Mom's Yelm Dental team combined with the Blue Brigade team which consisted of about five more people so it made it easier to fundraise. This year we did our 5k and did really well, we tried to have a dart night but couldn't line it up with a date at the bar, we sold baked goods, sold food at the actual relay event and had a basket at the bowling fundraiser in March. This year we did pretty well but we also had more people on our team helping out.
As a member of leadership, I learned a lot about what happened behind the scenes and where the ideas came from. We met once a month at the bowling alley. We discussed all kinds of things. I can't believe it all came together at the end. Running something like that takes an awful amount of work and dedication.
A few months beforehand, everyone decided that a cardboard car competition would be a great idea. There were only a few rules and they seemed easy enough. Mom wanted Ben and I to make a car for her. We started about two weeks before it needed to be done. We decided on a Seahawk themed stock car type cardboard car. I borrowed a wagon from Grammie as the base. Ben's idea was better than it started out as. He got frustrated and I got frustrated. Mom and dad made fun of us. After a few days we got the basic shape down but we were having a hard time keeping it from being saggy. I didn't think it was going to be that big either.
Since Erika was home now, she came home halfway into the car's production, she thought it sucked and took matters into her own hands. She basically reshaped the entire car with zip ties and scissors. It actually looked more like a stock car instead of a hydroplane. We put some blue and green spray paint on it, along with the relay for life pink ribbons, our team's name and some Seahawk stickers. We took it a step further by putting some head and tail lights and a real license plate on it. It was LEGIT! We were so going to win.
I took Friday and the Monday off because I knew I would be very tired getting ready for this weekend long event and staying up for 24 hours. That Friday we took all of our stuff and our cardboard car to our spot on the football field. We set up the tents and our pop up just so we didn't have to do it the next day when it was really busy.
The next day I got there around 10 and helped mom with the rest of the set up.
The weather was really nice but I heard that it was suppose to rain and I hoped it waited until after we were done the next day. We sold ice cream, did Plinko and the other half of our team was selling ribs, potato salad, beans Grandma, Trish, Erika and Ben joined in around noonish. Everyone unloaded their stuff, set up their chairs and started walking.
They had a DJ for the entire time, activities each hour, plenty of food and activities to keep you busy. They had Rita Hutchinson, a long time resident of SE Thurston county and the fire chief, share her story as a guest speaker. She is a cancer survivor.
Anything from water balloon toss to goofy hat laps around the track to the Seahawk's mascot Blitz coming and visiting for an hour.
Yes, Blitz the Seahawk came to Rainier.
A few hours before he was suppose to come one of the leadership crew came up to me and told me that she has gotten the Seahawks to agree to donate his time. He was suppose to be here at 5 but I wasn't suppose to post anything to bring people to the track until we knew he was in transit. That was around 2ish and she had me post a blip about it on the relay for life Facebook page. We were hoping it would bring more people.
When Blitz arrived Ben and I were in a rousing game of enormous Jenga. Blitz came around the track with a herd of people. When he got to us there were only a few more moves left of the game. Blitz stood there with his hand on his chin trying to decide which one he wanted to pull. He stood there contemplating for a good while. I didn't think he had a move. Out of nowhere, he grabs one of the blocks, pulls it out very quickly, sets it on top and walks away. Ben and I, with our mouths open, look at each other like, what just happened?
"We just played Jenga with Blitz!! Who can actually say that?!"
We continued our game until he came back. This time with an audience he ran into the table on purpose to make it fall then pretended to act like he was very defeated and ashamed he let all the blocks fall on the ground. It was definitely entertaining.
We even got a chance to show him our Seahawks cardboard box stock car and he took a picture with us. He continued walking around, giving people high fives and eventually everyone got organized and who ever wanted to got to take a picture with him.
After pictures we had a tug of war competition with him. Ben and I decided to join in against Blitz just for fun. Our team ended up winning. We all thanked him for coming out to hang out with us for an hour and he was gone just as quickly as he arrived.
I walked laps with Trish and Ben while we waited to show off our cardboard car and race it. We saw there were only four participants and we were going to wipe the floor with them. They announced they needed everyone participating in the car show lap to be at the starting line.
Ben and I got our car and headed to the starting line with Trish and Erika and we walked around the track showing off our cardboard cars. When we got back to the inflatable arch we were to get our cardboard cars ready to race. Ben was our racecar driver and I was at the finish line getting ready to take some pictures. He pretty much smoked them all and the three girls under 12 were pretty sore losers.
Dad came and walked with us for a little while. Erika went home after a while. Grandma went home before dark because she doesn't like driving at night.
We pretty much ate dinner, walked around the track and tried to finish my luminaria bags before the ceremony at 10 p.m. By around 8 p.m. I was almost to 10 miles and my feet were definitely hurting and you could feel the blisters starting to form but I wanted to get to at least 15 miles. I usually did my best uninterrupted walking after midnight.
Just before 10 it started lightly sprinkling and everyone was trying to keep all the bags around the track lit. This year relay was changed to the next weekend because of the flat track races. Last year the noise interrupted the ceremony and leadership didn't want that to happen again. Also this year the ceremony featured a slide show of everyone who is currently fighting, survived or passed away due to cancer. I totally forgot about the submission deadline but mom got all the people in we wanted to. We stood out in the field and listened to the speakers while trying to will the rain away (even though our region needed it due to all the fires). The bagpipes started and we all followed a lap around and attempted to keep our candles lit. Mine didn't make it.
It started raining harder so our group retired to our covered sitting area trying to avoid getting wet and cold. Mom's co-worker Amy came for a few hours in the middle of the night and stayed to hang out with us. We talked about various things especially our upcoming trip to Ecuador in a very few short weeks. Trish fell asleep in her chair. The rain continued for about four hours. None of us got any walking time in during that part of the night. I got tired around 4ish so I joined Ben inside our tent. He laid down about an hour and a half before me. I climbed in trying not to wake him up.
We got up just before 8 the next morning. I heard people getting ready for food. A group travels around each year volunteering their time and food to relay events. This year they chose SE Thurston to make pancakes, eggs and sausage too. It was very nice of them. Ben, Trish and I ate at the closest table with empty chairs and enjoyed our food. Shortly after I had about three more miles until I got to my goal of 15. My feet were very angry but I had to get it done.
Those were very slow miles but on my last lap I was very excited to finish. It was cold, wet but not raining. I knew we had a lot of clean up after we were done and mom was going to be busy counting money in the trailer with Josh and Bri. It was up to us to get it done. We started with the pile of wet cardboard on the field. We brought it just in case other people wanted to make a cardboard cars. We had help putting it in the back of the truck to take to the recycle up the street. When we came back, we took down the tents, the Plinko board, the awning and loaded it in to mom's truck. We loaded our stuff into the Escape and told mom that we gave Ashley her truck keys because we were going to go home.
I could not wait to get home. I was going to eat some food, shower and take a nap. That nap sounded better than the rest of the stuff. When we got home, we unloaded most of the stuff that needed to come in and left the rest for another day. I literally did not want to do anything and I was glad I took Monday off. I was going to need it.
Next year's relay begins now!
Next Adventure: A Day Trip Towards My 11000th Cache Milestone
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