This year’s annual Relay for Life event raised $44,340 and had about 700 participants.

Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 8, Dickinson’s Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) club hosted the event, a 12-hour long fundraising event for the American Cancer Association. There were 640 participants registered before the event and 44 teams, though with walk-ins the crowd increased to about 700.

Team Pi Beta Phi fundraised the most, totaling $11, 950. Dickinson Swimming came in second with $7,321 and Kappa Alpha Theta in third with $3,936. Individual fundraisers who raised the most were Dickinson’s Director of Aquatics and swim coach Paul Richards with $2,650, Abby Marriott ’16 with $1,865 and Alexandra Mier y Teran ’19 with $1,400.

Participants were entertained with massage chairs, a moon bounce, dance competitions and a cappella, among other fun events. Several speakers addressed the attendees, including Marriott and Brian McCloud ’16, who spoke of how cancer had taken members of their families and affected their lives.

“Everyone has been touched by cancer in some way and in some form,” said Casey LaTorre ’16, co-president of CAC, “which is something [McCloud] touched on in his speech. It’s not about being sorry about cancer, it’s about celebrating the future of life with more birthdays.”

“It’s not just walking around a track for 12 hours,” said Allison Boni ’18, social media chair for CAC.  “It’s realizing that the money is going to an important cause, and… encourages you to think about more than just yourself, and how lucky we really are.”

Madi McDole ’18, co-chair of social media for CAC, said that as a pre-med bio-chem major, she hears a lot about cancer, but “diving into the social aspect of it, how it actually affects people, is important for me.”

Most participants leave by the 12 p.m. to 1 a.m. mark, according to Gillian Maguire ’16, co-president of CAC, but she encourages people to stay the whole 12 hours. “The point of it being overnight is to mirror a cancer patient’s journey through treatment and the struggles that go along with that. Its not supposed to be easy per se,” she said. “It’s also just a really fun event.”

CAC encourages people to sign up for the town of Carlisle’s 24-hour Relay for Life, which is being held on May 13.