Disney princesses, Mickey Mouse and Marvel superheroes will have a prominent role in Otterbein’s Relay for Life this May.
Co-chairs Cory Ott, Melissa Lucius and the committee are working to increase participation for this year’s Disney-themed Relay for Life on May 2-3. The organizers have included different Disney movies, franchises and characters for themed laps and activities they’ve planned. The last two years Relay for Life has had low turnout from campus organizations. The organizers are reaching out across campus, including athletes, Greek Life and staff to get more people involved.
“Participation here has been – I don’t want to say a struggle but a challenge, and a good one,” said Lucius, a senior chemistry major.
The American Cancer Society’s Relay events are held to remember people who have died from cancer, increase awareness of risk and prevention and raise money for cancer research. In 1985 Dr. Gordy Klatt raised $27,000 for his local chapter when friends and family sponsored him to walk and run around a Tacoma, Washington, track for 24 hours. Since then, over 5,000 Relays have been held. Otterbein’s first Relay for Life was in 2009.
In addition to the Disney princesses and Pixar animations, Disney owns the Marvel superheroes and “Star Wars” franchise. “Definitely bring your costumes, your Mickey heads. Whatever you can find that’s Disney-related, it’ll be there,” said Ott, a senior elementary education major with a concentration in theater and dramatic arts.
The organizers will be hanging posters for Relay around campus this weekend and have been tweeting and using Facebook to reach out to different people and groups on campus to encourage them to form a team.
Lucius has participated in Relay at Otterbein since her sophomore year. The last two years she has been on the committee that organizes it. In middle school, Lucius’ mindset toward cancer changed when her teacher’s 9-year-old daughter died of cancer. Prior to that, Lucius thought that cancer only happened to older people.
“As an eighth grader, you sit there and think ‘okay, yeah, old people get cancer.’” Lucius said, “But when you know that a little kid lost their life to cancer, it just changes the way you think about things.”
Ott has been involved with Relay since 2001 when he joined his mother’s Relay team at the high school where she teaches. He has been chair or co-chair for three years.
Ott said that it’s “a lot of personal ask and getting the word out there” to encourage people to form and join teams for Relay.
As of April 10, Otterbein’s Relay event page had 21 teams signed up. Sigma Alpha Tau, Epsilon Kappa Tau, Cardinal Corp Leaders and Otterbein Christian Fellowship are four of the teams participating.
Otterbein’s Relay for Life starts at 6 p.m. in the Clements Center on May 2 and ends at noon on May 3. Students and employees can form teams through the day of the event, but individuals who raise $100 before the event will get a participant t-shirt.
Bridgette Wheeler contributed to this story.
