Cancer does not sleep, so neither do we.
My parents church participated in Relay for Life N.O.W (Nowata, Osage, and Washington County) this year, so we decided to join their team! This relay goes from 7pm-7am and someone from your team has to be on the track at all times. The light and darkness of the day and night parallel the physical effects, emotions, and mental state of a cancer patient while undergoing treatment. (This is explained at the bottom if you are interested!)
Here we are at 7:03pm...the Opening Ceremony...
At 8pm they did the Survivors lap...
The caregivers stood all the way around the track while the survivors did their lap. We then followed after them and did a lap as well...
8:10pm- We met up!
We then started walking. My mom had purchased and decorated Wes a little bag. "Luminaria" is the fancy name they called it...
The back has all our names on it but the front was a little bare. My mom is not the most artistic!
At 10:00pm when Wes went to go see what was being auctioned off, we surprised him by setting a table up for him. Homemade orange sherbet, cantaloupe, carrots, orange peppers, and cucumbers, sundried tomato dip, mandarine oranges, orange cream cheese cupcakes, cheese its, and more... The sign said "Congrats on being halfway through Wes! 1 year left!" June of last year is when he started Maintenance Therapy which is 2 years long. Wow. Has my hair gotten more blond??
Bad picture, but the kids were running too fast. I tried several different camera settings and none really worked out. The kids loved running around the track...
At 10:30 Zane said his tummy hurt. I think he ate too much and then ran too much! He recovered very quickly though.
Here was our setup! Not pictured: The rest of ABCOC's team members sitting behind the balloons, walking the track, or in chairs in front of the canopy!
The kids had people reading Dr. Seuss books all night...Zane had My mom and I read this book to him as well...must be his favorite!
11:00pm they do a lighting of the luminaria's ceremony. They had survivors break a glow stick, then caregivers, then they would say "If you have lost a child to cancer, light a luminaria. If you have lost a mother to cancer, light a luminaria..." until all of them were lit.
Again, I tried a few different camera settings...but I'm no pro. My pictures don't capture the amazing sight of thousands of bags lit up all around the track. It doesn't capture the awesome songs of hope being played in the background while the names of the people on the bags were being played on a big screen. Those in memory of and those in honor of...
At 11:30, everyone took a silent lap to remember those lost and to celebrate those who survived...
Brittany's boyfriend, Brant, came too and the kids loved him!
We changed the kids out of their sweaty clothes and into their jammies in hope they would lay down and go to sleep...
However, this is what midnight looked like. They had a DJ who played music while several people danced at the front of the track. They had everything from a real live Elvis to the cupid shuffle to a male doing Beyonce's "All the single ladies" dance better than all the girls doing it...
At 1am they had a contest for who could make the best wedding dress out of newspaper. My camera died before I could take a picture of all the contestants. They had some pretty awesome ones...so our team did not win!
The kids were trying to do a line dance here...
At 2am, Mr. Zane finally crashed! He was not happy when we moved him to the tent. He didn't want to miss anything, but Wes stayed in there and it wasn't long before he fell back asleep. 
Avery was wearing down too but insisted she was not tired!
At 2:00am they had a contest of what male could make the best female and raise the most money, They had written a bio that was read as they walked across the stage. Avery and I left when it was time for them to work the crowd for money. I heard we missed some really good lap dances...
It was now 2:30am and I made Avery go to bed...as you can see, she was thrilled...
At 4am...I was ready to get in the tent and Wes was ready to get out...
At 5:00am they started the Closing Ceremony. Their goal was to raise 200,000 and they came very close at around 187,000. This was all the people that was left at this time as many do not stay all night. We were too tired to walk over there so instead, we packed the car to leave. We just couldn't stay another 2 hours. By the time we got home, it was getting light outside so we made it from sun set to sun down. Those boys walking in White were part of our team. 3 of them walked the ENTIRE time getting up to like 20 miles or something.
It was a fun adventure. We fell asleep around 6am and woke up around 10 am to some yummy buiscuits and gravy. Wes was pretty sick and slept all day long. He wore himself out just a little too much. I'm very glad we got to experience it, but I'm not sure we will do it again!
Now for the symbolism
The relay starts when the sun is going down. This symbolizes the time that a person has been diagnosed with cancer. The day is getting darker and this represents the cancer patient's state of mind as they feel that their life may be coming to an end. Just as darkness brings an uncertainty of what the night will hold, being diagnosed brings a feeling of uncertainty.
As the evening progresses it usually gets cooler, darker and quieter, just as the emotions of the cancer patient do. Around 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. represents the time when the cancer patient starts treatment. They become exhausted, sick, not wanting to go on, possibly wanting to give up. As participants walk or run, they also are tired, perhaps feeling a bit weaker and not wanting to go on. But just as cancer does not sleep, neither do we.
The sun rising represents the end of treatment for the cancer patient. They see the light at the end of their tunnel and know that life will go on. They are still tired, but the morning light brings an excitement about looking ahead to the future. Participants are tired, but know that the end of Relay is nearing and that they still have many great days ahead of them.
