By KEN de la BASTIDE
Despite high humidity and temperatures hovering near 90, hundreds of people will walk around the track at Kokomo High School this weekend raising funds to find a cure for cancer.
Samantha Justice, 14, was participating in the Relay for Life for the third year. She was walking for her grandmother and mother, both of whom are cancer survivors.
“Just knowing that I supported the cause,” Justice said was the reason she walks. “I’ll walk until I get tired.”
Circling the inside of the track are 1,700 luminaries in honor of cancer survivors and in memory of those that lost a battle to cancer. Many are decorated to honor the survivors or the deceased.
Groups were raising money in different ways from selling food and drink items to selling kisses for $1.
Lisa Winter, an oncology nurse at Howard Regional Health System, has been walking for 11 years and her husband, Rick, for eight years in memory of her aunt who was diagnosed with cancer in 1999.
“That made it hit home,” she said.
The Winters are walking with the Chapel Hill Christian Church, which has raised more than $10,000.
“More people are getting touched by cancer and there are more survivors,” Rick Winter said of the growth of the Kokomo event.
The couple planned to walk for several hours throughout the Relay for Life event.
Eric Richard helped organize a team from the four Kokomo-area Walgreens stores, which raised approximately $4,000.
Richard has been walking in Kokomo and prior to that walked at the Relay for Life event in Logansport.
“My mom is a cancer survivor,” he said. “There are more people aware of cancer today.”
Richard said he will make sure that someone from the Walgreens team is on the track at all times.
Cara McKellar, chairman for Relay for Life, said about 5,000 people will participate in the Kokomo walk. The goal is to raise $375,000. Last year the walk raised $263,000. She said sponsors have contributed $60,000 this year.
McKellar said she has been involved with Relay for Life for 14 years and it takes about 11 months to organize the event.
She said most of the money remains in Howard County to be used for various programs of the American Cancer Society.
“There are a lot of people living a long time with cancer,” McKellar said. “The funds go to research and better screening tools.”
McKellar said she started walking with her husband in memory of his mother, and he is now a cancer survivor.
“It started as a family event for us,” she said.
If you go:
• Today: 2 p.m., closing ceremony
