UMass Dartmouth students walk all night at Relay for Life

Apr 6, 2019

On Saturday afternoon, UMass Dartmouth students made it out in the blazing sunshine to walk around the quad for the annual Relay for Life fundraiser in support of the American Cancer Society.

Among them was Bhumi Patel, a 21-year-old junior studying biology and pre-med, who is also the social media and publicity chair for Relay for Life at UMass Dartmouth.

“So what we do is we work all year to plan this walk, which is like the big event that we have at the end of the year,” Patel explained.

They hold raffles and collect donations throughout the day, and walkers pay $15 to register for the event.

“All the money that we raise...all of it goes to American Cancer Society,” Patel said. “And that helps benefit survivors, caregivers, it gives patients of cancer money for transport back and forth to the hospital.”

“It’s a twelve hour event. Basically, the way we think of it is like, because cancer doesn’t sleep, we don’t sleep. So we fight the night.”

Walkers keep doing laps from noon until midnight in their teams, so not everyone has to be walking all of the time.

Luminaria bags lit the path with glow sticks at night and spelled out words like “Hope” and “Cure” along the route.

The day kicked off with an opening ceremony that included an honorary lap by breast cancer survivor Michelle Shlager and her husband and caregiver Bruce.

A large number of Greek life organizations — as well as other university societies and groups — get involved every year as well, wearing team shirts and carrying flags to show their team spirit.

Patel has helped run these events for the past three years, and will become the president of the UMass Dartmouth Relay for Life committee next year.

The committee members all walked too, in between coordinating events and activities. A bounce house, obstacle course, and free pizza was also offered for participants. A slew of performers, musicians, and speakers took part throughout the day. 

Around 150 people — mostly UMass students — registered to participate. Patel noted that the number is a bit lower than it was last year because there are fewer people on the committee, but those who came out in the warm spring weather were all happy to be out walking for a good cause.

Grad student Sarah Elloian, 22, brought both her boyfriend Caleb and their dog Leah along in part to support her sister Andrea, who has joined the event for the past three years.

“My sister is big into fundraising,” Elloian said, “and actually my mom’s coworker just got stomach cancer, so we decided to raise money in her name.”

The sisters wore face jewels and flower headbands for the occasion, and even Leah had glitter and a flower collar.

This was Elloian’s second year at the Relay for Life.

“I like the camaraderie, they’re all together for one thing. And I like the speeches, even though they’re all sad,” she joked.

21-year-old Rebeca Blemur of sorority Zeta Phi Beta at UMass Dartmouth, on the other hand, didn’t really know what to expect. Although the sorority has a national partnership with Relay for Life — they attend every year — as a new initiate Blemur had never been to one before.

She was sitting at a table enjoying the sunshine with several sisters from the Quincy chapter.

“So far it’s been good. It’s my first relay, so I didn’t have any expectations. I’m still waiting to see how the day goes on.”

“I’m already tired and I only walked like twice,” she laughed. “I need to go to the gym.”