Students organize University’s 1st Relay For Life event

The University’s first Relay For Life was held from Friday to Saturday from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. at Dillon Gymnasium. Organized by the student group Relay for Life at Princeton, the event raised over $23,000 to be donated to the American Cancer Society.

“When I realized Princeton didn’t have a relay, I was really upset about it, so I always knew I’d be starting it,” Pritha Dasgupta ’13, who started the group, said.

Dasgupta is also a senior writer for The Daily Princetonian.

Dasgupta helped organize a Relay For Life in her hometown all four years of high school and wanted to continue to do so at the University, where “the resources are available, and more things are possible,” she explained.

She began the process last summer when her high school Relay For Life advisor got her in contact with another advisor who was willing to help with her efforts at the University.

“I see relay shirts on campus everywhere, so I got kind of a feel that if we did it, a lot of people would be interested,” Dasgupta said.

Dasgupta said she spent last summer emailing friends, listservs and “every single student group on campus” to get other students involved with the organizing committees. Melanie Jearlds ’12, one of the two co-chairs who aided Dasgupta, heard about the event through these emails.

“I got an email forwarded to me from someone ... and it was [Dasgupta] wanting to start this up,” Jearlds said. “For me, it was kind of perfect timing because I had just lost my mom to breast cancer so I decided to get on board.”

Sara Connolly ’13 was the other co-chair.

Jearlds is a former senior writer for the ‘Prince’ and Connolly is a former staff writer.

After working with the University and receiving funding from various groups such as the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and the Alcohol Initiative, the 27-person group worked on organizing and publicizing the event. Although Dasgupta had previously assisted with starting a Relay For Life in her high school, she found that “starting an event is a lot different from helping an event come together.”

“There was just a lot involved with trying to generate support, trying to generate enthusiasm, making sure you have committed people [and] delegating tasks,” Dasgupta said. “Logistically, there’s just a lot that needs to happen.”

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Various performance groups, such as the a cappella group Tigertones and the dance group BodyHype, performed throughout the event. There were 46 registered teams that were formed through student clubs, residential colleges and eating clubs.

One team, headed by team captain Nora Chen ’14, was called “Nora’s Exploras.”

“It’s just a group of friends that decided to get together and make a team,” Chen said.

Chen’s 14-member team raised $825, mainly by asking for donations through emails.

“Someone will forward your email to friends, and then you end up getting donations from people you don’t even know,” Chen said.

About 200 students attended the event, which included speeches from survivors and caregivers. A luminaria ceremony was held from 10:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., during which paper bags decorated with the names of people who have passed away from cancer were lit up with candles. Jearlds created a slide show that played during the ceremony with pictures of students’ and staff members’ loved ones who were lost to cancer.

While team members walked around the track, some were doing on-site fundraising.

“A lot of people brought baked goods to sell,” Dasgupta said. “One of our team captains had nail painting for money.”

Relay for Life at Princeton is already looking to organize next year’s Relay. They are planning to soon begin working with associate athletic director David Leach and Athletic Monitor Mark Rosenthal, the ODUS and Alcohol Initiative.

“I know a lot of administration is really excited about it and really wants us to do it again,” Dasgupta said.