Kitsap County has four Relay for Life events: South Kitsap, North Kitsap, Central Kitsap/Bremerton and Bainbridge Island. In addition, Relay events are organized in North Mason and Gig Harbor. Although each event is slightly different, it generally entails teams who walk or run around a track during the entire 24 hours, and raise funds. Entertainment, tent decorating contests, and food are among the activities — as are several heart-wrenching moments.

“It’s a tear-jerker,” Marry Ann Huntington, South Kitsap Relay for Life team recruitment chair, says of the “survivor’s lap,” during which cancer survivors and their caregivers kick off the relay by walking the first lap. “Everybody applauds and everyone’s crying.”

Tim Roller, event chairman for the Bremerton/Central Kitsap Relay, calls the survivor’s lap his favorite part of the evening. “You get to see the faces of people winning the battle, and that helps a lot,” he says. “You know you are making a difference.”

Participants usually have teams, but it’s not unusual to see individuals register on the day of the relay. Even young children become involved, as well as numerous businesses. Huntington, a former business owner herself, knows how often businesses get asked for donations and says once they explain what Relay for Life is about, they don’t have any challenges finding donations for prizes, flowers, balloons and many other needs. “Any time we need anything at all, the businesses step right up,” she says.

Huntington was on the original Kitsap Relay committee when it got started 20 years ago, and became involved once again when about four years ago the South Kitsap event was created (following a hiatus of that original group, which was the only one in Kitsap at the time). In 2003, South Kitsap had 27 teams, and each year that number grew by exactly 10 — up to 57 last year. So their goal this year is 67 teams, $225,000 (last year the event raised $205,000, vs. $57,000 in 2003).

Roller, whose committee’s goal for Bremerton/Central Kitsap is $190,000 this year ($175,000 was raised in 2006), says many people relate to what Relay for Life events are about. “It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t been touched by cancer unfortunately,” he says.

The community support hasn’t gone unnoticed — last year all the Kitsap County relays brought in a combined half-million dollars, coming in third in the Great West Division. “We are so pumped,” Huntington says. “It’s a cause everyone can hold near and dear to their heart.”

Although the event itself is only 24 hours long, the planning is nearly year-round. In fact, for people like Roller, it doesn’t end with Relay for Life. They lobby legislators in Olympia and even went to Washington, D.C. to advocate.

A sequence of the events during the evening is a testimony of what makes these fundraisers so appealing to everyone. As it gets dark, at one point the lights get dimmed, and luminaries are lit to honor people who lost their lives to cancer. Then, candles are lit to spell the word “cure,” and then the word “hope.”.