What is this Legendary Relay for Life?

Hmmm... Well, lets open up the history books shall we? AKA the Web Browser...

Relay For Life is a fun-filled overnight event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for research and programs of your American Cancer Society. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds, or parks and take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times.

-taken from http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PAR/Content/PAR_1_Relay_For_Life.asp

More History...

In May 1985, Dr. Gordon Klatt, a colorectal surgeon from Tacoma, Washington, decided he wanted to raise money for the American Cancer Society in honor of his patients. For 24 hours, Dr. Klatt walked around the track at Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Throughout the night, friends paid $25 to run or walk 30 minutes with him. He walked approximately 83 miles and raised $27,000 to fight cancer. Nearly 300 of Dr. Klatt's friends, family, and patients watched as he ran and walked the course. After this successful event, Dr. Klatt thought about how other people could partake in a similar 24-hour event in communities across the country. He recruited a small team of people and put on the first Relay For Life event in 1986. Since then, Relay has developed into an overnight event where people bring tents and sleep out around the tracks. People of all ages come out to bring the community together and reminisce about their loved ones who have died of cancer and honor those who have survived while raising money to fight for a cure. Now, almost 4 million people take part in Relay events in over 5,000 communities in the United States ^[6].

-Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay_For_Life

So what does this mean for us Phi Kappas?

There are defining moments in one's life that changes one's persona forever. Their very essence and being transforms into something greater than themselves. These moments are times when one places the greater part of society ahead of themselves. Doing acts in the name of "The Greater Good," allows one to realize that there is a better part of society out there that exists and allows one to foster an understanding of one's mission in life. We all look at the monotony of life, the fact that at times life seems to drag on for months. Minutes crawl on by at work and we lose track of the whole idea of living life and of enjoying the simplicities of life itself. These people, cancer victims, see life differently. Life is race against time, a war against disease upon which the best hope is the acquisition of more time. What Relay for Life does is purchase that extra time. Time to spend with loved ones, to cherish life to its fullest and to essentially come to terms with their own lives. We all have a calling in life... will this be yours?

-Patrick Guarte (Historian) 2009-2010

"You can settle for less in ordinary life,or do you feel like you were meant for something better, something special?"- Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek (2009) to Captain James T. Kirk.