Relay for Life

What an amazing event!

We put a ton of time & effort toward creating a booth for the Kyrie Foundation in conjunction with Chad's cousin, who was promoting melanoma awareness, a tenacious cancer affecting her husband. I think we were the only booth centered on educating people about specific cancers, a fact not gone unnoticed. Toward the end of the event, a man came up and said how great he thought it was that two families would come together to raise money and awareness. We thought that part was pretty great, too.

We began early in the day to stake out our electricity and put up our tent. Thanks, Uncle Paul! Then we headed to the house to decorate our luminaries both for Kyrie and Jenni's husband, Brian.



The kick-off began at 6 p.m. with a survivors lap and the all-teams lap. Then we got down to business telling people about Kyrie, about the foundation and selling those shirts!


Of course, those in our booth wore our Kyrie shirts. Such a great response to the design. Karis, a regular commentator here on the blog, said that she couldn't wait for the first time she'd be out in Maryville and see someone wearing a Go, Kyrie, Go! shirt. Us, too!

We learned a ton and can't wait to be at the next Relay in Wichita & K.C. And we walked and walked and walked and walked until the wee hours of the morn, giving our raffle gift basket at 4 a.m. to Joy, another proud owner of a Kyrie tee. Kyrie's & Brian's luminaries shined brightly the whole time.


One look at this event and anyone could see the massive abundance of love. So many luminaries. So many walkers. So many stories. So many people donating their time, money and resources to raise money to fight cancer. So much love. But in another sense, you could calculate the pain. All the families & friends who were there because of agony or loss, because this is one of the only positive ways, as Chad would say, "to turn tragedy into triumph."