Video: UC Students Break More Records at Fundraiser to Fight Cancer

Student organizers say the University of Cincinnati Relay For Life will meet and possibly even surpass its goal of raising $135,000 for the American Cancer Society to support research, treatment and education programs in the battle against cancer.

The event drew a record 168 teams and at least 1,863 participants to McMicken Commons April 24-25.

Event chair Florence Lucas, a 20-year-old University of Cincinnati secondary education major and University Honors student from Akron, Ohio, says contributions are still being counted for the seventh-annual Relay For Life at UC, but she says participants were just under the $135,000 goal – without counting matching gifts – at end of the event on Saturday.

Fundraising continues through August.

Lucas says that over the past seven years, Relay For Life events at UC have raised more than $500,000 for the American Cancer Society.

Student co-chair Megan Hathaway of White Oak, a UC sophomore University Honors student and civil engineering major, was the top single fundraiser, bringing in $3,275. She raised $2,225 at the 2008 Relay her freshman year.

The UC Relay For Life Web site lists the “Cancer Crushers” as the top fundraising team, which raised more than $5,632. Other top single and team fundraisers are recognized on the UC Relay For Life Web site.

The video above shows the teams in action, a Rallycats-sponsored date auction that raised more than $1,600 for Relay For Life at UC, and a visit from Lucy the Bearcat and friends from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.

The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life celebrates its 25th anniversary this spring. Peter Osborne, Southwest Ohio public relations director for the American Cancer Society, says that over those 25 years, more than $3 billion has been raised for research, prevention and education programs to battle cancer.

Through Aug. 31, UC students, faculty, staff and members of the Cincinnati USA community can continue to build on UC’s fundraising goals for Relay For Life by contributing through the Relay For Life Web site.