Fried Oreos, fresh fruit smoothies, a date auction and carnival games were just some of the ways students used to raise over $36,000 at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life at ETSU Friday night.
“Many times I get wrapped up in getting all the events and entertainment planned and forget my true purpose in my service and the actual walk,” said Emily Eberhart, a senior exercise science major who has participated in ETSU’s relay for the past three years. “Every year, though, at the luminaria ceremony is when it all hits me that almost everyone at relay has been affected by cancer in some way. I am then truly touched at all the generosity and support from everyone.”
Students walked the track in the Mini-Dome from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. to help fund a cure for cancer. While some team member’s took turns walking around the track, others walked all night.
“My team was Alpha Phi Omega, and we had seven people walk all 12 hours,” said Meagan Landry, a sophomore education major who walked all night. “I am exhausted.”
Many teams also set up booths around the track. Kappa Sigma’s booth, entitled “Carnival for the Cure,” included pie-throwing, balloon darts and video games.
Justin Mitchell, a senior biology major, spent his night selling fresh fruit at a booth set up by the Honors College. “We’re the Honors College so we’re using our noggin,” he said. “We’re selling healthy stuff.”
Students with the Wesley Foundation also went healthy by selling fresh fruit smoothies. For an extra fun twist, they dressed up as different fruits.
“We’re all different fruits because we’re supposed to represent the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” said senior Megan Abbott, who dressed up as a fruit fly.
Allison Hammer, a sophomore pre-education major who dressed up as a cherry, said they chose to sell smoothies because “they have a lot of vitamin C in them.” She said, “They also don’t have any calcium in them because your stomach always absorbs that first. This way you’re absorbing more antioxidants and cancer-fighting stuff.”
Hammer said their team had at least two people on the track at a time. “It’s going great,” she said. “We’ve raised a lot of money. We’ve gone through a lot, 50 smoothies so far, plus we’ve received donations as well.”
Casey Bayliss, a junior pre-nursing major and member of Leadership House’s team, sold fried Oreos and snickers bars. “We’ve already sold three packs of Oreo’s,” she said. Leadership House also set up couches for students to crash on when they got tired, as well as a video game area where students could play games like “Guitar Hero.” “Superheroes fighting against cancer – that was our theme,” Bayliss said.
While some students took breaks by napping on couches, others danced the night away to songs played by the DJ. Students were also able to find a date by bidding at the date auction, which was a big success. By 10:30 p.m., the auction had already made over $500.
“I would encourage other students to get involved next year because everyone knows someone who has had cancer and because the American Cancer Society is such a wonderful organization that is still trying to find cures,” Eberhart said.
Landry agrees. “It’s fun, too,” she said. “Last night was awesome.

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