Romeoville Hosts First Relay For Life Event

Sharing the burden of carrying a cooler packed with refreshments, Lori Burnett and Dione Poffenbarger each clutched a cooler handle as they trudged to their campsite outside the Romeoville late Saturday afternoon.

The two Romeoville women had arrived to join their teammates on the Angels By Your Side team, one of 23 teams assembled at the municipal center for the Romeoville Relay For Life.

For the first time, the annual fundraising event for the American Cancer Society was hosted on the village’s grounds. In the past, local relay events were held in neighboring communities.

“This is big for Romeoville. We’re interested to have it in this location every year,” said Burnett.

Relay events are held each year in communities across America. Teams gather to walk around a track for hours on end, sometimes for up to 24 hours. Members of each team take turns walking while their teammates relax, dance, listen to music or play games.

“Somebody (from each team) has to be on track at all times,” said Burnett, as she set the cooler down near her team’s table. A mesh tarp was set up nearby, along with a fire pit and two tents where team members could rest and regroup. Several of her teammates chatted nearby, relaxing in camp chairs in the sweltering heat before the relay began.

Burnett said her 12-member team is a group of friends that decided to do what they could to help a good cause.

With a start time pushed up four hours in response to the heat wave overtaking the area, walkers took their first strides shortly after a 6 p.m. opening ceremony.

“I was surprised they moved it back by four hours,” said Cindy Faraci, another member of Burnett’s team.

Faraci, herself a six-year cancer survivor, said this was her first Relay for Life event, but not her first cancer fundraiser.

“In two weeks, I’m doing the 60-mile Susan G. Komen,” she said.

Faraci said exerting effort on behalf of cancer research and awareness comes naturally to her because of how she has been touched by the disease.

“My mother died of liver cancer two years after I survived from breast cancer,” she said.

Poffenbarger said the heat of the past week, along with the electrical storm and heavy rains that hit the area the night before, did nothing to deter them.

“We weather-proofed our tents,” she said. “I went out and bought ponchos and raincoats. We were doing it, rain or shine.”

Just before the relay got started, survivors gathered onstage at the amphitheater behind village hall for picture-taking and remarks by dignitaries, including Romeoville Mayor John Noak and former State Rep. Brent Hassert.

“It’s a pleasure being here for your first, inaugural event,” said Hassert, who recalled how he reacted to his own cancer diagnosis 11 years ago.

“You remember exactly what happened that day,” he said, comparing it to how many people can recall where they were when a groundbreaking historical event occurred. “It’s a shock. You don’t know what to do, you don’t know what to think.”

Hassert congratulated cancer survivors and supporters on hand and thanked them for their participation.

As the opening ceremony continued, Dave and Roberta Thelen, of Plainfield, stood in a shady spot near the stage. Roberta, an 8-and-a-half-year cancer survivor, said she and her husband attended the survivors’ luncheon earlier in the afternoon.

“The food was delicious,” she said.

Next, the Thelens planned to do their part as members of the How the Grinch Cured Cancer team.

Fellow team member Sue Vujtech said she has been doing the local relay every year since 2004. She said her father had died of cancer earlier that year. Since then, she said, a close friend was diagnosed with cancer — and so was she.

“Now I’m a survivor, myself,” she said.

A member of the relay planning committee, Vujtech said the Romeoville relay event was off to a good start.

“The survivors’ luncheon went wonderfully, we got a wonderful turnout, considering it was our first year,” she said.