For more than a decade, the members of Team EMU, Eastern
Michigan's perennial entry in the Ypsilanti Relay for Life,
have walked because they love it. The rewards are usually
intangible — satisfaction, hope, solidarity and that
warm fuzzy feeling of being united in a common fight against
cancer.
But no one complained when, this year, the American Cancer
Society upped the ante and threw in a porta-john.
 |
RELAY HEROES: (from left) Dianna Huepenbecker,
Mary Jo Owens and Michelle Owens dressed as
superheroes
to show their spirit in fighting cancer
during
the Ypsilanti Relay for Life in June. Michelle
Owens is an assistant director at the Rec/IM while
Mary Jo Owens is her mother and Huepenbecker her
aunt. In the past four months, EMU faculty, staff
and
students have raised more than $72,000 to
support
the American Cancer Society and the American
Heart
Association. Photo by Teri Papp
|
Team EMU, which has so far raised $4,410, won the inaugural
Spirit Award at the June 21-22 Relay for Life at Riverside
Park. Along with a traveling trophy, the team will get
to choose a plum site in the park at the outset of next
year's relay and, it'll have its very own porta-john.
"It's the little things," said team member Martha Costa,
program coordinator at the Rec IM.
But philanthropy at EMU is no small matter.
In the past four months, EMU faculty, staff and students
have raised more than $72,000 to support the American Heart
Association and the American Cancer Society (ACS).
"I think it represents the tremendous giving spirit of
this University," said Kay Woodiel who, along with Bernice
Lindke, vice president for student affairs and enrollment
management, co-chaired the American Heart Association's
Washtenaw County Start! Walk.
Lindke's office, in fact, was a sort of philanthropy central
this spring. While Lindke helped spearhead the American
Heart Association fund- and awareness-raiser, Teri Papp,
administrative associate to Lindke, co-captained Team EMU
(with Peggy Harless, assistant director of Diversity and
Community Involvement, which also falls under the purview
of Student Affairs.)
And Cathie McClure, executive secretary in Student Affairs,
captained yet another Relay for Life team. In fact, her
team of family and friends, the "Relay Rascals" as they're
known, came in a close second to Team EMU in the race for
that porta john, er, Spirit Award.
"Affairs of the Heart," the Start! Walk team from Student
Affairs, was one of two EMU teams ("Get Pumped" from business
and finance was the other) recognized for raising more
than $2,500, even though several team members also were
hitting family and friends up for relay pledges.
McClure, a 14-year cancer survivor, said the atmosphere
in Student Affairs is just conducive to stepping up when
people ask for help.
"We hear about events where they need somebody
to organize something and it's like, 'Let's just do it,'" she
said. "I was on the planning committee for Relay (For Life).
I didn't do a lot of fundraising for the heart walk. I
can't ask everybody to (donate) twice, but I walked and
supported them. Just like for the cancer survivors, it's
just so they know they're not alone and that people are
there fighting for them."
Eastern Michigan University's students kicked off the
fundraising in April with the campus Relay For Life, during
which more than 700 participants raised $45,949
for the ACS.
"It's a very big deal," said Jennifer Acker, an ACS staff
partner. "They grew a lot this past year. They've been
on campus the last four years and, this year, they had
more teams and more people participating."
In May, 111 EMU walkers combined to raise $21,767 for
the American Heart Association at the Start! Heart Walk
at Washtenaw Community College. Eastern Michigan, which
set a $21,000 goal this year, ranked seventh nationally
among universities that took part in the walk. Meanwhile,
campus blood drives in February, April and June collected
663 pints of blood for the American Red Cross.
EMU's Relay for Life team doesn't get the same institutional
push for participation that the Start! Walk has enjoyed
the past two years. It's made up of a small core of faculty
and staff from across campus who've relayed together since
the 1990s — when EMU first hosted the Eastern Washtenaw
County Relay for Life.
Every year, the core group invites cancer survivors to
join them or invite departments to walk on behalf of a
colleague who's had cancer.
Costa said the Ypsilanti Relay, as a whole, is still well
short of its $70,000 goal. But Team EMU is within range
of the $5,000 goal it always sets, despite the economy
and the threat of giving fatigue. People are very generous,
she said, and they often surprise you.
"Something I've always liked about this event is it really
is one of the few town-gown events in Ypsilanti," Costa
said. "It really engages the community and gives people
on campus a chance to get engaged in philanthropic work
together. I love that it brings people from all over the
community together."
