Gallup continues efforts in fight against cancer
Relay for Life is this weekend

Ciro Chairez explains at the New Mexico Cancer Center-Gallup how a Vacloc bag is used with CT scanning to hold a patient perfectly still. By keeping the patient still, the images taken can be used more precisely to treat ailments. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

Joyce Graves is the event chair for Relay for Life, an event set for Saturday afternoon and continuing through the night to help fight cancer. Cancer survivors will be celebrated and thosewho have succumbed to the disease will be remembered. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

GALLUP — This weekend marks the eighth year Gallup will celebrate its part in the effort to fight cancer by hosting a Relay For Life event.

Relay For Life, which bills itself as "A Team Event to Fight Cancer," will begin this year on Saturday afternoon and run through the night until its conclusion on Sunday morning. Area cancer survivors, their family and friends, and interested community members are all invited to the Gallup Sports Complex and what has become one of Gallup's biggest community celebrations.

It is an event that celebrates local cancer survivors' fights against the disease and remembers and honors the lives of local residents who have lost their lives to the disease.

With each passing year, Relay For Life attracts more cancer survivors as participants, draws more community members to join Relay teams, and raises more money to support the work of the American Cancer Society.

One constant, however, is Joyce Graves, the retired Gallup teacher and cancer survivor who has served as Relay For Life Event Chair since the first Gallup Relay was held in June 2000. Since then, Graves has seen the local cancer support group grow in strength, helped organize ACS support programs for local cancer patients, welcomed the grand opening of the New Mexico Cancer Center- Gallup, and recently celebrated the opening of the ACS Cancer Resource Center in Gallup.

And on a most important personal level, Graves has been a grateful witness to the life-saving powers of Gleevec, a medication her husband Paul has been taking daily since 2002 to treat Chronic Myleod Leukemia.

Because each one of these milestones is tied to the work of the American Cancer Society, Graves continues her fund-raising and community-building work with Relay For Life.

"Every dollar that we raise benefits our community," she said in an interview Thursday. Just as fund-raising supported the research that developed Gleevec, Graves believes that every Relay For Life dollar raised in Gallup "will make a difference" in helping fund new cancer research discoveries.

In addition, Relay For Life serves as an important community education tool, she said.

"People have become more aware of cancer issues," Graves said, due to the annual event.

Relay organizers have made some changes to this year's schedule. Here is the list of events, all of which are open to the public:

SATURDAY, JUNE 23:

• 3-5:45 p.m.: Registration for Cancer Survivors along with Entertainment and Games
  
• 4 p.m.: Mataya's Ice Cream Social
  
• 5 p.m.: Purse Auction: More than two dozen purses - containing a variety of secret goodies - will be auctioned
  
• 6 p.m.: Opening Ceremonies: Survivor Lap around Track, Caregiver Moment, Team Parade, and Survivor Photo
  
• 7 p.m.: Survivor Dinner - Courtesy of Golden Corral and Sizzler
  
• 7:30 p.m.: Mr. Relay Contest -"Beauty" contest for guys with great prizes
  
• 8 p.m.: Entertainment
  
• 9:30 p.m.: Luminaria Ceremony - Luminarias lit to honor cancer survivors and remember cancer victims
  
• 10:15 p.m.: Entertainment

SUNDAY, JUNE 24:

• 12:15 Am.: P.J. Contest
  
• 1 a.m.: Team Activity: Piata Bust
  
• 2 a.m.: Scavenger Hunt
  
• 3 a.m.: Team Activity
  
• 4 a.m.: Lap Poker
  
• 5 a.m.: Team Activity
  
• 6 a.m.: Aerobics
  
• 7 a.m.: Breakfast
  
• 8 a.m.: Activity
  
• 8:30 a.m.: Closing Ceremony; Last Lap around Track and Clean-up

For more information, contact Joyce or Paul Graves at (505) 863-3075 or Bev Crowe at 726-0808.