By 3:20 a.m. Saturday, George Allen Field had become cold and it was getting harder to stay awake, but that didn’t stop the crowd that had gathered from cheering, walking and even squatting.
“We’re squatting for cancer,” participants yelled as they passed through the tent set up by Delta Sigma Pi’s, a professional business fraternity.
At George Allen Field, across from the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, 46 organizations, including Alpha Phi Omega, Phi Kappa Psi, Gamma Phi Beta, Petra, the California Health Professional Student Alliance and several other Long Beach organizations, signed-up for the 12th annual Relay For Life, a 24-hour fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.
In the background a familiar Disney song from the movie “Frozen” was playing. The sound was coming from a speaker in a fanny pack attached to Kaitlyn Martison, a sophomore liberal arts major, who said she wanted to help keep people awake and entertained.
It worked and people who knew the lyrics sang along as she walked with her teammate, freshman English and political science major Zsofia Szlovak. Martison is the entertainment chair for Relay For Life and is on the education chair for Colleges Against Cancer, the organization that brought the event to Cal State Long Beach.
Triston Nguy, a senior biology major who serves as the president for Colleges Against Cancer, organized this year’s Relay for Life. He said he was happy to see the results of the first day, which had a continuous flow of attendees from night to morning.
Nguy said that Colleges Against Cancer had been preparing for the relay since October and raised $17,000 prior to the event through multiple fundraisers held throughout the year.
He said that a few years ago the Relay for Life was held at the Walter Pyramid, but because it was so limited in size not many people participated in the overnight portion. He said that his goal was to bring back the old communal aspect of Relay, something he was a little nervous about considering the decline in participant involvement in years past.
“I wanted to bring [Relay For Life] back … the whole having fun [aspect],”Nguy said.
Nguy said he believes the event is about bringing community together for a good cause, which is what makes it more enjoyable.
Organizations that normally would not be helping each other are working together side by side in order to reach the same goal.
Anna Rapacz, a senior comparative world literature major, walked about 10 miles between 4 a.m. and sunrise for her co-ed fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.
Rapacz said she “likes the concept of teamwork” because it brings people together by having several different organizations trying to reach a “communal goal.”
Fellow Alpha Phi Omega member and junior health care administration major Adrian Varelas said he agreed with Rapacz.
“It’s an interesting experience; you see all these organizations [together],” he said.
Senior communications studies major Steve Flores also lasted through the night and said it was the best year so far in the four years he has been participating in the event.
Organizations, like Petra, continued to fundraise at the event by offering snacks, drinks and games in exchange for a monetary donation. They were selling Butterbeer, a blend of root beer and crème soda with a drizzle of caramel and a lot of whipped crème.
Relay For Life at Cal State Long Beach raised a little more than $22,000 with a total of 524 participants, according to the Relay For Life website.
Hello! I am so proud of everyone in CAC that was mentioned, but I also wanted to note that I am the Relay For Life Chair and I along with Triston and the rest of the team helped organize this event! I guess I may have been sleeping when you stopped by! Thank you for writing this story, this made my night!