The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.


Relay For Life - A Hit!

by Cindy Kane, Relay Chair

Despite the normal Illinois heat, the 2011 American Cancer Society Relay for Life was a Hollywood hit!!!! Relay was held on July 29-30 with a great turn-out. There was a variety of activities held throughout the night.

Paul's Girls were back with the fan favorite "Tater Twisters". The Tri-county cattlemen cooked it up in the concession stand to sell wonderful Rib-eyes and Hamburgers served by the St. Patrick's youth group.

Opening Ceremony went off Hollywood style with our very own Henderson County Survivor Niven Gray delivering a wonderful motivational speech to all.

After a survivor lap, caregiver lap and team lap the Relay was off to a wonderful start.

While walking the track we were fortunate to have the wonderful talents of The Hutsons, The Campbells, and Tom Mehaffy to help keep us inspired.

Our fight back ceremony included a committee member speaking on behalf of the Nichole Gray family on the story of Nichole which was quite moving and left very few dry eyes at the event.

As the sun set, the lumanaria were lit by wonderful student volunteers of West Central High School. There were hundreds of lumanaria bags to adorn the track thanks to all the outpouring support of all that purchased them.

Melinda Whiteman and her volunteers took time to read off the names on the lumanaria bags for us to take a moment to remember those who fought the battle or are still fighting the battle today.

As the late hours came we were fortunate to have Staci Glascow and Michelle Tutor come lead us in some Zumba. What a great time and we had close to 30 people on the track taking their shot at learning the fast paced aerobic exercise put to some heart thumping music.

As midnight turned to the wee hours, we had teams volunteer to have activities to keep people moving and awake as sometimes it is hard to still be awake at 3 a.m.

At 5 a.m. we were blessed to have Brian Good and his family serve us with some yummy breakfast as we had our closing ceremony.

To date, we have raised $32,997.34. Our goal is $35,000. It is not to late to help us reach our goal. If you are interested in helping you can contact Cindy Kane 309-337-5407 or Nancy Hull 309-627-2904.

Making the Event so wonderful was all of our Survivors and Caregivers, Nancy Hull, Cindy Kane, Sandy Lefler, Donna Powless, Melinda Whitman, Charlotte Shafer, Theresa Fox, Rick Ford, Tami Heller, Art Kane, Holly Spence, Sara Hull, Amy Hull,Stephen Lindo, Sara Leary, Teams, Volunteers, Tri-County Cattleman, Niven Gray, Brent Family Pharmacy, and Dr. Brian Good & Family, the Hutsons, the Campbells, Tom Mehaffy, Amanda Brent, Staci Glascow and Michelle Tutor.