Relay for Life: 10th anniversary draws a big crowd
More than 900 people attended the 10th anniversary of Relay for Life this weekend.
The Relay for Life has bounced back this year for its 10th anniversary after a dip in numbers last year.
Morph suits, chicken outfits, super heroes, and more were all seen at this weekend’s Relay for Life in Hamilton.
Marking its 10th year anniversary, the event had nearly double the number of participants of the previous year.
“Last year we were a bit low, we had about 50 teams entered, normally we have around 100 teams,” communications and events assistant for Cancer Society Waikato Bay of Plenty, Sarah Fitzpatrick said.
“But this year is our 10th anniversary, so a lot of people have said yep we are coming back for 10 years.
This year over 91 teams registered, not including single participants.
“It’s awesome, we are so thrilled, we have around 91 teams this year with 10 people in each team, and we have over 200 survivors, which I think is the biggest number of survivors we have ever had registered,” Fitzpatrick says.
Helen Painting, a cancer survivor, said she has been participating in the event for over seven years. For three of them she was participating in the relay organising committee.
She said, the highlights this year were the “survivors walk and the amount of people that came in costume”.
Hautapu Primary School also attended for their fourth year in a row this year. Tristyn Gretton said that four of their staff members have breast cancer, so they come to show their support.
They also came third in the team fundraising this year.
“We came third for fundraising according to the board – we raised $8000 this year, which is $5000 more than last year,” Gretton said.
The relay has already raised more than $131,000 with the final figure set to rise further
Loraine Jecentho was part of the Pink Panthers team from Matamata.
Her team was dressed in pink pants, pink t-shirts with the logo PPP, pink sunglasses, a black nose and whiskers and, to top it all off, fluffy pink ears.
She said she loves “seeing everyone supporting [the relay] and putting in the effort is just great”.
