No one needs to ask, “Why Relay?” We all know.

“Everybody has been touched in some way by cancer,” said Pam Nix, co-chair of the 2011 Pike County Relay for Life campaign. “ Whether it’s your own battle that you have fought with cancer or that of a family member, friend, co-worker or neighbor, none of us have been spared the devastation of this dreadful disease. So, we all know why we Relay.”

Tonight, the Pike County community will come together for the culminating event of the 2011 Pike County Relay for Life fundraising campaign at the soccer fields at the Troy Recreation Park. It will be a night of fun, fellowship, celebration, remembrance hope and rededication to fight to the finish.

The theme for the 2011 Relay for Life campaign is RelayWood and “action” has been the focus word in “Lights, camera, action” as 40 Pike County Relay teams have be actively involved in raising funds in support of the American Cancer Society’s efforts to win the battles and finally the war with cancer.

Taylor Jinright, Relay co-chair, said that the American Cancer Society is the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion to date. “As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have cancer will be celebrating their next birthdays,” Jinright said. “Tonight, we will be celebrating the victories over cancer everywhere but, especially, the victories of our family members, friends and neighbors and also remembering those whose battles were lost. That’s why we Relay.”

The annual Relay fundraising campaign for the ACS is an actual relay event that started in 1985 when one man, Dr. Gordy Klatt, circled a track in Tacoma, Washington for 24 hours and raised $27,000 to fight cancer. “We’ve kind of gotten away from ‘relaying’ in recent years so, to encourage teams to keep walking, we’re making the laps into a competition because we want to stress the important of Relaying,” Jinright said. “We walk to honor the victories won and in memory of those whose battles were lost.”

A “lap” table will be set up on the track and each time a team member passes the table, he or she will pick up a bead to be added to the team’s string. “If a team has three people walking, then all three will get a bead with each lap,” Jinright said. “After the last lap, the team with the most beads will be the winner and receive a prize.”

Jinright said hopes are that the competition will keep people walking and that each team will have at least one person walking at all times.