On my birthday, Saturday May 22, Ed and I joined Team Soboba Springs in a Relay For Life Walkathon for the American Cancer Society. We had both collected our target contribution goal of $100 each and were eligible to receive a t-shirt commemorating the event. We showed up for the Opening Ceremonies and to watch the Survivor Lap at 9:00 am. The first lap of the day is for the people who have had cancer and survived it or are still living with it. It's a pretty big thing to survive the Big C so each survivor was given a bag to receive multiple goodies from each booth as they walked around the track.
Ed and I volunteered for the first lap for Team Soboba Springs after the Survivor Lap even though we were signed up for the noon lap. That first lap was only about 45 minutes and we leisurely walked about 2 miles. At just after 10am, we passed the "spirit stick" and wandered around to the other teams' booths and the bandstand area. There was a lot going on and we visited with other residents of Soboba Springs Mobilehome Park. At about 11:00am we headed home for lunch and then returned at noon for our scheduled lap. Mostly we walked leisurely as we watched all the happenings and other walkers around us. On our noon lap we made about another 2 miles. At 2pm we drove back home, watched a movie and rested for the evening festivities.
At 5pm, Ed took me out to dinner at Delgados for my birthday and we returned to SJ High School for the evening ceremonies. At about 7pm, we took over the "spirit stick" again and walked another 2 miles. Each time we walked around the track, we put another bead on our string. 4 laps around the track was equal to a mile and we collected 24 beads each. Wow, if my math is correct, we walked 6 miles that day. Actually that was nothing compared to some of the younger people who had long strings of beads around their necks. I heard one young man say that he was going to walk 24 miles that day or bust!!
At 9pm they had the Luminaria Ceremony. Lighted bags were placed around the track with names of cancer honorees or memorials and the track lights were turned off. It was quite a scene with lighted bags or luminarias everywhere in the darkness. Ed and I enjoyed the whole event but by the end of the luminaria ceremony, it was cold and windy. It was a 24 hr event but that was for the young and hardy. We were cold and tired so we headed home hoping for the best for those that stayed. Luckily it didn't rain that night and the Relay was a success!