Relay for Life keeps walkers close to home
Saturday, July 28, 2007
By Matt VandebunteThe Grand Rapids Press
COMSTOCK PARK -- The first four years after her mother died of cancer, Ingrid Fournier and the rest of "Barb's Bunch" walked in the Relay for Life of Rockford.
This year, the group is staying closer to home for its annual effort to honor the memory of Barbera Hekman, taking part in the American Cancer Society's first 24-hour walk-a-thon in Comstock Park.
"This is so much more meaningful," said Fournier, 40. "It belongs to Comstock Park now. We're doing this with neighbors and we're meeting new people. It's a community."
Fournier and her teammates from Zion Lutheran Church are one of 14 teams at the inaugural Comstock Park event, one of about 20 relays in West Michigan this year. Another relay is scheduled for next weekend at East Grand Rapids High School.
The Comstock Park walk started Friday afternoon and continues through 3 p.m. today, with people on the track the whole time to symbolize that cancer never sleeps.
To meet a $35,000 total fundraising goal, teams collect donations for the cancer society and during the relay sell food, toys and services out of large tents.
An evening ceremony was to feature candles inside decorated bags.
Held on the track at Comstock Park High School, the relay includes live entertainment and hourly themes such as a lap Friday in honor of Chris Pierson, a Greenridge Elementary School teacher who died in February 2006 of leukemia.
A note from the P.Suave Editorial Board: Both Barb's Bunch and the Comstock Park event as a whole exceeded their goals; a total of $35,100 was raised during this inaugural event, $1,590 of which by the Barb's Bunch team.
Que duerman bien,
Pepino Dormilon
Saturday, July 28, 2007
By Matt VandebunteThe Grand Rapids Press
COMSTOCK PARK -- The first four years after her mother died of cancer, Ingrid Fournier and the rest of "Barb's Bunch" walked in the Relay for Life of Rockford.
This year, the group is staying closer to home for its annual effort to honor the memory of Barbera Hekman, taking part in the American Cancer Society's first 24-hour walk-a-thon in Comstock Park.
"This is so much more meaningful," said Fournier, 40. "It belongs to Comstock Park now. We're doing this with neighbors and we're meeting new people. It's a community."
Fournier and her teammates from Zion Lutheran Church are one of 14 teams at the inaugural Comstock Park event, one of about 20 relays in West Michigan this year. Another relay is scheduled for next weekend at East Grand Rapids High School.
The Comstock Park walk started Friday afternoon and continues through 3 p.m. today, with people on the track the whole time to symbolize that cancer never sleeps.
To meet a $35,000 total fundraising goal, teams collect donations for the cancer society and during the relay sell food, toys and services out of large tents.
An evening ceremony was to feature candles inside decorated bags.
Held on the track at Comstock Park High School, the relay includes live entertainment and hourly themes such as a lap Friday in honor of Chris Pierson, a Greenridge Elementary School teacher who died in February 2006 of leukemia.
A note from the P.Suave Editorial Board: Both Barb's Bunch and the Comstock Park event as a whole exceeded their goals; a total of $35,100 was raised during this inaugural event, $1,590 of which by the Barb's Bunch team.
Que duerman bien,
Pepino Dormilon
No comments:
Post a Comment