Come for the Cause, Stay for the Funnel Cakes

You've read about it. You may have seen it on TV. You know that it's stressing me out. It's the Relay for Life of Kenton County 2007 to benefit the American Cancer Society, and if you live in Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky I want to personally invite you to come out and see what all the fuss is about. We will be at Simon Kenton High School on Friday, June 29, in Independence, Ky., starting at 6pm and going until 6am.

Relay is a walk-a-thon of sorts to benefit the American Cancer Society. For 12 hours, starting at 6pm Friday night, teams will walk the track to support cancer patients and survivors in our community. Most will have gotten pledges before they started walking, but many will also be running activities and selling items on-site to raise their money to donate to the ACS. There will be a silent auction, a Euchre tournament, a DJ, food, and lots of fun games and competitions. It's a party atmosphere right up until the luminaria ceremony at 10pm, when we light bags to honor those still fighting cancer or those we've lost to it and have a very moving ceremony to remember why cancer is such a personal cause for many of us. You can purchase these bags for someone you want to honor right up until 9:30 pm. After that ceremony, the fun continues until 6am Saturday.

Why all night? Cancer never sleeps, for one thing. The Relay also symbolizes a cancer patient's journey through the darkness of treatment and into (we hope) the light of recovery.

If you come for no other reason, come for the funnel cakes fried up at the Mason's RV by the scoreboard. They are beyond description. Especially at 1am.

If you can't make it, but have someone you would like to honor or remember with a donation, you can donate online by going to our Relay website, www.acsevents.org/relay/ky/kenton.

If you can make it, try to find me and say hello. I will be the frazzled-looking brunette in glasses.