When the sun goes down on June 11, thousands of luminarias will provide light as the Relay for Life starts into its night-long march for a cancer cure at Rollie Greeno Field.
The white bags filled with sand and a lit candle will have the name of someone who died, survived or is battling cancer. Those names will be read aloud during the event.
The luminaria is a familiar symbol of the Relay.
"It more or less lights the way for those people with cancer so they're not in the dark, that there is hope," said Bev Schaack, Relay publicity chair and co-captain of the Presbyterian Church Team.
The other co-chair of the Presbyterian Church Team, Sue Parries, is taking the sale of luminarias to a new level, raising more than $1,000 for the Relay; the church team raised about $3,500.
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This year's goal is for all the teams to raise $160,000.
Parries said she sells the $10 luminarias by sending letters to friends and family across the country.
"It isn't individually around here," she said. "This is nationwide and I send them to people I know that have been affected by cancer. There's no boundaries."
Since March, Parries has sold luminarias for the Stutsman County Relay for Life in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri and Washington.
"I myself am a cancer survivor and I believe in it myself," she said. "The money that is raised for those Relays, a very large percent goes to cancer research, and we have people in Jamestown that are on the research program that are benefactors of it."
Parries lost her father to the disease in 1966 and was diagnosed herself in 1993.
"I feel that strongly about it and the research is there. It's coming and it needs help from us," she said of fighting cancer.
Last year there were about 3,500 luminarias at the Relay for Life. This year, with Parries' help, Schaack estimates there will be more than 5,000. She said luminaria sales account for about 25 percent of total fundraising.
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"To me it really symbolizes all of those who have fought the battle and a reminder of why we are doing what we are doing," said Michelle Kramlich, luminaria subcommittee member.
This year, Kramlich will take the leftover luminarias and spell out "Hope for a Cure" with 4-foot-high letters on the stadium bleachers
Luminarias can be purchased for $10 from anyone participating in Relay for Life or at the event.
"It is just breathtaking when you start thinking of the magnitude of how this disease has affected this community," Kramlich said.
Sun reporter Ben Rodgers can be reached at 701-952-8455 or by e-mail at brodgers@jamestownsun.com
