Rider to Host Relay for Life to Unite Communities, Celebrate Cancer Survivors, Raise Money for Research

Rider University will host the American Cancer Society Relay for Life on Saturday March 28, and Sunday, March 29, on the Lawrenceville campus, 2083 Lawrenceville Road. This is the first year Rider is hosting the event held nationwide.

Rider’s Student Government Association (SGA), under the leadership of student Heather Fischler, SGA Spirits and Traditions Chair, is organizing the event, which will take place from 4 p.m. on Saturday to 10 a.m. on Sunday in the Student Recreation Center. More than 600 participants from the Rider and Lawrenceville communities will come together to honor cancer survivors and their caregivers.

Fischler, a junior Elementary Education and Psychology major, came up with the idea to hold the event in order to create a new tradition on campus. 

“I wanted to bring the Rider community together, and I wanted to bring the surrounding community to Rider in order to bring the communities together,” she said. “Two of my roommates’ fathers have survived cancer, and cancer runs in my family. I felt like it was an event that a lot of people could relate to. When you are touched by something you’re more likely to get involved.”

During the community celebration, team members will take turns walking and running around the track inside the Student Recreation Center in order to raise funds for cancer research. Entertainment will also include two live student bands, a D.J., bingo and a relay pageant. Hundreds of glow sticks will also be placed in bags around the track in a moving ceremony to honor cancer survivors as well as friends and family members lost to the disease. 

The event aims raise awareness and funds to support cancer research, education, advocacy and patient and family services in the community. Organizers started to raise funds in November and hoped to raise $25,000. So far, fundraising has exceeded that goal as $27,951 has been raised.

Since 1985, Relay for Life has spread to over 4,700 communities in the United States. and has become a worldwide movement, taking place in nine countries. The American Cancer Society is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by saving lives, diminishing suffering and preventing cancer through research, education, advocacy and service.