I meant to write about this a few weeks back when I heard the news, but I’m finally getting a chance now to talk about it. During my time at Penn, I was involved in an organization called Penn Relay For Life. Relay For Life is a national event that is held at locations all around the country where money is raised for the American Cancer Society. Looking at Wikipedia’s definition, Relay is “an overnight event designed to spread awareness of cancer prevention, treatments and cures, celebrate survivorship and raise money for research to find more cures for cancer.”

My mom is alive today because of the work done by organizations like the American Cancer Society. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, and through treatments of chemotherapy and radiation, she fought through it and is a survivor.

When I was in 10th grade, the bank my mom worked for at the time was raising money and participating in an event called “Relay For Life”. It was held at Toms River South high school and was my first Relay experience. That year, my brother and I raised money by selling straws for $3, and with every purchase you got a free root beer float.

In 2004, during my freshman year at Penn, I received an e-mail saying that Relay was going to be starting up at Penn. I jumped on board are started to get involved in the planning. It wasn’t what would be considered a banner year in any sense, as we only had about 50 participants and raised just $1,000, but it was a starting point for a period of tremendous growth. Last year, in 2007, we had over 1,000 people join us at Franklin Field as we raised $135,000.

A few weeks ago was the annual Pennsylvania Relay For Life Youth Summit, and Penn Relay For Life took home some hardware:
#1 College Event in Pennsylvania
#1 Online Fundraiser (for the entire state of Pennsylvania)
#2 Percentage Growth vs. Prior Year (174% increase)

A big congratulations to all of the Planning Committee from last year. The growth of Penn Relay For Life is charted below.

I also made liberal use of the trendline function in Excel and, assuming current trends continue and there are no limiting factors, in 2040 Penn Relay For Life will be raking in $332,534,551.02. Go Relay! For kicks, here’s that chart below, too.

Penn Relay For Life 2008
April 4, 2008, 8pm-8am
Franklin Field
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

This year I’m involved in Relay as the Alumni Chair. My job is to get Penn Alums involved by both participating in and volunteering for the event. The Penn Alumni Team page is where we’re asking Penn Alums to sign up. If you’re interested in volunteering for the event, drop our event chairs a line at pennrelayforlife@gmail.com. I’ll be writing more about the Alum initiative and efforts later on.

Each year I give my time and my efforts to Relay because the money raised goes to research and medical breakthroughs. These breakthroughs are the things that allow my mom to still be with me today, and I’m forever thankful for that.