Relay theme announced Tuesday

Relay for Life committee members announced this year’s theme Tuesday.

After a presentation about the background of the organization, Emily Eisenhower, co-chair of team development for the relay committee, announced that this year’s theme will be “Lights, Camera, Cure” and that it will take place at 6 p.m. on April 19 on the intramural fields outside of the CPA.

The committee gives the relay a theme each year in an effort to welcome cancer survivors to the event and give them a special night.

These are the people that Adam Jarvis, executive director of the relay committee, the committee and the student body will be relaying for, he said.  “We want to roll out the red carpet for them. We want to make them feel like they are superstars.”

The committee made some changes to this year’s event. One of the changes the committee made involved holding the event outdoors on the intramural fields  instead of in the Mini-Dome.

Jarvis said that the committee made the change in part because of some of the restrictions within the dome. However, the greater reason for the location change was a result of some research the committee did on other campuses.

Jarvis said that he noticed the added excitement of being outdoors when he attended Virginia Tech’s relay. The committee also made the change because they are pushing for the event to reach the community, as well as the campus.

“It’s going to be hard to drive by on that Friday night and not know that we are rocking it out on the intramural field and relaying for the American Cancer Society,” he said.

The committee set the mark of $100,000 as the event’s fund-raising goal this year.

Grace Salyers, co-chair for the relay committee, urged all students and community members to come out in full force.

“We want to see a team from every single niche on campus,” Salyers said. “If people knew the impact they could make, they would come in scores.”

Some teams have already registered and are excited about raising money to fight a disease that affects so many.  
Michael Stockwell, captain of the Quillen College of Medicine team, said that being in the medical field makes this fight personal.

“We see what cancer does and we want to help find a cure,” Stockwell said.

Candy Gullatta, whose daughter is an ETSU alumna, will be relaying because cancer has touched her close to home, she said.

“We have friends and family, people that touch our hearts every day that are affected by this horrible disease, cancer.”