Light a candle, save a life

MILFORD — For a nominal contribution you can honor a family member or friend who has lost the fight against cancer, with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. A candle in a paper bag with the name of your loved one will be placed trackside at this year’s Relay for Life, which takes place May 31-June 1 at Delaware Valley High School, in Milford. (The Relay for Life will be held at various other sites in the tri-state area, too, along with luminaria; see information below for locations.) To buy luminaria online for the Milford event, visit www.events.cancer.org\rflpadelawarevalley. Alternatively, download the form on the Web site and mail it to the address on the bottom of the form, or attend a Relay for Life in person, buy the luminaria there, and inscribe the bag yourself. “My brother was only 13 when our father died,” says Rebecca DeGraw, coordinator of this year’s Relay for Life in Milford. “By raising money for research, we want to spare other families from having to witness the painful, five-year decline that Dad suffered.” The Relay starts at 10 a.m. on May 31 and will feature Diamond DJ and live music by U4ea, Will Hoppey, Full Speed Ahead, and Spudmonk. There will also be raffles, a tricky tray, ten-minute massages (courtesy of Fred Maher of Bella Vista Day Spa in Westtown, N.Y.), $5 haircuts (by Tina Spencer of Lemon Tree, in Westfall Township), and a concession stand with food. So you could think of the Relay for Life as a 24-hour carnival, and it is, but it’s more than that. Just for starters, the war on cancer is of critical importance, and all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. Cancer survivors and their caregivers will attend a dinner at 6:30 p.m., on Saturday. At dusk, survivors will walk once around the track in a moving ceremony, and the luminaria will be lit. Then teams who are doing laps to raise funds for cancer research resume their efforts through the night. Beyond Milford, towns in this tri-state area that are hosting Relay for Life events include Newton, N.J.; Goshen, Grahamsville, and Pine Bush, N.Y.; and Honesdale and Stroudsburg. Still others are holding events, too, and they don’t all occur on the same weekend, so it’s possible to attend more than one. To find a Relay for Life in your area, visit http://relay.acsevents.org. For more information on the DVHS Relay, visit www.events.cancer.org\rflpadelawarevalley. Place your events on the calendar at pikecountycourier.com.