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Greenville to host Relay for Life

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By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

The Greenville Faculty Association will host the 2025 Relay for Life walkathon for Greene and Columbia counties. Contributed photo

GREENVILLE — The Greenville Faculty Association from the school district will host the 2025 Relay for Life walkathon for Greene and Columbia counties.

The event, which raises money for the American Cancer Society, has been held at Coxsackie-Athens High School for the past two years, but this year will move to the Greenville High School campus.

Co-leader Tonya Frickey, the district’s K-12 instructional technology integration specialist, presented plans for the event at the Greenville Board of Education’s Jan. 13 meeting.

Relay for Life will take place on the high school track on Saturday, May 17, from 2-10 p.m. Participants will complete loops on the track, with donors sponsoring them to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Frickey is co-lead for the event along with Jill Snyder and Wendy McElway. Serving on the Relay for Life Committee are Brynda Shultes, Alyson Bjorkman, Laura Calvino, Michele Neary, Val Kappel, Margaret Robertson and Sue Downey-Graudons.

This is the QR code to visit the website. Contributed photo

Tatum Lampman, an outspoken cancer survivor, is the student liaison and will be team leader for the Gold Together Team, which will represent childhood cancer impacting youngsters ages 1-19.

“Statistics show that childhood cancer is the leading cause of death among children, which is just a sad statistic,” Frickey said. “We are going to do what we can here to raise some money and to fund the cause and a cure.”

Relay for Life is held in locations across the country and raises funds to support the American Cancer Society.

“Relay for Life is more that a walk — it’s a chance to come together in your local community to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against cancer as we come together for every life,” according to the Relay for Life website.

There will be a series of events happening on May 17, the day of the walkathon. That day will also be the day of the high school prom, so the campus is expected to be a busy place on May 17, Frickey said.

Planning for the event is just getting underway.

“We have some exciting things planned, so we are going to see what we can pull off,” Frickey said.

In the lead-up to the event, there are lots of ways people in the community can get involved. Those who want to support and honor people with cancer or aid in the search for a cure can join or create a team, recruit for their team, sponsor a team member, purchase a luminaria in memory of a loved one with cancer, purchase a track sign, participate in a fundraiser, purchase a T-shirt or share the news of the event on social media or elsewhere.

There is a QR code that can direct the user’s cellphone to the Greenville Relay for Life website to see how they can get involved.

“Basically, we would love for you to spread the word, to participate in any fundraisers — some of them will be very unique — that we’ll get going in the next few months,” Frickey said. “We’ll design a T-shirt — there will be a T-shirt [design] contest among the students here at Greenville. We will pick a winner and share their art. It’s really a huge celebration.”

The Relay for Life walkathon got its start in 1985 when Dr. Gordon “Gordy” Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Washington, raising money to help the American Cancer Society, according to the organization’s website. Klatt walked and ran more than 83 miles and raised $27,000 through pledges to help in the fight against cancer.

Anyone wishing to donate, join a team or get involved with Greenville’s Relay for Life can check out the accompanying QR code on this page.

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