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Getting Involved

I’ve been looking for something to do in the community so that I can meet some new people and get involved, and last week I found just that.  I’m excited to be the new publicity chair for Panama City’s Relay for Life.  But it’s not a position I just fell into carelessly.  It’s one that comes with a load of responsibility and emotion for me.

I’d been involved in Relay for Life during college, more-so last year than this, because I had a friend who was diagnosed with leukemia.  She fought for a long time… and my friends and I fought for her, raising as much money as we could.  With the help of generous donations from the community, I was able to raise the most money on my team, and as a whole, Virginia Commonwealth University pushed well-over our goal and raised over $20,000 in our first year hosting the event.  My friends and I adopted the slogan, “Do it for Yin!”

In August of last year, Yin lost her battle and I did something no one should ever have to do…spoke at the funeral of my 21-year old friend.  I remember feeling angry that I had tried so hard and somehow it still didn’t save her.  The next year, my friends and I talked about starting a team, and we went to the first couple of meetings, but we just didn’t have the same spirit and hope that we’d had the year before.

But, I still attended the event and was surprised to see how much it’d grown and how successful it was once more.  Looking around at the faces of survivors, some of them 5-year-old children, I wished I’d been more a part of it. 

Yin was the kind of person who never lost hope.  Somehow even though she was in the hospital when we visited her, she’d actually cheer us up.  Always smiling, always talking, she made it look so easy.  She would’ve wanted me to keep fighting for everyone else who suffers from this disease and so I am proud to say I’m getting back up to continue the battle.  I hope you all get the opportunity to attend, if not Panama City’s relay, then one of the other relays in your community. 

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