Molly O’Keefe/Winonan

The Winona State University Colleges Against Cancer club  is rallying students in the fight against cancer in this week’s Relay for Life.

The event will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, April 26 in McCown Gymnasium.

Relay for Life is the largest event that the club holds to raise money for cancer research. Students create teams and raise money. A big event follows.

Relay for Life is an overnight event for teams to gather and take turns walking or running laps to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Each team tries to have one member on the track throughout the evening.

“This is the 10th Anniversary of Relay for Life at Winona State and the 100th Anniversary of the American Cancer Society, so it is a pretty big deal,” Liz Brunner, president of Colleges Against Cancer, said.

Relay for Life starts during the fall with the formation of teams. The teams spend the months leading up to the relay fundraising.

There will be a silent auction of items donated by the teams before the relay starts. Each team will also set up different vendors stations to sell various goods.

Whitney Hopfauf, a member of the Winona State “Pace Makers” Relay for Life team, said her team will be selling chocolate-covered strawberries.

Beyond the fundraising that goes on at the event there will also be a few speakers and some ceremonies to honor those people affected by cancer.

Zach Nelson, co-president of Colleges Against Cancer, said the event is broken up into three parts: Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back.

Celebrate is the opening ceremony in honor of cancer survivors. The Remembrance ceremony is a luminary ceremony where participants light candles in bags along the track. Each bag is dedicated to someone who has had cancer and a slide show of cancer survivor pictures is shown.

“Fight Back is kind of the fun part. We have games and theme laps, this year we are having a Thrift Shop lap,” Nelson said.

“We stay up all night to represent the fight that people affected by cancer never stop. It is definitely something you have to see to fully understand,” Brunner said. “The Fight Back part of the relay motivates people and reminds them why we are here: to end cancer.”

Nelson said Relay for Life is the biggest fundraiser on campus. Last year the club raised around $56,000 with 500 people who signed up.

So far the 43 teams and 515 participants have raised $39,042.64 and they expect to raise even more in the days leading up to the event and at the day of the event.

Relay for Life welcomes everyone and is free. Staying up all night is optional.

“Even if you just come for an hour I guarantee it will make you think about cancer and all of the people that are affected by it,” Brunner said. “Everyone knows someone who has been impacted by cancer and we do this because we have a passion to end it.”

Contact Molly at [email protected]