Rallying for Relay for Life

Malverne High School will host the first ever Relay For Life event next month to help fight cancer and pay tribute to both survivors and those lost to the disease.

The 2011 Relay For Life will begin at 8 a.m. on May 20, but the Maurice W. Downing Primary School will kick off the event on May 3 with a pep rally to encourage the community to show support. Kindergarteners and first and second graders will be at the pep rally collecting dimes and walking the track wearing purple to show their support for Relay.

The idea was brought to the school by Michael Taylor, head coach of the girls junior varsity softball team and president of the Malverne Wildcats football team. Taylor said he saw a split between the children and the adults in the community, and he was looking for a way to bring everyone together. “We are living in a society where one doughnut is supposed to ruin a child’s life and the biggest conversation is about taxes,” Taylor said.

His wife, Erica Taylor, suggested Relay for Life because she had received an email from the American Cancer Society earlier that day. Taylor also drew inspiration from his own losses: when Taylor was 12, his 19-year-old brother lost his battle with spinal cancer and about a decade ago Taylor’s father died of lung cancer.

“I wanted to bring it all together,” Taylor said, “and I was really trying to find something that we all can relate with.”

Malverne High School has its own page on the American Cancer Society website, called the Malverne Wildcats, where online donations are being accepted and instructions for mailing donations to the American Cancer Society can be found.

This year’s Relay will feature several traditional events, including the emotional Survivor’s Lap and the Fight Back Ceremony. Taylor said volunteers will begin setting up luminaries at noon and registration for the event will begin at 4 p.m. Pre-event entertainment, which includes the survivor’s dinner, will begin at 5 p.m. and opening ceremonies are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Once the event begins there will be music and entertainment all night, the luminary ceremony from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. and closing ceremonies at 11 p.m.