‘Day of Hope’ to come

Teresa Carver didn't plan to fall in with Henry County's Relay For Life Committee, but she found herself getting involved after she lost a nephew to cancer.

'We lost him in about 2011, and that was hard,” Carver said. '(Relay For Life) came to me in 2012, and they told me, ‘Get even, fight back and help us.'”

Carver, the committee's luminaria chair this year, has been involved with Relay For Life ever since and is excited to introduce a new fundraising event for the year called Day of Hope.

'Once I'm in, I'm in,” she said. 'I take over things and I push.”

Relay For Life is a fundraiser put on by the American Cancer Society, coordinated by volunteers in the area to raise money to help fight cancer and honor survivors.

This year, Relay For Life will be April 6, at 7:30 p.m., at Iowa Weleyan University, with events running all through the day. Functions include a silent action, carnival, survivors lunch and trivia closing out the day from 5 to 8 p.m., all to raise money for this year's goal of $65,000 toward cancer testing, prevention and research in Iowa City.

While Carver says she'd love to be able to give money directly to locals, her organization is focused on 'help the many and hope we're also helping those close.”

'A lot of people tend to think because we're local we have the ability to give money to locals,” Carver said. 'One of the things that does help us though is we've got this great research community in Iowa City, so it helps for us to know that our funds are staying as local as they can and they're helping some of our own people.”

Other events will be held leading up to the relay, including Day of Hope.

For Day of Hope, participating businesses will have employees wearing T-shirts purchased by the businesses with the funds going to Relay For Life, and have the option to decorate their store fronts on March 29.

The upcoming Daddy-Daughter Dance on March 9, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Iowa Wesleyan Howe Gym will also raise funds for Relay For Life.

'Our theme for (the dance) is ‘once upon a dream,'” Carver said. 'The idea that we're dreaming for a cure.”

The event is meant for father-daughter pairs; attendees are welcome to dress up as royally as the Disney princesses the dance is themed after, or in something as simple as jeans and a button-up.

'I'm excited about the Daddy-Daughter Dance because I'm gonna dress-up as Maleficent,” Carver said.

She and some of her Relay For Life will be costumed as Disney villains while running the games, crafts and dancing at the event. The Disney theme will extend to trivia night on April 6, which Jerry Kelly will emcee. 'He does this for many different groups and he's just an encyclopedia,” Carver said. 'Whether he goes into historical Walt quotes or character questions, we pretty much just give him carte blanche to do whatever he wants with the theme.”

Carver's title, luminaria chair, means she is in charge of the Luminaria Ceremony on the day of the relay.

'The Luminaria Ceremony is an honoring of loved ones,” she said.

The Luminaria is set up all through the day, and involves bags with lights inside of them bearing the names of those who have struggled with cancer. Names might be those who fought cancer, are still fighting cancer or caregivers.

Carver still is accepting submissions for this year, but last year there were close to 500, 20 of which where submitted by Carver herself.

'My husband's father's family,” Carver said. 'Every one of them; maybe they didn't die of it, but every one of them had cancer of some sort. It adds up.”

The creed of Relay For Life, according to Carver, is 'Celebrate. Remember. Fight back.” Not dissimilar from the words Relay For Life used to recruit Carver in the first place. 'Get even, and fight back.”

The biggest satisfaction Carver has come from hearing from survivors. 'Even in the short time that I've been with it the success stories are getting more and more,” she said. 'In the past we've had some of the researchers and the doctors come down and talk to our groups about the things they're working on.”