Motorsports Park regularly hosts Kart racing, too
April 3, 2013
Andrew Calise Freeman
April 8, 2013
The Thibodaux Relay for Life has changed its day of week, location and time, but what hasn’t changed is the volunteers’ excitement or their commitment to helping support the fight against cancer.
“We’re thrilled to be at Thibodaux High” on Saturday, April 6, says Lori Knobloch, steering committee member who works with team recruitment and development. “We’ve been at Nicholls for years and we’ve outgrown our spot we’ve been using.” Due to conflicts and the team’s desire to try a different time of day, it was moved and will be conducted noon to midnight to minimize the effect on surrounding residents.
Being in the stadium “brings more of a cohesiveness to the event; we’re not as spread out,” Knobloch says. Visitors can sit in the bleachers to view the luminaria ceremony, which honors loved ones who’ve died from or are fighting the disease, and better hear the bands and announcements. “It makes a better presentation for the public that does come.”
Relay for Life is a family-friendly event, with a variety of food, bands, children’s activities, dunking booths, and live and silent auctions. Bands entertaining at Thibodaux’s Relay will be Southern Grit, Uprising and Crush.
A week later on April 13, the Larose Relay for Life runs from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. at Larose Regional Park, with cancer survivors arriving in a parade that begins at 6 p.m. at the Lafourche Parish Library in Galliano. The event will also include survivors trick-or-treating at each relay team’s booth, an Elvis impersonator and the Str8 On band.
The youth event, a lock-in for middle and high-school students, was held March 22 and featured a disc jockey, luminaria ceremony and other activities. Like the adult teams, the youth get involved because “everyone knows someone that had cancer, passed from cancer, helped take care of someone with cancer,” says Ty Guidry, who serves as chair for both the adult and youth events.
Volunteers, donors and attendees support the event “so no one has to hear those words ‘You have cancer’ again,” says Sue Szush, team captain for Acadian Ambulance, who lost her mother to cancer; her husband is a survivor of colorectal cancer. “It’s (committee and team members’) hard work that really makes this a success.”
Terrebonne’s Relay, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. April 27 at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center, also features a volleyball tournament and a cooking contest, as well as Southern Cross, the Yum Yum Band (a group of doctors from Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center), Jerrylyn Duplantis a.k.a. Tina Turner, None the Wiser and Bonnie Wells.
Collectively, the three events raised more than $600,000 last year. The Terrebonne event raised the most, $340,000, and involved the most teams in the state; it also rated No. 1 in customer satisfaction among the country’s 4,500 relays (through a survey of relay team captains), Szush says.
The Thibodaux Relay raised more than $260,000, the second most in the state, according to Knobloch. The Larose event raised $118,000, with $6,000 of it being raised at its youth event, Guidry says. The money raised supports research, education, patient services and advocacy.
The Ochsner St. Anne Hospital team walks the track at last year’s Relay for Life in Thibodaux. Three such events are scheduled this month in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.
