Panthers Relay For Lives

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Juniors from Palmetto decided to have their own booth to raise money for a good cause and spend time with each other. Shannon Faradji (right) helps raise the $175 through sales of food, beverage and henna body art. "I'm looking forward to participating again," sophomore Virginia Boone said.

On Saturday, Apr. 2, The American Cancer Society hosted its 31st annual fundraiser against cancer. Relay For Life developed into an event for family and friends, attended by countless Palmetto students. The community united with one goal: raise money in the fight against cancer.

The theme, bands and musicians, was completed with a battle of the bands competition.

“I’ve been doing a lot of songwriting in the past few months and I’ve put a band together called True Fuse. I really wanted a place to debut some new music, play some old music that I love like the Red Hot Chili Peppers… and help my friends raise money,” junior Elijah Bogdansky said. “I thought the relay would be the perfect time to do all this.”

Bogdansky captained the Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council’s team, otherwise known as the Beach Boys. The team raised $2,187 for the cause through donations and sandwich sales, donated by Sub Shack. The Cutler Bay Youth Advisory Council sold Chipotle burritos and the Palmetto Bay Youth Community Involvement Board (YCIB) sold sweet tea, games such as beanbag toss, popcorn and the opportunity to play on any of six inflatable slides and sports and competitive games provided by Cinnamon Stixx.

“Each member of the committee raised money on their own for our relay team, Toby Keith,”  junior and chairman of the Palmetto Bay YCIB Charles Noguera said. “It meant getting something done for our village but then it became more of helping millions of people who have been affected by cancer when one of our members revealed how personal cancer has played a role in his life.”

Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flynn organized the  the village’s involvement in Relay for Life. The YCIB gathered volunteers from Palmetto and the community to help the team raise their goal. Team Toby Keith raised $2,080 for the cause.

Various other Palmetto students came to raise money for the fight against cancer. The girls lacrosse team had their own booth, raising $600 from frozen lemonade sales at the relay and jewelry made and sold by junior Emily Russell prior to the event. Both Palmetto lacrosse teams arrived in numbers to support the cause and partake in leisure activities beyond their booth.

Sophomore Virginia Boone volunteered for The Ramones team, describing themselves as just a group of friends in the mood for doing good. They sold lemonade, chilled water, baked goods and henna body art that attracted students from Coral Reef, Terra and Palmetto alike and raised $175.

“I had done relay for life before but I never ran a booth for myself so we thought that it would be cool to help raise money for a good cause,” Boone said. “It was a good experience and I’m looking forward to participating again.”

As the sun set, the teams gathered by the stage to hear a few words from the relay’s organizer, Ms. Ceil Fitts. After her encouraging speech, Fitts sent the teams around to light the luminaries in honor of loved ones who had either passed or were fighting cancer.

“Seeing these young people work together to raise awareness and dollars for cancer research was simply amazing,” Palmetto Bay Councilwoman Karyn Cunningham said. “More inspirational was seeing this group of 11 appointees rally around one of their friends, Jackson Ribler. Jackson lost his mother to cancer just last year. With his father looking on from the audience, Jackson told the story of his mother’s fight and when he finished there was not a dry eye in the audience.”