Extracurricular activities range from varsity sports, to honor societies, to hobby-based clubs. All have very different schedules, goals, and people involved, but on April 21, these organizations come together to raise money for the American Cancer Society in the annual school-wide event, “Relay for Life.”

The event, organized by the student council, involves extracurricular groups hosting a booth on the practice football field, with some members monitoring the booth’s activities, while other members walk the surrounding track, collecting beads. Beads collected correlate to money donated to cancer research by outside sponsors.

”The purpose is to raise money, and raise awareness for cancer and all forms of fighting cancer, and finding ways to find a cure,” senior student council and student leadership member Michael Beals said. “Just everything that goes into that.”

21 student organizations hosted booths, each collecting tickets for their specific activity. One organization was the National Art Honor Society (NAHS,) which painted faces at the event.

“I think it’s good for the community, the neighborhood and the school to know that we’re here,” NAHS sponsor and art teacher Violet Delaney said. “We’re present, we’re in support of their goals, and we’re supportive of anybody who’s fighting for this cause.”

Student council and leadership put in a lot of time to plan Relay for Life. The planning included concessions, decorations, clubs, banners, tracking money and tickets collected and keeping the event organized.

“We were split up into different committees and one was the concessions,” junior and student leadership member Sadie Anderson said. “So, we’re just kind of in charge of getting a caterer for the whole thing, and then also, picking snacks, drinks and everything for that.”

The Cancer Awareness Club also hosted a booth, with their activity being a corn hole. Senior and president of the club, Kaylee Song, connects the purpose of Relay for Life to the purpose of her club.

“Our club’s purpose (is) to help people to get awareness of cancer and then to spread awareness and take care of those cancer patients,” Song said. “I think (this is) the most important event of the year because it’s the end of year, you can come together and do something as a whole school.”

One lap around the track was taken by all attendees at the event in honor of survivors of cancer. Cancer survivors also received a “Survivor dinner” provided by the student council in the MPF.

“I think it’s really awesome, just that it’s also student-run,” Anderson said. “It’s really cool. Just having the community come together is really awesome.”

While the purpose of Relay for Life is to raise money and awareness for finding a cure, it’s also an opportunity to come together as a community to honor cancer survivors.

“I enjoy that the event manages to create a fun environment for kids to come and families to come here,” Beals said. “They have a great time while also fighting cancer.”