Ruth Workman had three important reasons to spend a recent Saturday at the Wadsworth High School track.
“I lost my dad, my mother and my husband to cancer,” she said. “For me, it’s personal.”
The Wadsworth resident was one of several hundred people participating in the Relay For Life of Wadsworth.
The Wadsworth event this past weekend was among numerous Relay For Life programs taking place at communities throughout the region starting in the spring and continuing through the summer as part the American Cancer Society’s largest annual fundraiser.
“It’s communities taking up the fight,” said Alexandra Houser Vukoder, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society’s East Central Division, which includes Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Relay For Life started in 1985, when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon, walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Wash., to raise $27,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Since then, the concept has grown to attract more than 4 million people who participate in relays in 5,200 communities across the United States and in 20 countries. Collectively, the Relay For Life events raise about $400 million each year.
Through last week, almost $32 million had been raised this year at Relay For Life events in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
A total of 89 relays have been held throughout Northeast Ohio this year, raising $6.2 million, according to Jo-Ann Crank, regional vice president of the American Cancer Society. The Akron/Youngstown region alone has generated $4.1 million.
“It’s a premier fundraiser,” she said. “It’s amazing how the communities come together to rally around Relay For Life. It’s life changing for so many people when they attend and they’re there to celebrate people who are battling.”
Marsha Smith’s family started a relay team called the F.E.M. Squad several years ago when the Wadsworth woman was battling breast cancer.
Whenever she sent out updates about her cancer fight to family and friends, she would sign the emails, “Love, Marsha, the original Fighter of Evil Masses.”
Smith died in 2012 at age 57. Her family continues to gather at the Relay For Life of Wadsworth each year to raise money and walk the track in shifts for 24 straight hours in her honor.
“We felt this would be a great thing to bring our family together, to support her and raise awareness,” said her niece, Amanda Zaharof of Sterling Heights, Mich.
The money raised at Northeast Ohio events funds cancer research, a 24-hour support line for patients and their families, a Road to Recovery program that provides cancer patients with rides to their treatment appointments, and other support services.
Crank said part of the success of the Relay For Life fundraiser is that each relay is different.
“Each event reflects its community,” she said.
At this year’s seventh-annual Wadsworth event, Mayor Robin L. Laubaugh served as the honorary “captain,” helping launch this year’s theme, “Bon Voyage to Cancer.”
“Each year, it causes me to reflect how this dreadful disease has affected my life and everybody’s lives,” she told the crowd. “On the other hand, we also have hope.”
For more information about Relay For Life, visit www.relayforlife.org. To learn about the American Cancer Society’s research efforts and services, go to www.cancer.org.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.