This Saturday, Apr. 27, Hamilton’s Intersociety Council will host the Relay for Remission. The event is an on-campus cancer fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society, Abraham House, and Light Hill. It will feature an obstacle course relay race, live musical performances, food, T-shirt sales, and raffles.
The Relay for Remission is a brand-new event. Kory Fogarty ’19 created the concept and brought it to the Student Activities Board, pitching the idea at an ISC meeting.
“ISC loved the idea,” said Fogarty. “They made it their main philanthropy event for the spring, and it grew from there.”
Fogarty also explained the motivation that drove him to start Relay for Remission. “I lost both my grandpa and my dad to cancer about a year and half ago and I wanted to do something in their honor,” he said.
Fogarty explained that the Abraham House and Light Hill were chosen as donees “because we wanted to have a proactive and reactive response to this issue. Abraham House and Light Hill are both comfort care homes for cancer patients that are ready to pass. Light Hill was chosen because it was the house in which my father who passed away of pancreatic cancer.”
After pitching the idea to ISC, Fogarty recruited fifty students to assist with planning and executing the event. They recently also collaborated with BLSU, Grilling Club, and WHCL, who all agreed to sponsor the event along with the Student Activities Office and ISC.
Fogarty says the goal is to get as many people as possible involved and make it a campus wide event. He adds that “there have been a lot of fundraisers in the past that haven’t really targeted the whole school, so our hope was just to target as many different people as possible.” Relay for Remission hopes to achieve this all-campus impact by combining athletics, music performances, raffles, and various associated groups and sponsors.
The obstacle course relay race is open to all Hamilton students, faculty, and staff. It will take place on the outskirts of the rugby field and is untimed and friendly for all athletic abilities. Teams are comprised of four people, and each participant will run a section of the approximately one-mile course. The course will include hoola hoops, low ropes to crawl under, a rope swing, ropes to jump over, tires to run through, and other obstacles. Teams can register online on the Relay for Remission page on the Hamilton College website. In addition, the first 50 people to sign up for a team receive free T-shirts.
Post-race activities will be held at the Babbitt Pavilion. The student dance group HEAT and two musical guests, Wine and Diner and Otis Shanty, will perform live. The raffle will be held between the two musical performances and prizes will include gift baskets from Kaizia Martin and Clinton Pottery/Utica Coffee, as well as other gift baskets of wine, golf equipment, Air Pods, multiple gift cards to local restaurants, men’s gifts, dog items, and a date themed basket.
The race will start at 12 PM and last approximately an hour-and-a-half. At 1:45 PM, HEAT will perform, followed by opening remarks from event organizers and others around 2 PM. The first band will go on at 2:15 PM, and the raffle will take place between the two musical guests. T-shirts and food will be available for purchase throughout the event.
If you do not want to participate in the race or are unable to, but would like to contribute money, donations can be made online on the Relay for Remission page on the College website.
So far, 21 teams — around 84 people — have registered, but there is still time to register to participate. Fogarty says he is pleased with the support Relay for Remission has garnered thus far, adding that it has grown into something much bigger than he expected.
