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Some of my best High School memories were during Relay for Life on a team with many of my closest friends. This years event was very different for me though. I was on the team Courageous Crowns which was captained by the beautiful rock star volunteer Laura Pankratz, and many of our team mates were fabulous princesses and of course my beautiful Outstanding Teen Alice!
Our team activity was face painting and luckily Alice and the princesses are incredibly artistic because Laura and I...not so much.
Ashley being an awesome princess face painter!
We had a blast walking around the track, meeting everyone, and keeping the ball of hope rolling around the track. There were so many great activities throughout the day on stage, and one even prompted a little reunion for me! In kindergarten Taj was by far the coolest kid in school, and because of my peanut allergies, and the lack of understanding by our school of anaphylaxis, Taj and I had lot of lunch dates. We both knew what it was like to be a little different so he always had peanut free lunches so no one had to eat alone. As a child I understood that he was in a wheelchair so he couldn't do everything the same as I could, but now with my MDA work I understand so much more. Taj has SMA which is one of the many diseases MDA helps with, I didn't realize until he said it in the song in the video below that we have certainly traveled in the same circles for years, and that MDA was a part of my life way before I knew it! Taj is a one of a kind guy who never let his diagnosis stop him and now he is an AMAZING hip-hop artist and aspires to also be a motivational speaker. His group K-town is awesome and when you listen to the video you will see why I am a huge fan!
As Relay went on and the sun set it was time for the crowns to get down to business and get ready for the most difficult portion of Relay for me, the luminaria ceremony. As a lot of you already know a friend of mine and one of my fathers wrestlers passed away because of soft tissue Sarcoma around Easter, Michael Kroppman had a huge team at Relay this year and he probably had the most luminaria bags there.
RIP buddy.
These bags surround the track and each have a candle in them, they all represent someone who is fighting, lost their lives to, or survived cancer. Laura, Alice, and I had the honor to light all of these bags. During the actual ceremony there was a slide show of people from our area who had lost their battle, it was definitely the toughest portion of the event for me and probably everyone else as well. This was followed by a lap of silence with all 739 participants.
Lighting candles and talking to Kevin Hume my favorite reporter!
After the ceremony, despite the tears, everyone was reinvigorated and impassioned about what we were doing. There were more night time walkers this year than I had ever seen! Together we raised $103,417! Not too shabby for little Lake County if you ask me. All of the funds raised by this event go to the American Cancer Society to help raise awareness and fund research. Overall it was an amazing event and I am so glad I got to be a part of it!
Thank you Lake County for supporting this great event year after year!
My awesome shirt made by Miss Santa Clara, check out her blog at
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