Relay for Life's annual fundraiser tomorrow night

The annual Kilgore Relay For Life, the fund raising event for the American Cancer Society, is scheduled for tomorrow night and will run through Saturday morning at the Kilgore Youth Softball and Soccer field on SH 135 North.

The event will kick off on at 7 p.m. and end Saturday at 7 a.m. During that 12-hour period, hundreds of Kilgore residents will walk around a course and take part in activities to help raise money for cancer research.

This is the sixth Kilgore Relay. The previous five events have generated approximately $451,000 in total donations to the American Cancer Society, and this year the Kilgore committee is hoping to add an additional $100,000-plus to that total.

Rachel Conner is the chairman of Relay for the second year in a row. Conner said the plans are ready for this year, and the nearly 30 teams are conducting fund raisers to get ready for the April festivity.

Luminaries are also a big part of Relay, and Jennifer Russell is in charge of this part of Relay. Luminaries are bags with sand and candles in them that are detailed in honor or in memory of a person who has survived cancer, is battling cancer or who has died due to cancer.

The luminary ceremony is held at 9 p.m. on the night of Relay and involves the lighting of the candles as people walk around the course and look at the bags. Event planners place the bags around the course before the start of Relay so they will be ready for the ceremony. It is a moving part of Relay with the lights are all turned off and only the lighted candles illuminating the course. In the past, a singer has rendered a song as people strolled around the track.

For the third consecutive year, the Luminary Ceremony has been underwritten by the Halliburton office in Kilgore. This company has been one of the major sponsors for Relay for three or more years, and they have not only underwritten this event but also had a team and successful fund raisers as well.

Hundreds of Kilgore residents will turn out for Relay, and another inspiring part of the event is the survivor lap. Approximately 100 cancer survivors will walk the first lap of the evening at 7 p.m. on Friday night. These are local people who have battled cancer and won the fight, and each year people are surprised at some of the people they see walking during this lap. People they did not even know had cancer are walking reminders that cancer touches everyone.

Several hundred people will spend the night at the softball and soccer complex, walking laps to remind everyone that cancer does not sleep. Some years it has been wet and some years it has been cold, but there are people who walk continuously through the night to aid in the fund raising effort.

There will be activities to help the people staying all night remain alert and entertained, and there will also be fund-raising events evening to help reach the goal.