On track for a cure

Monica Kleinhans and Deb Patrick, co-chairs of the American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Sheboygan County, to be held July 17 and 18 on the Sheboygan Falls High School Zell Field track, share a common experience.

Each has lost a family member to cancer and has witnessed and experienced the fallout of this loss upon their family members, friends, acquaintances and themselves.

Kleinhans’ sister Karen Ribbens passed away due to lung cancer in 2004.

“I was my sister’s caregiver,” Kleinhans said. “The cancer spread to her bones and her brain, and she had been confined to her bed.”

Patrick’s son Dustin Patrick lost his battle with malignant melanoma (skin cancer) in 2003, at age 22.

During the time Karen and Dustin were receiving treatment for their cancer, Patrick, who was a friend of Karen’s, drove them together to their chemotherapy appointments.

“I dropped each of them off at a different clinic in Sheboygan,” she recalled. “And during this time, I met Karen’s sister Monica.”

Thus, due to Kleinhans and Patrick’s common bond, they formed a friendship and resolved to do whatever they could to help find a cure for cancer. One way they have done so is through serving as co-chairs of the local Relay for Life. Patrick has served as cochair for the past five years, and Kleinhans, for three years.

From 1995-2004, the American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Sheboygan County, a familyoriented, team event, was held on the Plymouth High School track. And as of 2005, it takes place on the Sheboygan Falls High School track at 220 Amherst Ave., Sheboygan Falls.

Teams of eight to 15 Sheboygan County residents, representing clubs, organizations, corporations, neighborhoods, families and friends, participate in the event and begin walking or running at 4 p.m. July 17. The team registration fee is $150. In addition, each team member is asked to contribute $100.

Each team is expected to have a member on the track at all times until 9:30 a.m. July 18, when the closing ceremony takes place.

The opening ceremony begins at 6 p.m. July 17. The survivors’ lap follows. It symbolizes the courage survivors and families display every day.

More than $3 billion has been raised in the fight against cancer, since Dr.Gordy Klatt initiated the first Relay for Life in Tacoma, Wash., in 1985.

As of 2005, more than $1 million had been raised through the American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Sheboygan County. In last year’s local event, with 42 teams and approximately 600 participants, $140,000 was raised.

Planning for the Relay takes place throughout the year. This year’s committee, in addition to Kleinhans and Patrick, is comprised of: Dort Schreiber, Amy Lloyd, Kathy Halloran, Katrina Steinke, Dave Platz, Tracy Taylor, Angie Ernisse, Kay Granberg and Laura Palzkill, American Cancer Society community relations representative.

Many participants set goals prior to the Relay. Team member Granberg’s goal is to run 14 miles in the local Relay for Life.

Palzkill is impressed with the turnout and success of the Relay for Life of Sheboygan County.

“I think it’s awesome,” she said. “There are really dedicated people in this community and such a wide variety of teams.

“The Relay for Life is a unique opportunity for people to feel they are fighting back,” Palzkill added. “Often a cancer diagnosis results in people experiencing a feeling of hopelessness. But through the Relay, they can fight back.”

Proceeds from the Relay for Life events are having a positive impact, according to Palzkill. “The death rate due to cancer has been declining for the past eight years,” she pointed out.

During the Relay, committee members wear blue T-shirts; participants wear white T-shirts; and cancer survivors are attired in purple ones.

Funds raised from Relay for Life support the American Cancer Society’s research program, which spends approximately $100 million each year on cancer research. The American Cancer Society dedicates more money to cancer research than any other private, non-profit, non-government funding agency of cancer research in the United States. Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has funded 42 Nobel Prize-winning researchers.

Celebrate; Remember; Fight Back.

These are the three goals of the 2009 American Cancer Society’s annual worldwide Relay for Life, in which more than 3.5 million people currently are taking part in the United States and 20 other countries.

Participants “celebrate” the lives of those who have battled cancer. The strength of these survivors inspires others to continue their fight.

Those taking part also “remember” loved ones who have died, due to cancer.

And participants walk or run on the track, because they have been touched by cancer and want to “fight back” to put an end to the disease.

Nearly 5,000 communities in the United States hosted Relay for Life events in 2008.

“Relay for Life is a unique celebration of life in honor and memory of those whose lives have been touched by cancer,” Kleinhans said

“It is not a sad event,” Patrick said of the local event, now in its 15th year. “We celebrate, celebrate, celebrate, remember and fight back.”

She noted that several participants and attendees set up tents on the grounds for overnight camping.

Kleinhans added, “We have a scavenger hunt during the night, in which we give clues, such as asking for a date on a particular school building.”

For the second consecutive year, Patrick and Kleinhans will wear unique fish hats and walk against the flow of traffic on the track.

“We also wear shirts that say, ‘We are swimming upstream to thank you,’” Patrick said.

Last year they auctioned off the two hats, and they plan to do so again this year.

The luminaria ceremony slated for 10 p.m. July 17. When the sun sets, hundreds of luminarias (paper sacks filled with sand and candles) light up, spelling the