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Relay For Life changes name, offers partnerships

ALPENA — Relay For Life of Alpena County will now be known as Relay For Life of Northeast Michigan after a recent vote by the event leadership planning team.

Event Lead Lisa West said the rationale behind the change was to make the event more inclusive of counties in the region that may not be able to put on their own event anymore.

“We want to be sure everyone from Alcona, Presque Isle, Montmorency and Oscoda counties feel they belong to and are welcome at our Relay, including survivors, caregivers, teams, sponsors, schools and the general public,” West said.

According to West, since the vote the organization is in the process of reaching out to other Relay events. She said several open houses in outlying counties are being planned. A representative from each county also is being sought to serve on the leadership planning team.

“We’re sending out invitations this month that are going to go out all over and we’re literally going to go to the different counties and invite them, but we’re just in the initial start of this,” West said. “The crux of what is going on is we’ve realized the counties that have some of the small Relays are not doing as well.”

Relay For Life events, including the local event, often feature teams raising money and participating in all-night events at a venue. She said Northeast Michigan Relay runs very lean so the vast majority of the donations go to cancer research and are not spent on the event.

She said with more Relay events folding into the Alpena event it would help the smaller events save funding so more could be donated to cancer research.

The local relay event is held on the grounds of the old Fletcher Paper Company and uses the Maritime Heritage Trail as a walking path. West said there is plenty of room for more organizations to take part.

“We just want to let everyone feel that they’re part of the Relay; its for everyone,” she said. “It would be a benefit for them, because when you raise a smaller amount of money you still have those same issues and expenses (of a big event). That is why some Relays struggle to happen.

Alpena’s Relay event began in 1995. West said last year the organization had a fundraising goal of $100,000, which was exceeded by nearly $2,000 and made the group 21st in fundraising out of 155 events.

“We are very proud and always amazed at how our community comes together to support survivors and caregivers and to raise dollars to fund the programs of the American Cancer Society,” she said.

West said this year’s theme for the event, which will be Aug. 12-13, will be “Storybooks — Cancer is not the end of the story – your journey begins here.” The fundraising goal is $103,000.

More information about the event and the name change can be found by calling West at 590-3397 or emailing her at lisa@westaccessibledesign.com. To register as a team, survivor or participant, visit the website www.relayforlife.org and enter your zip code to find the local event page.

Jason Ogden can be reached via email at jogden@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693. Follow Jason on Twitter @jo_alpenanews.

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