Residents turn out in strong support of annual ‘Relay’ cancer
fundraiser
Hollister residents turned out in numbers July 31 and Aug. 1 to
participate in the annual Relay For Life event that raises money
for cancer research and increases awareness of the disease.
Residents turn out in strong support of annual ‘Relay’ cancer fundraiser
Hollister residents turned out in numbers July 31 and Aug. 1 to participate in the annual Relay For Life event that raises money for cancer research and increases awareness of the disease.
“We had a lot of people walking right at noon,” said Geri Johnson, a committee chair.
On a trek around the track in a golf cart, the preferred mode of transportation for busy committee members, Johnson pointed out different features along the route. One team had created a yellow, brick road and the characters from the “Wizard of Oz” as part of the movie theme for this year’s Relay. Another had created a juke joint for “Grease.” On one corner, a survivor’s tent was set up where a special dinner was served on Friday night. At the other end of the track, a tent was set up to enroll participants in a long-term Cancer Prevention Study (CPS-3.)
“I had fantastic volunteers,” Johnson said, a few days after the event. “We had 183 people enrolled and our goal was 168 … the enrollment didn’t start until 6:30 p.m. so until then we didn’t really know what it would be like. After opening ceremonies, we had a line out the door, so to speak.”
Hollister was one of 21 locations chosen to enroll people in the long-term cancer study. Some past studies have been used to draw a connection between smoking and cancer, and other environmental factors.
“There were some that came just to enroll,” Johnson said. “We actually had a couple ladies who came from Salinas and a few from Gilroy who came to enroll.”
Kim Vera and Chuck Obeso-Bradley served as co-chairs this year, and both were bustling around the scene Friday afternoon.
“You work so hard for 10 months, that by the time it comes around and you see the looks on people’s faces” it’s worth it, Vera said. “I never watch the survivor’s lap with a dry eye.”
Vera has been involved in Relay For Life for four years, as a team recruiter in years past and as co-chair this year.
As team recruiter, she worked to get new teams signed up, a task she said is a challenge because the event can seem daunting to those who haven’t participated in the past.
“Once you get someone out, they are hooked,” Johnson said.
Vera stays involved for one reason.
“I am hoping for the day when there is a cure,” she said. “It is too late for some of my loved ones, but I don’t want [my children] to see their mother or grandmother lost.”
More than $61,000 had been turned in by participants by the morning of Relay For Life, and money continued to come in as teams put together games and fundraisers at the event. The teams can continue to collect money through the end of August.
Obeso-Bradley’s family collected money by selling strings on which walkers could put a bead for every lap they completed. By 4 p.m. Friday, some walkers were well past the five-mile mark while others were just starting out.
Doug Emerson, a Hollister city councilman, and David Huboi, a city planning commissioner, challenged each other to walk the entire 24 hours of the event. They started at noon, and had breaks planned for every five miles they completed. They stopped at the end of each lap to collect their beads.
Obeso-Bradley’s team chose the “Terminator” as their theme with a tagline of “Hasta La Vista cancer.”
“He’s a die-hard,” said Aggie Obeso-Bradley, of her husband Chuck. “He’s been doing this for seven or eight years. It means a lot to him since he had his bout with cancer.”
In 2007, Obeso-Bradley noticed a lump on his neck and went to the doctor. On May 1, 2007, he was diagnosed with tonsil cancer.
“It was pretty sobering to hear my five-year survivability rate. It wasn’t the percentage I hoped for,” Obeso-Bradley said in an interview in Feb. 2009.
After more than a month of radiation treatments, Obeso-Bradley was announced cancer free Aug. 17, 2007.
“For us we may not do a lot of walking, but we are here to support him,” Aggie said.
Obeso-Bradley came up with the idea of beads to track laps when he went to a meeting in another city.
As for fundraiser ideas, many team members showed off their creativity. One group chose “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” and created a makeshift candy shop to raise money. Another chose “Rocky.” For a donation, several kids lined up to “knock out cancer” by hitting a 40-pound punching bag covered in stickers labeled with different kinds of cancer.
Joelle Rose, and her daughter Emily Rose, of San Jose, got involved because a friend from Hollister invited them to join the team.
“Our leader came up with the idea of ‘Rocky’ since we are fighting cancer,” Joelle said.
Joelle built the stand for the punching bag from scrap wood she had at home.
Other movie themes included “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Hotel for Dogs,” “Steel Magnolias,” “American Graffiti,” and more.
For Nancy’s Angel Network’s team, the choice to use “Grease” as their theme was simple.
“It was Nancy’s favorite movie,” said Wendy Garcia, whose cousin Nancy Oropeza-Mora died of cancer at 27. “We used to watch it over and over one summer.”
They watched it so much, in fact, that her uncle bought a videotape-rewinding machine to keep them from wearing out his VCR.
Their booth was decorated with a life-size wooden jukebox, records dangling from the roof of the tent and plenty of other ’50s nostalgia. Whenever someone walked passed in a purple shirt, the signature color for cancer survivors, the team whistled and cheered.
“It brings family together,” Garcia said, of participating in the Relay each year.
Oropeza-Mora’s sister-in-law, Renee Oropeza, said the event can be overwhelming, but “we have a big team and family so everyone knows somebody who knows somebody who can get the props.”
The family had a 3-year-old diagnosed with leukemia this year, so it made the chance to participate even more meaningful this year.
Relay For Life
Some teams will have more fundraisers planned throughout the month of August. To donate online, or for more about the Relay For Life,
visit www.relayforlife.org/Hollisterca.
