Walking against cancer
Smaller cancer relay still big in spirit

Andy Urbina claps and cheers as cancer survivors complete the first lap of the Relay for Life Saturday afternoon. This is Urbina's third time particpating in Relay for Life with the Merry Marching Methodists team.[Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

Members of Team Teach for America pass in front of the Nizhoni Gallup hot air balloon as its burners light up the sky on Saturday evening during the Eighth annual Relay for Life held at the Gallup Sports Complex. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

GALLUP — What Gallup's Relay For Life lacked in size, it made up in spirit.

A smaller-than-normal crowd and fewer cancer survivors braved Saturday's wilting heat to attend the American Cancer Society's Eighth annual Relay for Life at the Gallup Sports Complex. However, the sports field still looked like a small campground with its assortment of tents and RVs, and several hundred people turned out to honor local cancer survivors and remember those who have lost their battle with the disease.

According to Joyce Graves, the local Relay event chair, $66,000 had been raised for the ACS by the closing ceremonies on Sunday morning. Graves expects the total to climb to $70,000 because some relay fund-raising teams have not turned in all their donations yet. Relay donations go to support the research, education, and service work of the ACS.

"Our official goal was $65,000, so we exceeded that goal," Graves said. Last year's total - the highest ever for Gallup - was $73,000.

Attendance was also down for cancer survivors. Last year about 100 survivors attended, Graves said, and this year saw only about 65 in attendance.

"I don't know if it was the change of day or the heat," Graves said. "One thing we're really going to look at is the day."

This is the first year Relay organizers have staged the event on a Saturday night. During previous years, it was held on a Friday. Graves said participants with a strong opinion on the matter should let organizers know before a Relay follow-up meeting on July 10.

Honoring Survivors
As in previous years, the event featured a number of activities geared particularly for cancer survivors: welcoming activities; a Native American blessing by Virgil Gatewood, accompanied by flute music by Alvin Bitsilly; an individual introduction of each survivor before the Relay crowd; a survivors' lap around the Sports Complex track to the music of Queen's "We Are the Champions;" a group photo; and a survivor's dinner.

One emotional highlight of the evening was the annual community singing of "Amazing Grace" followed by the lighting of luminarias after sunset. The sports track was lined with hundreds of the paper sacks that had personal messages honoring cancer survivors and remembering cancer victims. This year, more than a dozen luminarias remembered Willie Knight, the young Gallup Catholic High School graduate who recently died.

The memory of another young cancer victim, Kaley Luz Salazar, was strongly felt by many Relay participants. Three-year-old Kaley died just days after last year's Relay, and this year her family and friends formed the Luz Light of Hope Team. Her family brought a memorial banner to carry, and many luminarias were dedicated in her honor.

Community members, many of them members of relay teams, took turns walking around the track all night long. One team of local teenagers came armed with the slogan, "We'll keep you up all night." Their team name? Team VIAGRA.

Flo Barton and her family were not members of any team nor were they accompanying any cancer survivor to the event. They came, however, Barton said, to honor the memory of longtime friend Norma Etsitty of Twin Lakes, N.M., who died last fall. Barton said she knew Etsitty, a dedicated softball mom who attended all of her children's games, through years at the ballpark.

"She was so close to our hearts," Barton said, who was accompanied by her husband, two adult daughters, and several grandchildren.

Celebrate Life
However, all was not somber and solemn. Because one of relay's purposes is to celebrate the lives of cancer survivors, the event includes carnival-like games and contests. This year, organizers moved up the "Mr. Relay" contest from its previous late night hours to an early evening time slot. Several good natured males got in touch with their feminine side by participating in a beauty contest, and each roamed the sports field with purses collecting monetary votes from admirers.

This year's winner was an experienced "Mr. Relay" contestant. Scott MacLaren, known to his students at Roosevelt Elementary as Mr. Mac, became "Mrs. Mac" in a grass skirt and a T-shirt printed to look like a bikini-clad female form.

MacLaren, who earned $355 for Relay for Life in vote money, said he has been involved in the event for several years through his school. His motivation this year was more personal, he explained, because he lost both maternal grandparents to cancer.

Kenny Esquibel was first runner-up with $108 in votes. Esquibel, who works in construction in Gilbert, Ariz., packed some bodacious curves into a very tiny outfit. Born and raised in Gallup, Esquibel said his whole family attended Relay to honor the memory of his mother, Nancy, who died of cancer in 2001.

"This is our first year," he said of the experience. "We'll be coming back. It's awesome."

Cancer survivor Joan Jacobs, who found Esquibel's antics particularly entertaining, said she was enjoying the festive aspects of Relay for Life. Jacobs, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and then lymphoma in 2006, said that it took her some time after her first diagnosis to feel comfortable attending the local cancer support group or attending Relay For Life. For her, she said, coping with the cancer diagnosis was a very personal experience.

"You have to get used to your diagnosis before you can share it with others," she said.

Jacobs said she now gains encouragement each year by attending Relay and seeing other survivors return year after year. She said she was particularly inspired by the example of Gallup resident Eddie Lopez, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was 5 years old, and who has struggled with a recurrence of that tumor, along with testicular cancer, in his thirties.

"To see his struggle encourages me," she said. "He's a survivor."