About 1,000 people turned out Friday night at Warren Central High School to walk the school’s track for six hours from 6 p.m. to midnight and raise money during the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life to benefit research in the continued fight against cancer.

 

“It’s wonderful to see these people out here,” said Ronda Boatman, a cancer survivor, who was diagnosed with oral cancer 13 years ago and is not completely free of the disease. How she contracted the disease is still unknown. “I’m not a smoker and I don’t drink. The doctor never figured out how I caught it.”

She said she has attended the Relay for Life since she was diagnosed.

Her mother-in-law, Doris Boatman, is also a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. She is also cancer-free “and doing fine.”

Both women walked a lap in the survivors’ walk that preceded the relay. The survivors were greeted with applause and cheers as they passed people during the lap.

“It felt great to hear the people,” Doris Boatman said. “It was good.”

As of noon Saturday, Relay chairman Jan Wasmer said, the event had raised $25,000.

She said more money was expected from the celebrity waiter program in the summer and from Walmart, which is expected to pitch in $1,000 to $5,000.

Wasmer said 15 teams competed in the Relay for Life, adding the teams were also holding fundraisers during the event to raise extra money for research.

“Some are selling different food and having games to raise money,” she said. “All of it goes to cancer research.”

Across the football field from the Relay for Life registration tent, members of the Believers of Faith Cancer Organization were serving hot dogs, nachos, pickles, Kool-Aid pickles and cookies for to raise money for cancer research.

“We’re also going to hold Simon Says and bingo,” said member Alice Austin.

She said the organization was formed in 2010 as an outreach program to help cancer patients.

“We’ll take patients to the doctor or wherever they need to go,” she said. “Whatever a cancer patient needs, we’ll try and help them. We’ll be starting a support group in June.”

Several booths down from the Believers of Faith, the Warren County Cluster of United Methodist Men, an organization composed of men’s groups from the area’s United Methodist Churches, was set up with games and goodies.

“We’ve got boards and bags set up and we’re selling cookies, coffee and other goodies,” program co-chairman Mike Richmond said early Friday evening. “Right now, we’re trying to get people interested in the games.”

“Things went very well,” Wasmer said. “We had good weather and good participation.”