I sat down with my good friend Krista Camick, who is the Co-Chair of Queen’s Relay for Life and the youngest committee member to hold that position. We talked about the new campaign design, event day, and tips to anyone who wants to get involved.
Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. If you’ve ever participated in a Relay for Life event, as over a thousand Canadians do each year, you probably recognize that motto. This year, the Canadian Cancer Society has flipped their strategy and gone back to their roots. I asked Krista how she felt about the transition.
“The transition from the old Relay for Life motto to ‘Ready. Set. Walk.’ was kind of a surprise to us because we have never known anything else about Relay and it’s always been a staple of our event. The ‘Celebrate’ is the opening ceremony, the ‘Remember’ is the luminary ceremony, and then the ‘Fight Back’ is the closing ceremony. But I think they are doing a good thing in that they are trying to create more excitement and bring the relay back into Relay. Something that has been lacking in the past years is the whole idea of walking around the track, who you are walking for, and doing it with your team. I think it’s a positive move.”
Next, we dived into “how did it go?!” Obviously during the event, there are bound to be hiccups because it’s life but I wanted to know what stood out as memorable (for better or for worse) and how they measured up in terms of their goal.
Krista enthusiastically replied “So yeah! That’s the big, big deal, that we actually did meet our goal. We actually surpassed our goal.” After some cheering from me, she continued, “ I think we are currently at fifty-eight thousand – somewhere around there, and our goal was actually fifty-five. So that’s very fantastic, that’s the most that Queen’s has ever raised of Relay for Life. We are very proud of everyone who contributed to that.”
As for some hiccups…
“Haha, yes – a couple hiccups. I think to the exec committee there were more hiccups than the participants might have realized, which is usually the case in any event that you plan. You expect things to go a certain way and they might not but you have people who can think on their feet and problem solve. We had some tech issues at our opening ceremonies but we moved through it and celebrated the survivors instead of focusing on the presentation aspect. You know, because technology sucks sometimes.”
“I think the highlight for me is always the luminary ceremony. I think my Luminary/Survivor Chair, Emma, did a great job this year of panning out exactly how the ceremony was to go, making sure that people had enough time to read the luminaries and take the time to remember and to cry a little bit.”
Relay for Life was by far the biggest annual event at my high school. Every year, the Leadership class composed the committee and all teachers and students knew that event day was a write-off because such a great majority would be out in the field participating. (We held our event from 7 am to 7 pm instead of the traditional overnight schedule). I think the fact that our event was so personal and unique to the school as a whole contributed to its success. I wondered if Queen’s Relay for Life had its own personal touch that students could feel connected to. What is the Queen’s way for doing Relay, so to speak?
“A big aspect in the past couple years at least of Queen’s Relay has been Queen’s Bands. They’ve been huge fundraisers and one of the few teams who actually take the time to do team fundraisers. They’re always having bake sales and they knit things and sell them. They always bring lots of participants, lots of energy, and they also perform at opening ceremonies. Something that’s very unique to Queen’s is obviously Queen’s Bands and the Oil Thigh. They come in and play the Oil Thigh, everyone does it, and you just feel that Queen’s spirit and community. It’s a great way to kick off the event and we are very lucky to have them. Another thing that’s unique to our event is the venue. The track is on the gym floor and the campsites are kind of overlooking so that’s a unique set up. We make due with what we have and it works out well. Some of our event staples are the newspaper fashion show; we do a dodgeball tournament, and Jell-O-eating contest. This year (I’ll throw in a little plug for Tommy’s) he sponsored us and cooked us a pancake breakfast, which was quite nice after a long, long night.”
As students, we aren’t typically in the best position to make financial donations to every organization we encounter and who honestly finds the time to attend, let alone sort through every fundraiser invitation we receive? As an indecisive person, I find this quite a dilemma and emotionally support countless organizations I wish I could give more to. As a Co-Chair, Krista must be a little less finicky. I asked her what it was about Relay for Life that she loved.
“The thing about Relay is that it is very well-known and everyone has a connection to cancer. The thing to me that got me hooked to Relay was the overnight 12-hour experience really allows you to bond with people. Other charity events like dinners or races, you don’t necessarily have that aspect of fighting through something together like staying awake and pushing each other on. Also, you fundraise as a team and it’s just nice that you are not there on your own.”
I didn’t want to end our chat without some advice for our dearly beloved readers. As the outgoing Co-Chair, Krista had some valuable insight for anyone wanting to get involved with Relay next year.
“How it usually works with [Queen’s] Relay is we will appoint new Co-Chairs and then hiring will take place in the fall. Something that we’ve tried to establish this year is that we’ll have our executive committee that takes care of most of the planning. Then we also want to have a volunteer committee who does stay with us throughout the year and can contribute as much or as little time as they want. We do run events and fundraisers throughout the year as well as the relay event itself. We definitely appreciate the manpower and want anyone who wants to be involved to have the chance to be involved as well.”
If you’ve never been on the judging side of an interview table, here is what they are looking for, in Krista’s words.
“Passion is a really, really big one because university students are so busy with everything going on in their lives. We only meet once a week but it’s the time you put in outside of those meetings that really make any event of fundraiser come alive. It’s about the time you choose to put in and if you are passionate about what you are doing, then the time that you put in doesn’t seem like time. It just seems natural and like it is what you are supposed to do.”
Based on every award show ever, we know you how important it is to thank to team, so here it is.
“I would like to shout out to my team because we were doing our closing ceremonies and it was just nice to look out at the audience and see all those smiling faces at 7 o’ clock in the morning after being up all night and know that they made my job easier. My job was to make sure everyone else was doing their job and they really did. That’s why the event was so successful. When everyone pulls their weight, it makes a difference. And my exec is awesome.”
There you have it! I said, “Thank you Krista!” To which she replied, “fo shizzle dizzle.”