A community event unlike any other is scheduled for Friday, May 1, from 6 p.m. to midnight at Vicksburg High School’s Memorial Stadium. The event will begin with an opening ceremony, followed by laps around the track, a solemn lighting of luminarias and conclude with a celebration of life.

The American Cancer Society is organizing the Relay For Life community event to raise money to help find a cure for cancer.

“We encourage everyone in the community to participate,” community manager Scarlet Fowler said. “Everyone knows someone whose life has been impacted by cancer in some way. It’s free to signup a team and we hope to get some excitement going about the event.”

“We have a goal of $53,000 and have a few openings left for committee chairpersons. We need lots of team leaders and members,” she said. “For anyone interested we are having a community meeting at Porters Chapel United Methodist Church Monday.”

The church is located at 200 Porters Chapel Road and the meeting will last about an hour. The meeting will focus on fund raising, event sponsorship and team participation.

“We expect more than 200 people to participate in this year’s Relay For Life at Vicksburg High School,” Fowler said. “The event will be a safe family event with security provided by the Vicksburg Police Department.”

According to the Mississippi Department of Public Health, cancer is the second leading cause of death in Mississippi. In 2014, the American Cancer Society estimated 15,740 new cases of cancer would be diagnosed during the year in Mississippi.

In Mississippi, the most frequently diagnosed cancers include lung, prostate, breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. While there are over 200 types of cancer, some of the most common are lung, bladder, prostate, breast, colorectal, liver, endometrial, kidney, leukemia, melanoma of the skin, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic and thyroid cancers.