One more lap to go

The Huntington Beach Relay for Life team is still looking for donations to meet its goal.

Although almost $50,000 was raised at the American Cancer Society event, which lasted 24 hours from June 3 to June 4, the crew would like to tip the scales with more donations to meet or surpass a $100,000 goal.

“The relay was fabulous,” said event chair Nicole Hensley.

Breast cancer survivor Cindi Rhorer, a Costa Mesa resident, was one of more than 580 people who participated in the festivities at Huntington Beach High School. Rohrer, who acted as the head of the survivorship committee, has been in remission for more than a year and said she’ll be involved in a Relay for Life event every year for the rest of her life.

“This year when I was asked to join up with the Huntington Beach Relay and to chair the survivor contingency, that was a really wonderful thing for me,” she said. “We got a really late start ? and saw the potential of what can be done and was really, really touched by the generosity of vendors and every commercial store I approached were so ready to donate to give to help.”

More than 25 cancer survivors showed their support by walking the survivor laps and lending hope to those who need it. Along with survivors, and those who have been personally touched by cancer, there seemed to be a lot of people who had not been affected by the disease, but who came out to support anyway, Rohrer said.

“They just understand this is a very serious thing and they just want to get involved,” she said. “That just really surprised me when I found out people were that generous. That hadn’t been my experience in the past, and it’s really changed me.”

Many of those she spoke about were local teenagers from Huntington Beach High School who helped coordinate teams for the event.

“The kids were really good,” said Huntington Beach resident and auction committee chair Kathy Mardaresco. “We had about 10 high school teams from Huntington Beach High School, and they were so well behaved.”

Mardaresco was able to raise over $11,000 in raffle and auction prizes, including gift certificates from the Waterfront Hilton and other restaurants and hotels.

A high point of the fundraiser was when luminaries were lighted around the high school’s track and on the bleachers. Each lighted bag had a message written on it, either for a survivor or a loved one who had died, and each message was read aloud as participants walked around the track.

“It’s a very emotional experience, but you see how much faith families and the ones left behind have and it becomes almost a spiritual experience ? not a religious experience or doctrinal experience ? but a very spiritual experience,” Rohrer said. “People still have hope, and what you think might have been totally devastating in their lives, somehow they’ve found strength for it and have moved forward with their lives.”hbi.15-relay-CPhotoInfoIU1RUI5T20060615j0gspencMARK DUSTIN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Participants in this year’s Relay for Life event walk around the track at Huntington Beach High School.