Twenty-five teams totaling 145 participants took part in this year’s Relay For Life, collectively raising almost $10,000 to help fundraise for American Cancer Society’s research.
The event on Friday went from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness, with a packed schedule featuring multiple performances from a cappella groups and the Bollywood Jhatkas. Each team could also set up a fundraiser or their own game, said Taylor Rawls, a senior and co-chair of Relay For Life. In addition, there was a haircutting station led by Pantene Beautiful Lengths, where people could donate eight inches of their hair to be made into wigs for those fighting cancer.
Throughout the night, participants walked laps around the gym, which was decorated in flags and murals from different countries for the Around the World theme.
This year, Theta Chi, Sigma Chi and Kappa Alpha Order all had their fraternity away weekends scheduled at the same time and were unable to make teams.
Sophomore Noah Maggin, a co-chair for Relay For Life, was a fraternity member unable to attend last year because of an away weekend.
“It was definitely a factor in not getting Greek life involved as much as they could have last year,” Maggin said.
Maggin is currently the team leader for Sigma Phi Epsilon, a team he created despite the away weekend. Most of Sig Ep did not join him, but they still donated, and a few of his brothers who were not going away came and helped out.
“My focus was to try to expand the popularity of the relay to Greek life, so that meant fraternities and sororities, and getting people to come out,” Maggin said. “I feel like I had a pretty great connection being a part of Greek life myself, so that’s one of the reasons why I am team captain for Sig Ep. I just wanted to get people in my fraternity involved.”
Rawls has been involved in Relay For Life for the past three years, and said that the conflicting events was nothing new.
“The fraternity involvement has been pretty normal to where it’s been in the past,” Rawls said. “A lot of the fraternities will make a team and then find out later that they won’t actually be there, so they already have people who have donated to the event and signed up to come, and if they don’t end up coming it’s fine.”
Anyone who did not attend can still take part in the cause. Donations can still be made, and they are tracked on the University of Richmond’s Relay For Life page.
“The Relay year all starts and ends in August, so after our event, people can still continue to raise money up until August,” Rawls said. “Even if they aren’t at the actual event, they can still raise money for the cancer society.”
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Contact news writer Stephanie Hagan at stephanie.hagan@richmond.edu
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