The Fight Against Cancer

 Relay for Life is a organization that benefits the American Cancer Society. Relay is a 24hour event hosted at Central Park in Santa Clarita, but there are others around the U.S, and at least one person from every team is supposed to be walking on the track, for the whole time. Even at three o’clock in the morning people are supposed to be walking around the track. This year there are 130 teams signed up to participate in Relay. All together these teams have raised $144,819.35 for the American Cancer Society.

Each team has a Team Captain whose job is organize what the team is raffling (or other money making games) off on the day of Relay. Each Team Captain gets to pick a camp spot around the track, the camp spot is where you have your booth for your raffle or whatever game you have and is also where you can set up your tents. The people who run Relay set up meetings for the Team Captains before Relay, at these meetings the Team Captains can get luminaries, luminaries are paper bags that either say ‘In Memory Of’ or ‘In Honor Of’ on the top that people can buy for people that they know that have died or survived cancer, and where the pick the teams camp spot.

My Relay team is called the Huck Healers. My team was started in a class room. My philanthropy teacher, Mrs. Koppenhaver, was already part of a Relay team (Athletes against Cancer) because her son was a cancer survivor and she wanted us to have the experience of Relay for Life. All my classmates are on Huck Healers and we have each raised $100 or more for the American Cancer Society. We have fundraised for our team though a bake sale at our school, Huckleberry Center for Creative Learning, and a lemonade/bake sale at my friends Home Owners Association clubhouse, not to mention personal fundraising such as face booking, e-mailing, skyping and texting that went on. Our team has raised $1,650.55 for Relay but we’re hoping to raise more money in the six days before relay *hint-hint* to meet our goal of $2,000.

I, for one, am excited about the looming prospect of staying up 24hours with little sleep to help raise money for the American Cancer Society, complete with smiling constantly while selling raffle tickets for my teams movie basket (complete with two movies, popcorn, soda, candy and a blanket) and walking around the ‘track’. Ok, so maybe the constant smiling at three o’clock in the morning doesn’t sound so good but the reason why I’m doing it will make it worthwhile.

The whole process of creating a team name, choosing the team colors (bright blue and neon green), picking the saying to go on the back of the shirts, fundraising, and all the other cool stuff I’ve gotten to do was so much fun and there’s more to come. With Relay only six days away there is a lot more to do. Between buying snacks and drinks for the day of Relay, packing, finding the camp spot, then setting up everything the day before Relay my team has a busy week ahead of us, and that’s not counting all the homework and regular things we do at home.

I am so glad that I am able to participate in Relay for Life so that I can help, inadvertently, to find a cure for the disease that has claimed the lives of so many people. I hope that Huck Healers continues so that I may continue to help the fight against cancer.

Writing again

          Disclaimer: Please bear with me this blog post, it’s earky (12:30 AM) and I’m tired from my track meet yesterday morning/afternoon. I’m falling asleep as I write this just so ya know. Sorry if this doesn’t exactly make sense……

Blog post helped along by Wizard Rock.

I’m assuming everybody knows about the budget cuts that the schools have been getting (who doesn’t know about them?). When schools get budget cuts one of the first things they cut is music, closely followed by art and then anything even remotely artistic (why I have no idea, those things are important to!). Creative writing is one of the things schools cut. Creative writing is 1) an important form of expression and 2) a very helpful way to practice thinking out side the box. Creative writing is an important skill in life.

First I’ll enlighten you about the tremendously significant qualities of creative writing. Just kidding, I’m merely telling you my views on how creative writing is an important form of expression. Some people express themselves through playing an instrument, art, singing, cooking, and several other forms. My favorite is writing because I like be able to put my thoughts down on paper. “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” said William Wordsworth (he was a poet back in 1780’s). I think that what he said perfectly explains how creative writers feel when they write, I know that’s how I feel at least. Writing a story is more then just creating a character and thinking of a story line, although those are very important, you have to have a passion for writing. You have to write from your heart, the words are already written you just have to transfer them to paper.

As I’ve said before, creative writing is good practice for thinking outside the box. Especially when you’re writing a sci-fi or fantasy book because, well that’s when you have really crazy plots and story lines. Don’t even try to tell me that’s easy. Creating an outline for a story is an exercise that can be used for creating and solving problems, which is distantly related to math. And yes, I do know that you think I’m crazy for saying that. I know that solving for X is not the same as figuring out how to create and solve story line problems but it’s a step in the same direction.

Now you know why I think creative writing is important, I hope you agree. Creative writing is an important skill that is not being taught in schools. I hope that the public schools will be able to add creative writing back into their list of classes because it is important. It’s a skill that can be used in other subjects, not only the arts.