Palatine Relay For Life: Hundreds Turn Out To Fight Cancer

More than 700 people turned out at Walter R. Sundling Junior High in Palatine Friday for the 2011 Relay for Life.

Those participating in the fundraising walk to fight cancer also celebrated those who have survived the disease and honored the lives of those who didn't. High school students, youngsters and adults turned Sundling’s track and infield into a tent city for the event. Teams of people circled the track for 12 hours.

Although the fund-raising walk was scheduled to end at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, the emotional climax came at 10 p.m. Friday, when luminaria lining the track were lit and friends and loved ones remembered victims of the disease.

“We lost a sorority sister,” said Amy Mills, a member of Phi Sigma, Sigma from Springfield,  after she bent over to photograph a luminaria honoring the woman. “This is our second year coming here.”

Nearby Ashely Keclik, of Hoffman Estates and her friend, Kevin Bujak of Palatine, stared quietly at a row of brightly burning luminaria, remembering people she knew who succumbed to the disease.

A lone Scottish bagpiper played as hundreds of people walked around the hushed track to honor victims.

The somber luminaria ceremony stood in sharp contrast to the mood earlier in the night, when festive teams of walkers, some of them dressed in costumes to rival Mardi Gras, walked the track.

Megan Kennedy and Nikhi Kannegants wore trucks fashioned out of cardboard.

“We are truckers driving cancer off the road,” Kennedy said as she walked.

Four men wearing wigs, dresses and female undergarments were a big hit as they walked the track and took part in “Mr. Relay Pageant.”