“Red, White and Blue, Together We’ll Pull Through”

By Stephen Kirkley
Staff Writer

“Red, White and Blue, Together We’ll Pull Through.” This is the new theme for the 2002 Baldwin County Relay for Life. Yes, everyone, it is time for Relay for Life once again, and this year plans to be bigger and better than ever.
Relay will be held on April 19-20 at Walter B. Williams. The opening ceremonies begin with the Survivors’ Lap on Friday morning, carrying on throughout the night with entertainment, food, and celebrations and ending with the Survivors’ Lap on Saturday morning.
Six years ago Baldwin County’s Relay for Life consisted of 13 teams and was held on the front campus of Georgia College & State University. Since then, Relay has been moved to Walter B. Williams and now consists of 134 teams and counting. A week before Relay, people are still calling Kendall Stiles, director of the GIVE Center and Baldwin County’s Relay chair, asking if they can enter their team.
“We have schools. We have churches. We have businesses. You name it; we have it. Relay is coming up in a week, and we are still having calls saying, ‘Hey, Kendall, can I become a part of Relay; can we get a team?’” said Stiles. “Yes, you can still sign up a team at Relay if that’s something that you want to do.”
Few people on this campus probably realize exactly how much of a presence student involvement creates at Relay. Baldwin County’s Relay has been nationally recognized for its youth involvement. This is largely due to the outstanding efforts of our campus and its students’ involvement in Relay for Life. Of the 134 teams at Relay this year, between 30 and 40 of those teams are from the college. This is very impressive considering the number of businesses, churches and other organizations in the community. The students’ involvement isn’t necessarily limited to walking and raising money. GC&SU students are now involving themselves with service learning.
“This is where they are actually meeting the needs of the community through their academic classes,” said Stiles.
GC&SU’s fine students are not the only campus members who are involved with Relay. There are three big parts of GC&SU’s success that should also be recognized along with the students. One is Dr. Ginger Carter, who is the head of the publicity for Relay. The second is Dr. Barbara Funke, who directs the Smart Shop. The Smart Shop handles the educational side of cancer. Third is the BIDS classes held by the School of Business. The School of Business is requiring all junior level students to do a service-learning project, and a lot of those students are working with Relay.
“We probably have close to 40 students with Relay, and they are doing everything from the website, to our accounting, to our registration, to a new thing called Relay Bucks,” said Stiles.
Baldwin County’s Relay is getting bigger and bigger every year. Last year’s Relay had 110 teams with around 1800 participants. This year there are presently 134 teams with over 2200 participants. This large increase is seen in the number of churches that have decided to participate. Last year there were about six; this year there are close to 20 involved. Stiles attributes this to the family-oriented atmosphere that Relay provides.
“We want people to come that are two and three, and we want people to come that are a hundred and two,” said Stiles.
Activities will be held throughout the middle of the night. The favorite mascot contes,t along with the new Miss-ter Relay contest, is sure to give everyone a thrill. The Miss-ter Relay contest involves gentlemen who are selected to dress up like ladies and go around and collect money. The guy with the most money is crowned Miss-ter Relay. Free Bruster’s Ice Cream will be given out along with Snowbiz and Krispy Cr?me.
A good time is guaranteed to anyone who shows up. Hey, with free food, cross- dressing, exercise, socializing, contests and entertainment, this event certainly sells itself, and it’s all for a good cause – to fight cancer. Everyone is invited, and everyone is strongly encouraged to come. No one should miss one of the biggest weekends of the year. If you do, it’s a good chance you will be the only one not there.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 19 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry