Central School plans second mini-Relay event

Tag: Mini Relay

Students at Central School, Ottawa, are hoping to be a link in the chain that leads to a cure for cancer.

For the second consecutive year, Central will host a scaled down Relay for Life event, with students purchasing paper memory links to raise money to donate to the American Cancer Society.

The links are sold in three colors: one to honor a cancer survivor, one in memory of a loved one and one to honor a loved one. Students may write their name and a message on the link. The links will be joined in the classrooms, with the classroom creating the longest chain winning a prize. Each link costs $1.

The event will be Tuesday morning on the school's track. Each class will take its chain and attach it to the fence surrounding the track. The links will take the place of the luminaries at the traditional Relay for Life event.

"To keep with the relay idea, after our opening ceremony, classes will be walking the track at half-hour intervals until 11 a.m. when we will have our closing ceremony," said Patti Mezel, a sixth-grade teacher at Central who is helping coordinate the event. "The class with the most laps tallied in the half-hour time period will also receive a prize."

With its event last year, Central became the first school in La Salle County and in the Fox Valley region to sponsor a mini-Relay for Life, said Mezel.

"Last year the kids really made a connection to the event," she said. "When they purchased links they would talk about family or friends whose lives have been affected by cancer."