Bringing Relay to Life back to Baldwin

Abby and Miguel Melendez, of Baldwin, have faced their fair share of challenges together, from battling cancer to dedicating decades to teaching in New York City.

Now retired, they are taking on another challenge: reviving the Relay For Life in their community.

“This is Miguel and I’s first time trying to organize it, and it’s a lot of work,” Abby said with a chuckle.

Held at Baldwin High School from 2009 to 2013, the American Cancer Society Relay for Life — which began in 1985 and takes place worldwide in 31 countries — unites community members to celebrate loved ones lost to cancer, and cancer survivors, while raising funds for people battling the disease and their families, and for advocacy, research and patient support. Relay participants walk around a track or a designated path.

The event was relocated to Baldwin Park between 2014 and 2016, and raised nearly $28,000 in that final year. During this time, membership began to decline.

Abby Melendez, 64, a thyroid cancer survivor, and Miguel, 66, who has been free of prostate cancer for 14 years, were the Herald’s Persons of the Year in 2023. They tried to bring the Relay for Life back in 2020, but were foiled by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead they held a virtual relay that year, and still managed to raise more than $12,000.

The couple are now calling on community members in Baldwin to take part in the rebirth of an event that is dear to their hearts. “We want to make it a full community event,” Miguel said.

They received permission from the Town of Hempstead to stage the relay, which is scheduled for June 8, at Baldwin Park, from noon to 10 p.m. For the next three months, a lot of work will be required to organize an event of this size, Abby said.

It began with planning meetings at the Baldwin Public Library, the first one in December, at which the Melendezes have been working with event volunteers.

“(From) organizing the entertainment (to) the lunch and dinner for survivors — those also need to get organized,” Miguel said.

Besides preparing for the relay, Abby continues her work as the founder of the thyroid cancer support group ThyCa (short for thyroid cancer) Long Island, launched in 2003, which serves as a beacon of hope for those with the disease. She listens to them, and offers advice. Miguel became co-leader of the group shortly after it started.

Returning relay participants joined the Melendezes at the “First Lap” at Baldwin Middle School on Jan. 6. Dreamed up by social media enthusiast Joe Gillette in 2018, the First Lap, on the first Saturday of the year, initiates the effort leading to the relay itself.

Despite the fact that the event won’t take place on the Baldwin High track, as in previous years, the Melendezes met with the school district’s PTA council on March 6 to give members suggestions on what they can do at the school level to spark community involvement once again.

Abby and Miguel, who are the parents of three, saw for themselves the fear their children had when they told them they had been diagnosed with cancer.

“Kids shouldn’t have to deal with that on their own,” Abby said. “If they know that the community supports cancer, cancer research, or your mom, dad, cousin, uncle that has cancer, or knew someone that passed away, and it’s in the community and kids are aware of it, I think that’s crucial.”

To learn more about the Relay for Life, join the Melendezes at their Relay for Life Kick-Off on March 23, from 1 to 4 p.m., at the Irish Pub, at 834 Merrick Road in Baldwin.