for her uncle Gene, who died of leukemia, an aunt who died of pancreatic cancer and a cousin who died of breast cancer.
Tom and Deb Maher of Rehoboth walked to celebrate Deb being a 19-year survivor of thyroid cancer.
* Megan DeMoura, the captain of Team Lady Bugs and a member of the relay’s organizing committee, was participating in her 10^th relay, the previous nine in Taunton. “We relay for our many grandparents, friends and family” members, she said.
* John Yoder, of Medway, not only volunteered on Friday afternoon to help get the field ready for the opening ceremony after the grounds were drenched by a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, but he was still doing laps Saturday morning.
A member of the Bam Bam’s Beauties team, Yoder is a survivor of skin and prostate cancers. He said he’s been doing relays for more than 30 years. “I just felt like it was a good thing to do to support my friends and relatives,” he said.
* Two poets who were a part of the relay’s second Slam Cancer event in May, which invited people to write poems and essays about how the disease affected them, gave inspiring speeches.
Tara Lines of Wrentham spoke during the opening ceremony about being a childhood leukemia survivor and how the side effects from the treatments she received affected her later in life.
Allan Fournier of North Attleboro, a member with his wife Margaret of the Walking With Grace team, during the luminaria ceremony read “
Unfinished Business: Overtime,” an original poem that invokes the indomitable spirit that’s personified by cancer survivors.
* That ceremony felt more powerful than ever after a three-year absence. Led by the solemn tunes of bagpipers from the Colonial Pipers Bagpipe Band, the walkers paid silent tribute to their loved ones.
But of all the miracles during the relay, perhaps the most notable was the fact that in this world still afflicted by a pandemic, people of all ages, backgrounds, religions and races were able to put aside their differences and unite without the need for masks or social distancing in a common purpose: contribute to the effort to eradicate cancer.
In this era of strife and bitter deep division that way too often explodes into bloodshed, that was the biggest miracle of all.
LARRY KESSLER (larrythek65@gmail.com) is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro. He blogs at  https://larrytheklineup.blogspot.com

The link to this column, as it appears on the Jewish Rhode Island website follows: https://www.jewishrhody.com/stories/relay-for-life-offers-powerful-inspiration,14564?