WATCH: UC Faculty and Staff Are Invited to Join an 18-Hour Birthday Celebration

Relay For Life at UC, the annual spring fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society, is the largest collegiate relay in its division – which includes Ohio and Pennsylvania. The 18-hour relay gets underway at 5:45 p.m., Friday, April 27, on McMicken Commons, and ends with an announcement of the total raised at noon, Saturday, April 28.

As student organizers celebrate Relay For Life’s 10th birthday on campus, they’re hoping to recruit as many as 2,000 participants to raise $155,000 to support American Cancer Society education, advocacy and research programs, including American Cancer Society-funded research at UC. From 2007 to 2011, the university received $1,763,659 in funding from the American Cancer Society.

“If we reach our goal, we will reach the $1 million mark in the 10 years that Relay For Life has been at the University of Cincinnati,” says event chair Danny Pierson, a fifth-year chemical engineering major from Massillon, Ohio. “This is an incredible milestone that we really want to hit,” says Pierson.

Because of UC’s record of successful fundraising, the university was part of a three-day Relay For Life challenge last week with 25 other universities across the nation. Despite a busy week as students got back from spring break, UC reported raising $4,435 – a higher total than such universities as Michigan State, Notre Dame, Northwestern and UCLA.

Student organizers of Relay For Life at UC include Pierson, Megan Kelley, a third-year accounting major from Mason and Rebecca Matthews, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major from Clifton..

For more on how to donate or take part in Relay For Life at UC, click on the website at: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=40205