Walking for cancer research

MOSES LAKE - A crowd of people dressed in T-shirts braved the wind as they prepared to walk to support cancer research.

About 1,500 people joined to aide the American Cancer Society in Moses Lake's Relay for Life on Friday and Saturday. The annual event raised more than $100,000 before people started walking and running Friday.

Mark Gilbert opened the event saying he's been involved with Relay for Life events across the Northwest for about 20 years.

"When it comes to Relay, I've been to a lot of them, and let me tell you something about Moses Lake, this is by far the most committed, impressive community when it comes to Relay for Life," he said. "I can not believe what I see in this community."

The success of the event can be found in a great committee organizing the event, incredible corporate support and the amount of cancer survivors participating the event, Gilbert said.

After leading a chant with the crowd, Gilbert said they could let the subject matter of the event get them down.

"This is a tough deal. We've got more cancer occurrences across the country than we've ever had, one in two men, one in three women. This is a tough thing, but we're not going to focus on that. We're going to focus on the good news message," he said. "Cancer deaths have gone down for the last three years in a row. We're starting to win this thing."

When he started participating in Relay for Life, Gilbert didn't have anyone in his family with cancer. His family remained free of cancer until recently, he said.

"Three months ago, my mother calls and says, 'I have breast cancer.' I said, 'No, you don't because we don't have cancer in our family, Mom. You're mistaken. Go back to your doctor,'" Gilbert said. "She said, 'No.'"

He was hoping to bring her to the Moses Lake event, but her radiation treatment recently ended, and she was resting, he said. His mother is doing well and winning the fight against cancer.

"I haven't had a personal story for 20 years and now I have one," he said. "For those of you who are survivors, I've tried to understand that. Now I have somebody very near and dear to me that is, and it means something different, doesn't it?"

His association with the American Cancer Society allowed him to find the best treatments and doctors for his mother, he said.

As Gilbert finished, the cancer survivors and their families gathered to walk a lap on the track. After it was finished, people began walking the course for the main event. Jeff Heimark, the event chair, said the teams raised funds through a variety of means, including yard sales and bake sales. The teams raised about $70,000 toward the event.

"I play in a band that will take donations and we have a team and we raised over $1,000 this year," he said. "There was one team that came up with the really brilliant idea of flamingo flocking. Where they basically do like a bounty where you put flamingos in somebody's yard and then you would have to pay to have them removed."

Heimark became involved with the event through his work. He participated in the Mr. Relay contest, where men dress up as women and collect money from people, he said. He became progressively more involved in the event.

"The interesting part about it is that everybody is affected by cancer in some way. It's really hard unless you're a hermit or a recluse to not have somebody that's affected by cancer," he said. "Everybody has that hope that it's not a definite. That there is still something that you can do."

Nearby teams set up camps where team members sat before walking laps on the field. A group of children played with costumes for a smart phone photo booth. The Presbyterian Church of Moses Lake created the booth to entertain the children at the event.

"Grown-ups and kids, they put on silly little things just to have fun," said Stephanie Meacham, the church's team captain. "It was a good idea from one of our team members ... Every year, we try to come up with something interactive that people who are walking around, especially kids, can do."

About 45 people were on the church's team, she said. The church participated in the event for the past six years.

"You have so many church members that either had cancer or have been affected by cancer," Meacham said. "We want to support our church family."

Along the track, Jennifer Stillwell and Amber Bravo walked along the track wearing tutus. They were joined by Melissa Chesmore. The three nurses were part of the Assured Hospice team.

Bravo said they wore the tutus because they were great.

"We stand out and we wanted to make sure people understood that we're part of hospice, and why we relay," Stillwell said. "We relay for ... our patients who have passed, patients that we have with us, our family members. Cancer is all around us."