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TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT
Jun. 8th, 2007 01:09 pmSlept in today, as there'll be No Slumberin' tonight -- I'll be spending my evening, which for tonight's purposes lasts until about 7 a.m. -- at the Canandaigua Academy track for the annual Relay of Life, an American Cancer Society benefit. Once more, I let myself be persuaded into volunteering to captain our workplace's team, in which we theoretically have a member(s) walking the track each hour of the night (though realistically, we get clusters in the first four to six hours, and another cluster around 5-ish a.m.; I'll fill in during the fallow hours but I'll take reasonable breaks).
It really doesn't take much persuading to get me to do such things. I do it for a number of reasons; rather, for a number of people:
* My uncle Don, a teacher, bureaucrat, newspaper columnist and four-term Georgia congressman, who died, I believe from throat cancer, in 1989.
* My second-cousin Becky, who died at 13 to, I believe, leukemia, predeceasing not only her parents but her grandparents and even a great-grandmother, a reversal of what we so often believe to be the natural order of things.
* My father's friend and co-worker Al, who we watched slowly become a shell of his former vibrant, powerful self due to the ravages of bone cancer and the aggressive treatments.
* Bob, another friend and co-worker of my father. Bob watched Al deteriorate and swore that would never happen to him. He kept his word, after his own diagnosis: He shot himself first.
* All the friends, relatives, fellow congregants, even distant acquaintances through filkdom and LJ, who have fought or are fighting cancer right now, and are doing so with hope, grace, wisdom, strength, courage and humor. I'm not going to try to name names; at any rate, any of us could list a number of such people in our own lives. (The Relay begins with a Survivors' Lap, which is always one of the powerful highlights of the evening.)
* Hope. Hope is pretty much always the right side to be on.
If I weren't a completely distracted idiot much of the time, I would have posted our team's relay page for any potential donors before, uh, the day of the event. The Canandaigua relay is at http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=205607 and our team name is the Messengers of Hope. For the most part, we haven't gone with pledges and sponsorships, instead raising funds through team registrations, fundraisers and individual donations, and thus far our little team has raised more than $3,200 toward cancer research, educational programs, palliative care, etc. (The totals listed on the site are outdated and only reflect online donations.)
In other Relay news,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ohiblather will be taking part in the Toronto-area incarnation of the Relay later this month, raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society, as noted here. Unlike certain bloggers named ldwheeler, she had the foresight to, y'know, let people know a couple weeks before her relay.
Should you choose to donate, through whichever of us or anyone else for that matter, please know that your kindness and generosity are much appreciated and very useful, every dime of it.
And now, to work: Need to get ice. And lots of bottled water. And another outside-chair. And do a run-through to make sure I know who's coming when. And pick up our sign. And batteries for the camera (and the discman for those late shifts like 2-4 a.m. when the entertainers/etc. have packed up for the night). And and and and and ...
Words: Taliesen (Stephen Lawhead)
Sounds & Images: "Diamonds and Rust" (Joan Baez)
State O'Mind: Anticipatory
It really doesn't take much persuading to get me to do such things. I do it for a number of reasons; rather, for a number of people:
* My uncle Don, a teacher, bureaucrat, newspaper columnist and four-term Georgia congressman, who died, I believe from throat cancer, in 1989.
* My second-cousin Becky, who died at 13 to, I believe, leukemia, predeceasing not only her parents but her grandparents and even a great-grandmother, a reversal of what we so often believe to be the natural order of things.
* My father's friend and co-worker Al, who we watched slowly become a shell of his former vibrant, powerful self due to the ravages of bone cancer and the aggressive treatments.
* Bob, another friend and co-worker of my father. Bob watched Al deteriorate and swore that would never happen to him. He kept his word, after his own diagnosis: He shot himself first.
* All the friends, relatives, fellow congregants, even distant acquaintances through filkdom and LJ, who have fought or are fighting cancer right now, and are doing so with hope, grace, wisdom, strength, courage and humor. I'm not going to try to name names; at any rate, any of us could list a number of such people in our own lives. (The Relay begins with a Survivors' Lap, which is always one of the powerful highlights of the evening.)
* Hope. Hope is pretty much always the right side to be on.
If I weren't a completely distracted idiot much of the time, I would have posted our team's relay page for any potential donors before, uh, the day of the event. The Canandaigua relay is at http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=205607 and our team name is the Messengers of Hope. For the most part, we haven't gone with pledges and sponsorships, instead raising funds through team registrations, fundraisers and individual donations, and thus far our little team has raised more than $3,200 toward cancer research, educational programs, palliative care, etc. (The totals listed on the site are outdated and only reflect online donations.)
In other Relay news,
ohiblather will be taking part in the Toronto-area incarnation of the Relay later this month, raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society, as noted here. Unlike certain bloggers named ldwheeler, she had the foresight to, y'know, let people know a couple weeks before her relay. Should you choose to donate, through whichever of us or anyone else for that matter, please know that your kindness and generosity are much appreciated and very useful, every dime of it.
And now, to work: Need to get ice. And lots of bottled water. And another outside-chair. And do a run-through to make sure I know who's coming when. And pick up our sign. And batteries for the camera (and the discman for those late shifts like 2-4 a.m. when the entertainers/etc. have packed up for the night). And and and and and ...
Words: Taliesen (Stephen Lawhead)
Sounds & Images: "Diamonds and Rust" (Joan Baez)
State O'Mind: Anticipatory
