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Relay For Life awards ceremony celebrates creativity and cancer survivors

Story and photo by Alice E. Gerard
Grand Island Dispatch, September 29, 2006

The many Grand Island teams and companies that raised a net total of $110,000 for the American Cancer Society during the June 9-10 Relay for Life were honored at an awards ceremony on Sept. 26 at Grand Island High School.

“Grand Island was the talk of the town,” said Deb Bogdan, senior director of income development at the American Cancer Society of Western New York. Grand Island, with 100 teams and more than 1,000 participants, raised more money than all of the other Western New York events, except for first-place Barker, in Niagara County. Mary Dunbar-Daluisio, who served as the event’s co-chair along with Town Supervisor Peter McMahon, said, “We stay within our boundaries. All of the teams, donations, and decorations, including the purple flamingoes, came from Grand Island.”

Dunbar-Daluisio described the all-night event as being “set up like a carnival around a high school or university track. The teams all have themes and they sell things, such as food or massages, to fund-raise during the event.” At the Grand Island event, Irish dancers, bands, singers and others entertained the attendees. “It’s quite a party,” she said.

Relay Involvement Personal

The first Relay For Life event was held in Grand Island in 2002. Dunbar-Daluisio, who works at Fuccillo Chevrolet, said that she got involved then because “I wanted to do something. I lost an older sister to cancer. It’s very hard to lose a sibling.” With just two months to prepare for the event, Dunbar-Daluisio, then the entertainment chair, was able to arrange for such activities as face painting and a bounce house. She also had co-worker Jim Noe, the owner of DJ system UfoundAsound to serve as the DJ for the event. She said that Noe also lost a sister to cancer.

In 2003, Dunbar-Daluisio became co-chair of the entire event after attending a weekend-long training session in New York City. She has been co-chair ever since.

Dunbar-Daluisio is a cancer survivor. She said that, when she was at the American Cancer Society’s “Celebration on the Hill” on Sept. 20 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., a friend asked her if she cried when she was diagnosed with cancer last year. “I said, ‘No.’ I didn’t cry. I cried for my sister. Does the pain ever go away?”

She also related that on Sept. 22, she was at Roswell Park Cancer Hospital for her checkup. The nurse recognized the Relay For Life crest on Dunbar-Daluisio’s lime green sweater and said, “You’re the one who went to Washington, D.C. Thank you.”

Relay’s Youngest Survivor

Among the teams that were honored at this year’s Relay for Life was “Ian’s Choo Choo Caboose.” The team was named for 28-month-old Ian Cameron, one of the youngest cancer survivors in the event. He was diagnosed with stage 3 neuroblastoma at the age of 10 months, after his mother, Dona Cameron, discovered him in his crib paralyzed below the waist. The tumor on his spine was the size of a lemon.


The Grand Island Relay For Life’s 2006 Co-Chair, Mary Dunbar-Daluisio, honors 2-and-a-half-year-old cancer survivor Ian Cameron at a special awards ceremony held this week.

  

Cameron said when she and her husband Rob found out about their only child’s illness, “He’s just a baby. I couldn’t understand how someone so young could have such a terrible condition.”

Ian, who is now 2-and-a-half years old, went through six surgical procedures and five rounds of chemotherapy. For six months, the Cameron family “lived” at Children’s Hospital. “It was scary,” Cameron said.

Although Ian Cameron has been cancer-free for a year, he experiences lingering effects from his illness. “He will be paralyzed for the rest of his life,” his mother said.

Cameron said that cancer has affected the life of her family beyond anything that she could ever have imagined. For that reason, when she heard that Grand Island participated in the Relay For Life approximately three to four weeks before the event, she quickly put together a team. The team was able to raise $1,200 by selling paintings made by Cameron’s mother, Barb Miller, and by raffling off afghans made by her grandmother, Carol Kostelnik. In addition, the team sold homemade chocolate suckers. Cameron said about the donations, “It’s amazing how people will donate for a child.”

For Ian to ride in style at the Relay for Life, a wagon was decorated to look like a train. “Ian had fun. He waved and talked to everyone,” Cameron said. “He’s a little celebrity.”

Polka Dot Chix

Another team that was honored at the awards ceremony was the Junior Polka Dot Chix, led by this year’s honorary survivor, Alicia Sommer. Sixteen-year-old Sommer was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 1. After a year of treatment and surgery, she went into remission and has been cancer-free since that time. She said that the team’s membership includes her “sisters and their little friends.”

This year, Alicia’s team earned a bronze plaque for raising more than $4,000 for the American Cancer Society. The team was also honored for having the best exposure of Grand Island teams on the news, at malls and in banks. “It makes me feel good to help others to have a chance to live and experience life like I did and not have their lives cut short by cancer,” Sommer said.

Dunbar-Daluisio echoed that sentiment. “Our voices will be heard. It’s so important for every father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, and uncle to do their part. The strong survive.”

According to Bogdan, there are currently 10 million cancer survivors in the United States, and the numbers continue to increase.

The next Relay for Life is scheduled for June 8-9, 2007.

And the Relay winners are …
Honorees at the Relay for Life September 26 award ceremony:

•Best Family Team: Mike’s Marchers

•Best Exposure of Grand Island:
Junior Polka Dot Chix

•Best Spirit: Team Huth

•Best Bank: HSBC’s Anne Marie
and the Grand Island Branch Bunch

•Best Decorated: Ian’s Choo Choo Caboose

•Best Theme: Flannigan Femme Fatales

•Best Enthusiasm: Hunting for a Cure
(Hunt Real Estate with 49 team members)

•Best Brothers: Billy’s Buddies

•Best School: Malaney’s Middle School Vikings

•Best Mode of Transportation: Buses R Us

•Best Church: Island Presbyterian

Brightest Team: Sidway Superstars

•Best Kicker Team: Kaegebein

•Best Island Company:
Abraxis Pharmaceutical Products

•Most Energetic: River Oaks Rose
(energetic entertainment person Rosemary Hajno)

•Fancy “Flamingo”: Bullhead Bay

•Fastest Team: Fleet Feet

•Top Team: Allen’s Angels

•Other teams mentioned included:

Never Underestimate the Power of Polizzi’s Walkers

Caterpillars Become A True Symbol of Hope

A Lot of Happiness is Found in the Garden

Girl Scout Troop 566 “Rule”

VFW Post 9249 Ladies’ Auxiliary,

“Everyday Idiots”

Bailey’s Brigade

Huge

Mixed Nuts