Merrillville Intermediate School joined the fight against cancer with their first ever Relay Recess event on Friday, May 20th. Students who paid a $5 donation walked laps around the outside track during their allied arts class time. While outside students enjoyed music from a professional DJ, collected a bead for each lap they walked to later be turned into a bracelet, signed a hope banner, and decorated luminaria bags to dedicate to someone who has had or has cancer or with a cancer fighting message which were displayed around the track as our reasons to relay. Shirts for the event were also sold as an additional fundraiser. The message on the shirts read “We stand together against cancer”.
Merrillville Intermediate School S.T.A.N.D. club hosted and helped plan for the event. It was our goal to bring awareness to the fight against cancer, fundraise for the American Cancer Society, and engage our students in a community service activity. Our MIS students, staff, and MVSC family helped us raise an amazing $3,325.97 donation. One of our 6th grade teachers, Mr. Schiefer motivated the students by challenging them to sign up for the relay. Once we reached over 300 students he offered to run all day and ran a total of 24 miles! He truly showed our students dedication, altruism, and was a wonderful role model that day.
Our Merrillville community embraced our mission and supported us during the event as well. Strack and Van Til of Merrillville generously donated water to keep all our relayers hydrated, the Chick-fil- A cow stopped by to walk laps with students and donated their $5 participation donation, the Merrillville Fire Department also participated by walking and running laps with our students, and DJ Travis kept us moving and dancing all day!
The event helped us share stories and memories of our loved ones who have experienced cancer and we were also able to celebrate two student survivors from our school and two parent survivors. Seeing our track lined with bags made from memories and love and watching our students walk or run to raise awareness touched the hearts of many who stepped foot on the track that day. In some way cancer has touched us all and we are very proud of our school for taking a stand and fighting back against cancer!