life..... REANIMATED: CENTRAL MAUI RELAY FOR LIFE 2010

This is the second year that my family and I participated in the Central Maui Relay for Life. It is a 12 hour overnight relay that celebrates the lives of everyone who’ve been affected by cancer.

My family and I have been impacted by cancer in more ways than one. We’ve suffered losses by cancer, we have family who are currently going through cancer treatment, and fortunately, we have family and friends who have survived cancer. It is for these folks that we run. It is for these folks that we do what we do.

This year the Central Maui American Cancer Society raised just under $95,000. As a family, we raised $1,690 and I myself came in with what I feel is a dismal $235. I know I could have done better had I applied myself but for the 2 months that I had, I think I did alright. My first financial goal was to beat my little cousin in earnings. When I first started collecting money I was on a roll. I hit the $100 mark in just over a week. And that was accumulated by a bunch of $5 donations. There’s a big twice monthly meeting for those where everyone can turn in their money. Unfortunately, the girl at the ACS who took care of imputing all the money was out of work for 1 month. Because of this setback, none of the money was posted online for our tracking which for me took away from wanting to go out and get more donations. Finally though, about a month and a half after turning the money in, it was finally posted for all to see. In the end, I fell $155 short of her. Best believe next year will be the dawn of victory.

To help raise money, my family had a big garage sale which brought in a ton of donations. We also had a pizza party along with our general donations. We sold Luminaria Bags which are used to celebrate anyone who has been affected by cancer. It’s these bags that we light a candle in and line the track in celebration.

It was such a wonderful experience. There is nothing grander than giving. Take a look at how we celebrated at the 2010 Central Maui Relay for Life.

So this team who was fashioned after the Pink Ladies and TBirds from Grease was the team that beat us out in the championship volleyball game. We're not going to make excuses on why we lost but it was a good game. It was against this same team that stood between us and tug of war championship victory. Also, because of them beating us in volleyball, we were really out for revenge. They had no idea how bad we wanted IT. And they had no idea how bad we wanted IT against THEM.