As they say at the Cancer Society, Relay for Life still has legs. But this year it will not be the big, close contact, open-air event at Cooks Gardens. This year it's Relay Your Way and it has taken a different and exciting turn.
Sophie Westacott has returned to New
Zealand after 25 years in Los Angeles, and she is now the local cancer society's fundraising and event co-ordinator and that can be hard work in the Covid era.
"I think we've done a tremendous job pivoting, particularly from being Relay for Life to Relay Your Way. I see it as even more charming and more inclusive. The premise of Relay for Life is incredible, but Relay Your Way can also mean that people who weren't included, who possibly weren't able to take part in the Cooks Gardens event, they can now do it in their own hubs, however they want to do their relay," she says.
Sophie loves horses and she was able to get a small group of Castlecliff girls with horses to join as their own team. "They are getting people to sponsor them looking after their horses and doing a relay on the beach." The girls have found an SPCA approved, water-based paint and they are going to paint their horses in the Cancer Society's colours for the relay.
This year you can do the relay with whomever you want, wherever you want, in your own safe space.
Sophie says most teams will range from 7 to the low 20s in number and Whanganui has so many spaces in which to do a private version of the relay.
"Just doing the bridges as a relay could be one thing."
She is also encouraging relay participants to patronise a local café afterwards.
"The girls who are doing the relay on horseback will end up at the Citadel." She's asking cafes to sign up with the Cancer Society and be one of the special coffee stops.
The relay starts officially on March 5, the original date.
"We're going to celebrate that with some survivors walking over the main bridge." Each survivor will receive a breakfast basket, kindly sponsored by Stonewood Homes.
"It's another example of how amazing Whanganui is," says Sophie. "When I say we have sponsors, these are real people, not just big-name brands. There are people behind the sponsorship who really support us."
