A Celebration of Life
Scores of cancer survivors turn out for Relay

A cancer survivor displays her message of hope Friday as as other survivors line up for the Survivor's Walk at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event held at the Gallup Sports Complex. [Photo by Jeremy Schneider/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — If there was any question about how many local people have been affected by cancer, Friday's introduction of survivors provided a glimpse into the answer.

Nearly 100 cancer survivors were introduced to the large crowd attending the opening ceremony for the sixth annual Gallup McKinley Relay For Life. They were the face of the local community: two little preschool girls, bank officials, school teachers, young parents, church members, business owners, neighbors, co-workers, best friends, family members, spouses.

And for every survivor who attended, there were the friends and loved ones who came to support them at the Relay, just as they had been supporting them during their fight against cancer. At the height of Friday's ceremony, hundreds of people crowded into the large field at the Gallup Sports Complex.

According to Melinda Sanchez, the local Relay publicity chairwoman, at least 94 cancer survivors attended the event. A number of other cancer survivors could not attend Friday's Relay, but they requested their names be included in the opening ceremony.

Sanchez was encouraged by the large number of survivors who were able to attend. Last year, she said, only 67 survivors were at the event. Since last year, she explained, Relay organizers have worked hard to reach out to more cancer survivors, particularly Native Americans from surrounding reservation communities.

Isabel Whitehair was one of those individuals who learned about Relay For Life last year.

Whitehair, a cancer survivor from Window Rock, Ariz., said she first learned about Relay through her co-workers at Bank of America.

"When we first came, it was so amazing," recalled Whitehair of last year's Relay. "There's so much support out there. ... It's just beautiful."

"This is a really good event," she added, "because it brings the families together." Whitehair credits much of her own cancer remission to the support she received from her family. Her two older sons, Maurkys and Taye, performed powwow dances during the entertainment portion of Friday evening; it was their way, she explained, to give back to the Relay For Life community.

Sanchez agreed that Relay had a way of bringing people together by offering "an outlet to grieve, to remember, to reach out" as a community. Sanchez said she became involved as a way to show concern for numerous friends and family members who have had cancer.

Friday night's events were a mixture of both fun and serious activities. Like Gallup's Fourth of July "Party in the Park," the evening frequently had a festive feel to it with its music, entertainment, food vendors, balloons, and games. Young children played in a sandpile with shovels and buckets, and garishly painted toilets nearby. But the sand was actually there to fill up the luminaria bags honoring cancer victims, and the ugly toilets were there to symbolize the "flushing" of cancer.

There were also a number of Relay teams with some goofy names and some goofy outfits. However, those community teams actually devoted lots of volunteer hours over the last year to raising money for the cancer research and educational projects sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

Highlights of the evening included the cancer survivors' group walk around the track with Queen's "We are the Champions" as the soundtrack, the survivors' group photo session, the singing of "Amazing Grace" at the beginning of the luminaria ceremony, and the quiet, reflective lighting of the luminaria candles.

Valerie New perhaps summed up what a lot of other people were thinking during those highlight moments. New, a member of the American Cancer Society's support team for Relay For Life, addressed the crowd while the cancer survivors gathered together for a group portrait. "It is overwhelming," she observed, "to see what a blessed community this is."

— Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.