Relay for Life - Cerritos

Cancer has always traumatized the lives of many, and the amount of mourning and grief that has come from cancer is innumerable. The least we can do about this force so traumatizing is not only do what we can to help, but honor those that have fought, lived, or passed away as a result of any form of cancer. In order to honor those people, the event Relay for Life was held in multiple cities, and I attended the one held in Cerritos. When I arrived at the event, I saw that the Whitney Key Clubbers were watching over a booth that had a mini-game involving a duck, and most of the Key Clubbers were watching over the prizes for that mini-game. Other volunteers handed out beads to the walkers and runners who were going around the track. When I came, I was mostly on the lookout for anyone at the event who wanted to play the game, but since there were not that many attendees at the event, no one really came to play the game, and the only reason people came to the booth was to get a bead to make a bracelet or necklace of beads. Eventually, some of the Key Clubbers went to help out members from Whitney’s Future Business Leaders of America set up a hot dog booth for a fundraiser they were holding. Since there were an excess of members and not a proportionate amount of attendees to make up for that, helping other people was the best thing we could do to get moving. Throughout the event, the amount of attendees remained low, and we helped out with what we could. Eventually, some of the members helped out with placing paper bags on the ground around the track and then placed candles inside of them so that they would light up in the night and brighten the path for those currently fighting cancer or for the people who have survived and now need to adjust to life again. This event did not fully busy the volunteers to be completely honest, and it was a lot of bonding rather than constantly helping out with random things. We offered our help whenever possible, but as stated before, there were not many attendees. For the people who did attend though, it was nice to see that they were honoring the survivors, and it was nicer to know that volunteers like the Key Clubbers there were helping out making the event run smoothly. The fact that high school students cannot do too much for the patients and victims of this terrible killer is something that we cannot change too much; the general population of high school students cannot make a monumental change in terms of eradicating all cancers; such a solution has not even been presented in the real world as of yet. What volunteers like us can do though, is help others around us do other things like honor the survivors and pray and hope for the fighters. Remembering and thanking those who have fought hard but could not make it also is satisfying, and seeing what little we did that day turned out to be much more than the “little” that I thought it to be. The volunteers at Cerritos and the other volunteers at Anaheim were a big help, and although there weren’t that many attendees on the side of Cerritos, there certainly were many impacts that we Key Clubbers made as a whole to those who wanted to commemorate and remember and honor.