Relay for Life - American Cancer Society

This past weekend Craig, Josh, Annie and I walked with my mom in the ACS Relay for Life in Almaden Valley. We walked as a part of a team from South Hills, the church where I was raised. This was such a neat experience for all of us. It felt so good to do something tangible - everyone has been touched by cancer in some way and this gave us a chance to help make a difference.

This spring my 92 year old grandma - Antoinette Petrov - went through 5 weeks of chemo and radiation treatments. Just tonight we learned the good news - they got it all! Craig's cousin Marina also recently went through chemo. We had the opportunity to purchase luminarias in their honor.

Relay is a 24 hour event but we weren't there the whole time (hence the name). We were there for the opening ceremonies and watched the "survivor lap" (survivor shirts are purple, supporters wore white, if you are looking at the pictures in the slideshow to the left) before walking our one hour shift. We returned at night for the luminaria ceremony - complete with a guest speaker and some bag pipe players who did a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace, and many other great songs - before walking some more. What a beautiful visual - a 1/4 mile track lined with luminarias - each representing someone's mother, father, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa or son or daughter. And then in the bleachers - more, spelling out the word "hope".

Together we can make a difference.