One step at a time: Annual Relay for Life raises funds for cancer cure

Yet Friday was a first for the Decatur resident, as she finally was part of a team that walked with her and cheered her on as she took the lap for fellow survivors of the disease.

“I feel pretty good,” Luechtefeld said as she and hundreds of others walked the parking lot of Richland Community College, where the event has made its Macon County home for 23 years. “I cried the whole time — though I always do that every year.”

Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society's most successful fundraising event, with thousands of communities in 27 countries participating. According to ACS, the events have raised more than $5 billion since they began in 1985.

A total of 27 teams registered for this year’s event in Macon County, said Lara Grobosky, the event leader for the local Relay for Life. The goal this year was to raise $132,000, and the organization entered Friday at around $111,000.

The annual overnight event began at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at 6 a.m. today.

While the number of registered teams and donations were slightly down, Grobosky said she was still excited to see how the community comes out to support.

“We’re down a little bit, but it doesn’t really matter because every penny matters in the fight against cancer,” she said. “So, it’s more than we had the day before.”

Among the teams were “Pammys Angels,” named after Luechtefeld. The group was captained by Luechtefeld's next-door neighbor, Jennifer Ellis, who is also the American Cancer Society Act lead for the Illinois 13th Congressional District, which includes Decatur.

Ellis affectionately referred to Luechtefeld as the team’s “little leprechaun,” as the latter’s energy and optimism have never slowed down, even during her own battle with cancer.

“She has been out here every year, even when she was fighting, and she never let her optimistic attitude die down,” Ellis said. “She is always optimistic, always rooting for another in their own fight.”

Several teams had their own areas set up with ways to fundraise, from a variation of bingo to sales of T-shirts and even customized dog tags.

The latter came from Postiche, a Decatur-based spa and skincare service provider that also has specific skincare for chemotherapy and radiation patients and hair and brow prosthetics.

The idea for the dog tag, as well as the camouflage-print shirts with the label “Call of Beauty” on them, came from the battle those with cancer have to go through, said Postiche owner Devona Haws. Like most people at Friday’s event, Haws said she has had a number of family members, friends and customers fight and lose their lives to cancer. 

“We see what it does to women and to families. We see what their journeys are like, and it’s a heartbreaking thing to go through,” Haws said. “So we hope to raise money to help them find a cure someday.”

Friday’s event began with the opening ceremony, followed by survivor, caregiver and team laps around the luminaria.

There was also an announcement from Mark Birch, a board member of the Decatur Youth Hockey Association, that the group had raised nearly $21,000 from its Alumni Games held last fall. All proceeds from the event were given to the American Cancer Society.

Birch, who lost his mother and stepmother to cancer, said it was important for him to raise money and give what he could to help find a cure.

“While everyone who is born is going to die,” he said, “no one deserves to die of cancer.”