Roslyn High School senior Laura Fletcher never met her sister Katie, who died in 1993 before she was born of neuroblastoma, a type of cancer typically found in infants and young children.
But that hasn’t stopped Fletcher from honoring Katie’s memory and raising awareness and dollars for cancer research.
Fletcher and classmate Lizzy Siskind, also a senior, served as the student co-chairs Saturday for Roslyn’s third Relay for Life event, their “Pirates of the Cure-ibbean” team selling several swashbuckling-themed items and a face-painting service to benefit the American Cancer Society at a table set up near the track at Roslyn Middle School.
“I think Relay is the best way to honor her,” Fletcher said. “My whole family and all of our friends came out to honor her.”
Roslyn raised $65,416 to benefit the American Cancer Society through Monday, according Judy Wichter, the organization’s Roslyn liaison, as donations are still being accepted through August.
“Let’s face it, everybody is affected by cancer,” Wichter said. “We’re finding that people want to give back and we want to help them give back.”
Participants in Relay for Life events form teams, and each reaches out to their community for donations that go toward cancer research.
Each team also creates a theme it uses to sell various items the day of the event at tables set up around a school’s track, and at least one member of each team is walking or jogging the track throughout the duration of the event, which typically run overnight.
“It’s really family-oriented,” Fletcher said. “A lot of families join up together or with friends and relatives and honor their loved ones.”
Fletcher’s brother David, who was six-years old when Katie died, presented the event’s caregiver’s speech, which is dedicated to the family and friends who support cancer patients.
David Fletcher said at first he wasn’t sure why he was selected to address the event’s participants, because he hadn’t spent as much time as his parents had with Katie while she was in the hospital, but was proud to represent the caregivers and honor his sister.
“Katie’s passing took a major emotional toll on our family, and this is a great way to keep her memory alive,” Fletcher said in his speech. “I truly feel like a caregiver today.”
When the sun finally set behind the middle school building, the Relay for Life participants walked a lap around the track in total darkness, in remembrance of those who have died of cancer.
Upon the lap’s completion, the participants lit candles inside white luminary bags emblazoned with the names of friends and loved ones they honored in their Relay for Life efforts.
“The lap and luminary bags are my favorite part of the entire event,” said Siskind, herself a thyroid cancer survivor. “It makes me cry every year.”
Siskind said she participates in Relay for Life events and works with Fletcher as part of Roslyn High School’s Youth Against Cancer club in remembrance of her hospital roommate, a young girl named Amber who developed a cancerous tumor behind her ear in addition to other health problems.
Amber was blind, Siskind said, but she loved music, and doctors thought she might lose her hearing during treatment.
“I wanted to make sure she’d never lose the thing she loved most in life,” Siskind said.
Siskind and Fletcher were among the most enthusiastic – and most connected – members of the Youth Against Cancer club in bringing a Relay for Life program to Roslyn, Wichter said.
In its inaugural Relay for Life Event, Roslyn raised $20,000, a figure Siskind said could have been higher if the school community embraced the effort from the beginning.
“At first, they put us at Harbor Hill [Elementary School], which doesn’t even have a track,” Siskind said.
Siskind said the Relay for Life members “had to work and fight for everything they gave us,” as they knocked on as many doors and talked to as many people as possible to earn donations.
Last year, the event raised $64,000, and Siskind said the school district “finally started to see what we were all about.”
This year’s event required even more work for Siskind and Fletcher than in the past, as its efforts expanded beyond the high school community and into the elementary school.
“We got the kindergarten kids involved this year,” said Sondra Nussbaum, who serves as the event’s community chair. “Of course, we don’t use the word ‘cancer’ with them, so we just tell them they’re helping out people who are really sick.”
Relay for Life events also reached the Roslyn business community, as Nussbaum said Mims Restaurant became the first local business to form a team.
In addition, Nussbaum said Lester’s clothing store held a fundraiser fashion show earlier this year and donated clothes to the cause.
“When I was a kid, if someone had cancer, it was like a death sentence,” said Nussbaum, who is a breast cancer survivor. “Now it’s something that can be very manageable. Who knows, maybe one day when my kids grow up it can be like heart disease is today, something we used to think was much worse.”
Siskind said Relay for Life has introduced her to a part of the Roslyn community she wouldn’t have met otherwise, and has allowed her to use her life’s experiences to help others whose lives have been affected by cancer.
“Being with all these people really makes me feel like I can accomplish something,” Siskind said. “One of the things about having cancer is that you tend to feel a bit hopeless and things are out of your control. But getting to do things like this make you feel like you have some sort of say in this.”
Relay for Life has also allowed Siskind to have a bit of fun.
In a fundraising effort implemented this year, donations were taken gauging which faculty member and which student the Roslyn community wanted to see doused with slime, with Siskind serving as the brouhaha’s moderator.
Donations reached a total of $361.32, and Assistant Superintendent for Business Joseph Dragone and Bilal Ahmed, vice president of the senior class, were drenched in pink goo.
“I’m Joseph Dragone,” Dragone said, imitating his morning announcement routine, “and I need a shower.”
