ALABAMA GULF COAST RELAY FOR LIFE SET FOR MAY 1 IN ORANGE BEACH

RANGE BEACH - Organizers are looking forward to May 1 as Relay For Life on the Alabama Gulf Coast once again will take place at the Orange Beach Sportsplex. This year’s installment of the annual event will feature a new format and some exciting new activities.

“Traditionally, we have held Relay on a Friday evening with people attending after work,” Chairman Emily Stowe said. “The event would traditionally kick off around sundown and run into the wee hours of the morning. That made it hard for many, especially those with young children, to take part.”

Stowe said the format this year has been changed to a Saturday event that begins at 10 a.m. and will run for 12 hours. “We have really tried to make this a more family-friendly event than in years past. I’m the mother of three young children, and I know the time change will go a long way towards making the event more accessible to young families,” she said. “Another thing we have this year to make it more family-friendly is a Children’s Village.”

The Children’s Village will have entertainment and games for children for the duration of the event. “We will have presentations from a variety sources, including the fire departments from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alligator Alley and the Coast Guard Auxiliary, just to name a few,” Children’s Village Co-Chair Kimberly Ray said. “I’m also excited to have a couple of art-themed activities going on. We will have a caricaturist who will caricature anyone for $10. He usually charges $40 at LuLu’s and other area restaurants. The Orange Beach Art Center will have a presentation on their summer art program and bring an old Volkswagen Bug for kids to paint on. The paint will be water-based, so it will come off the car and the kids with a good washing.”

Victoria Roberson, also a co-chair for the Children’s Village, said Ike’s Beach Service and Gulf Shores Builder’s Supply have donated blow-up jumpers for the village as well. “The Children’s Stage will offer activities after all presentations such as limbo, parachute play, ribbon sticks, freeze dance and grab the flag,” she said. “By the time the kids are finished with all our activities, parents should have no trouble getting their children to bed that night.”

Children can attend and take part in the presentations at no cost, Ray said. To take part in the jumpers and other special activities she said there will be a $10 charge, which covers everything but caricatures, food and drink. “Where else can you take a child all day for $10 and have this much fun with some education built in as well,” she said.

This year’s Relay will also see the return of the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” cook-off from noon until 2 p.m. Once a popular fundraising fixture for Relay, the cook-off is back with a new format. There will be two divisions, one for restaurants and the other for Relay teams.

“You hear people say all the time that this restaurant or that restaurant has the best burger around,” American Cancer Society Community Liaison Allison Faircloth said. “We’re giving them the chance to prove it. People will purchase a $5 ticket good for a burger and chips, and the team that collects the most tickets will walk away with one award while the team that collects the most cash donations will walk away with another award. We will also have a panel of professional judges to decide who will win in the restaurant division.”

Another new element to this year’s Relay is continuous live music. Relay Committee Members Staci Robinson and Jeremy Mashburn have procured several popular area bands to keep the celebration going throughout the day and evening. “We’ve secured the Trey Hill Band, the Bud Smith Band, Ken Matthews and others to give this year’s Relay a more festive atmosphere,” Robinson said. “Fans of these bands should come out and show their support not just for the bands, but for the American Cancer Society as well.”

One thing that will not change this year is the emphasis the event places on the three tenets of Relay – “Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back.” There will be events to celebrate those who have fought through cancer and are still around to tell the tale. There will be events to remember those who fought bravely against the disease but ultimately lost their battle. There will be events to show how our community, through the American Cancer Society, is fighting back against cancer through funding research and new treatments along with living healthier lifestyles.

“I’m excited about this year’s Relay, and I hope everyone in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach will try to make it to the event at least for a little while,” Faircloth said. “We have many new things in store for this year, and none of it would be possible without the support of the community. Our committee, sponsors, teams and volunteers really get behind this event on a regular basis. People here in the Gulf Coast area know that what they do helps save lives.”

Anyone interested in more information on the event, forming a team for this year’s Relay, participating in the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” cook-off or helping Relay in some other capacity, should contact Faircloth at 251-928-8650 or allison.faircloth@cancer.org.