ReLay FoR LiFe SJSu 2oo6...
WaRNiNG: Do not read unless you have some time to do so. This is the result of all my hard work in Relay, (me and my committee ROCKS!) so I rambled on for daaays. Remember.. I warned you. =P
It all started w/ the opening survivor lap. Us 7 survivors lead the beginning of the lap and got the ball rolling. We had 5 bands play, one of which was called The Ken Oak band, and they were really good! They were on the soundtrack of the movie “She’s The Man” and came all the way from L.A. to play for us. Freakin awesome! You should check em out on cellorock.com.
Another band was a hip hop rapper group, who were doing their freestylin’ and stuff, it was ok, but a lot of cussing and ‘nigga this, nigga that’, a little inappropriate for the occasion, but whatev. THEN! After they were finishing their set, one of them goes: “Happy 4/21, hope y’all are still blazin’ it up” I was like.. whaaaat.. the fuck?! Did he just say that at an American Cancer Society event?? Totally amazed me. Imbecile. =O
Anyhow, other activities included a Polynesian dancing group performance, a salsa instructor teaching the audience how to salsa, (You KNOW I was all over that! I danced w/ my former dance class partner, Chris. We weren’t even paying attention to the lesson, just dancing from what we knew from class. He got like eleventeen times better b/c he is taking the 2nd course, but it was sooooo much fun! I totally miss taking dance) and quite a few guys surprisingly got into it. Word to the males out there.. guys who can dance, or even attempt to dance = hot! =)
During the night we had a DJ play for us, I was going around w/ Melissa trying to sell glow sticks, I was shakin’ my ass all over that track like there was no tomorrow. =D I seriously must’ve danced around for like an hour. It was sooooo much fun!! It’s too bad I’m not a good enough dancer to where I could get paid to just dance. =) Needless to say, my legs and knees hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t care, I will always be dancing. =) I watched ppl play frisbee, volleyball, poker and laser tag. It was a wealth of activities that it was impossible for anyone to be bored. The entertainment committee, Kim and Chris did an AWESOME job getting everything together for us. =)
Our luminaria ceremony was the absolute best it could’ve been. I think that was my favorite part of the whole event. We set up the luminaria bags (for those of you who have never been to a Relay, they are white paper lunch sacks w/ a candle inside, which they decorate w/ stuff like “In memory of…” or “In honor of… keep fighting!” stuff like that for cancer survivors and those who have lost their battle to cancer, just as a “moment of silence” kinda thing.. really powerful BTW) and there weren’t that many, so they just lit up one section of our track, but before we walk around the track and give them our respects, we have a ceremony. Ours consisted of a slideshow w/ pictures of survivors and ppl who aren’t w/ us anymore, and the rest was basically thrown together last minute. Our survivor who was supposed to speak hadn’t showed up yet and they asked me if I wanted to go up. I was like “uhh.. I have nothing prepared, I wouldn’t know what to say!” so then 4 of our committee members just sat up @ the stage and started telling their reasons for Relaying. Our speaker finally showed up and so it was 5 college students up there, talking w/ their voices all shaky, or they started crying b/c they were sharing what was deep inside of them. It was so nice and intimate b/c the audience was completely silent and totally taking in what these ppl were talking about. It inspired a lot of stuff in me and I wanted to share so I decided to go up there and talk. When I went up there, the emotion was so strong between us all that I completely lost what I was going to say. I kept saying “uhh..” and stuff, b/c I couldn’t think of all the things I had wanted to say so I was like “wow.. I guess I feel kinda dumb for having come up here..” and everyone started laughing. Tony was trying to prompt me by asking questions, but most of what I had wanted to say was just gone. =/ After we all spoke, it was time to walk the track. I walked it w/ Tony and man, that guy is awesome! We shared stuff w/ each other, like about my treatment and personal stuff like that and it was really nice b/c I was completely comfortable talking to him, even though he was practically a stranger to me. I met a few ppl who I totally clicked w/ and I’m really glad that Relay was able to bring me a few more friends who I hope to stay in touch w/ throughout the rest of college. The ceremony was absolutely wonderful and we will never have one that intimate again, b/c hopefully next year we double how many ppl we have. =) It was definitely a worthwhile experience that I will never forget. =D
We had movies going during the wee hours of the morning. Office Space, Anchorman, Family Guy. Good times. There was face painting, like really good face painting. I wanted to get my face painted, but I ran out of time. There was a couple high school teams who came out and took part of our event. They were track teams, so a lot of them RAN through their laps, instead of just walking, which is awesome. There was an Improv comedy group that came and did a performance for us and I don’t know if they were really as hilarious as I found them, b/c I had no sleep the whole night, I might’ve been delirious. =P I went for 27 hrs. straight w/o going down, and then took a 2 hr. nap and hung out w/ my friends till 5 a.m. that same night, hahaha. But the comedy group did a good job. They were like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and got a suggestion from the audience and went w/ it for 4 different skits, it was pretty funny. The word was “Snozberry” and they did their skits based off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, good stuff. =P I actually want to go to one of their shows, they are playing in downtown and I might try to get tickets. =) They have a website too, I have to find it and I'll post it next time.
Then we had our closing ceremony so that morning I had some time to write out a little speech of what I had forgotten to say the night before and thank all of my committee members for all the blood, sweat and tears everyone put in. I loved that I was completely comfortable up @ the stage and wasn't even nervous talking in front of all those ppl. =) Nicole came and it totally meant the world to me, even though she just watched me speak for 10 mins. It's hard b/c this whole Relay business is really personal to me, b/c well.. I had cancer. So when I want to get ppl into it and they are just like "oh cool.." it's like.. uhh, do you realize that if ppl in the past hadn't done this kind of thing I wouldn't be here today? I try not to let it bug me b/c truthfully, if ppl don't wanna be there.. I don't want them to be there. Why force them? It just kinda strikes a chord w/ me, ya know? So THANK YOU PUNKIN HEAD! *MuaH* You kick ass! =) And for those of you who weren't able to help in some way.. I still have another Relay coming up. Tracy's Relay for Life = May 20-21 and I'm still collecting donations. =) You are also welcome to come and see how the Relay business works.
All in all Relay for Life SJSU was a definite success and it laid the ground work for next year’s Relay. =) We raised over $8,000 (and still counting, compared to the $98 last year's Relay brought) and I’m pretty effing proud of me and my committee members. We did a kick ass job considering the limited man power we had and now we know what to expect for next year and preparation will go into effect WAYYYY earlier. =D I’ll post some more pictures next time. (Haven't had time to load all of them to my comp) For now, enjoy these! =)
Some Relay committee members very pensive and hard @ work w/ our thinking caps on. =? (From L to R: Mike, moi, Ron, Maeley, Angel and Tony)
Relay committee very chillaxed and Jenn’s cheesiness hard @ work. =D (From L to R: Dom, silly moi, Sarah (breast cancer survivor), Dom’s dad way in the back and Melissa w/ a funky look on her face, haha)
CIAO!
It all started w/ the opening survivor lap. Us 7 survivors lead the beginning of the lap and got the ball rolling. We had 5 bands play, one of which was called The Ken Oak band, and they were really good! They were on the soundtrack of the movie “She’s The Man” and came all the way from L.A. to play for us. Freakin awesome! You should check em out on cellorock.com.
Another band was a hip hop rapper group, who were doing their freestylin’ and stuff, it was ok, but a lot of cussing and ‘nigga this, nigga that’, a little inappropriate for the occasion, but whatev. THEN! After they were finishing their set, one of them goes: “Happy 4/21, hope y’all are still blazin’ it up” I was like.. whaaaat.. the fuck?! Did he just say that at an American Cancer Society event?? Totally amazed me. Imbecile. =O
Anyhow, other activities included a Polynesian dancing group performance, a salsa instructor teaching the audience how to salsa, (You KNOW I was all over that! I danced w/ my former dance class partner, Chris. We weren’t even paying attention to the lesson, just dancing from what we knew from class. He got like eleventeen times better b/c he is taking the 2nd course, but it was sooooo much fun! I totally miss taking dance) and quite a few guys surprisingly got into it. Word to the males out there.. guys who can dance, or even attempt to dance = hot! =)
During the night we had a DJ play for us, I was going around w/ Melissa trying to sell glow sticks, I was shakin’ my ass all over that track like there was no tomorrow. =D I seriously must’ve danced around for like an hour. It was sooooo much fun!! It’s too bad I’m not a good enough dancer to where I could get paid to just dance. =) Needless to say, my legs and knees hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t care, I will always be dancing. =) I watched ppl play frisbee, volleyball, poker and laser tag. It was a wealth of activities that it was impossible for anyone to be bored. The entertainment committee, Kim and Chris did an AWESOME job getting everything together for us. =)
Our luminaria ceremony was the absolute best it could’ve been. I think that was my favorite part of the whole event. We set up the luminaria bags (for those of you who have never been to a Relay, they are white paper lunch sacks w/ a candle inside, which they decorate w/ stuff like “In memory of…” or “In honor of… keep fighting!” stuff like that for cancer survivors and those who have lost their battle to cancer, just as a “moment of silence” kinda thing.. really powerful BTW) and there weren’t that many, so they just lit up one section of our track, but before we walk around the track and give them our respects, we have a ceremony. Ours consisted of a slideshow w/ pictures of survivors and ppl who aren’t w/ us anymore, and the rest was basically thrown together last minute. Our survivor who was supposed to speak hadn’t showed up yet and they asked me if I wanted to go up. I was like “uhh.. I have nothing prepared, I wouldn’t know what to say!” so then 4 of our committee members just sat up @ the stage and started telling their reasons for Relaying. Our speaker finally showed up and so it was 5 college students up there, talking w/ their voices all shaky, or they started crying b/c they were sharing what was deep inside of them. It was so nice and intimate b/c the audience was completely silent and totally taking in what these ppl were talking about. It inspired a lot of stuff in me and I wanted to share so I decided to go up there and talk. When I went up there, the emotion was so strong between us all that I completely lost what I was going to say. I kept saying “uhh..” and stuff, b/c I couldn’t think of all the things I had wanted to say so I was like “wow.. I guess I feel kinda dumb for having come up here..” and everyone started laughing. Tony was trying to prompt me by asking questions, but most of what I had wanted to say was just gone. =/ After we all spoke, it was time to walk the track. I walked it w/ Tony and man, that guy is awesome! We shared stuff w/ each other, like about my treatment and personal stuff like that and it was really nice b/c I was completely comfortable talking to him, even though he was practically a stranger to me. I met a few ppl who I totally clicked w/ and I’m really glad that Relay was able to bring me a few more friends who I hope to stay in touch w/ throughout the rest of college. The ceremony was absolutely wonderful and we will never have one that intimate again, b/c hopefully next year we double how many ppl we have. =) It was definitely a worthwhile experience that I will never forget. =D
We had movies going during the wee hours of the morning. Office Space, Anchorman, Family Guy. Good times. There was face painting, like really good face painting. I wanted to get my face painted, but I ran out of time. There was a couple high school teams who came out and took part of our event. They were track teams, so a lot of them RAN through their laps, instead of just walking, which is awesome. There was an Improv comedy group that came and did a performance for us and I don’t know if they were really as hilarious as I found them, b/c I had no sleep the whole night, I might’ve been delirious. =P I went for 27 hrs. straight w/o going down, and then took a 2 hr. nap and hung out w/ my friends till 5 a.m. that same night, hahaha. But the comedy group did a good job. They were like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and got a suggestion from the audience and went w/ it for 4 different skits, it was pretty funny. The word was “Snozberry” and they did their skits based off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, good stuff. =P I actually want to go to one of their shows, they are playing in downtown and I might try to get tickets. =) They have a website too, I have to find it and I'll post it next time.
Then we had our closing ceremony so that morning I had some time to write out a little speech of what I had forgotten to say the night before and thank all of my committee members for all the blood, sweat and tears everyone put in. I loved that I was completely comfortable up @ the stage and wasn't even nervous talking in front of all those ppl. =) Nicole came and it totally meant the world to me, even though she just watched me speak for 10 mins. It's hard b/c this whole Relay business is really personal to me, b/c well.. I had cancer. So when I want to get ppl into it and they are just like "oh cool.." it's like.. uhh, do you realize that if ppl in the past hadn't done this kind of thing I wouldn't be here today? I try not to let it bug me b/c truthfully, if ppl don't wanna be there.. I don't want them to be there. Why force them? It just kinda strikes a chord w/ me, ya know? So THANK YOU PUNKIN HEAD! *MuaH* You kick ass! =) And for those of you who weren't able to help in some way.. I still have another Relay coming up. Tracy's Relay for Life = May 20-21 and I'm still collecting donations. =) You are also welcome to come and see how the Relay business works.
All in all Relay for Life SJSU was a definite success and it laid the ground work for next year’s Relay. =) We raised over $8,000 (and still counting, compared to the $98 last year's Relay brought) and I’m pretty effing proud of me and my committee members. We did a kick ass job considering the limited man power we had and now we know what to expect for next year and preparation will go into effect WAYYYY earlier. =D I’ll post some more pictures next time. (Haven't had time to load all of them to my comp) For now, enjoy these! =)
Some Relay committee members very pensive and hard @ work w/ our thinking caps on. =? (From L to R: Mike, moi, Ron, Maeley, Angel and Tony)
Relay committee very chillaxed and Jenn’s cheesiness hard @ work. =D (From L to R: Dom, silly moi, Sarah (breast cancer survivor), Dom’s dad way in the back and Melissa w/ a funky look on her face, haha)
CIAO!