Local cancer survivors and caregivers came together Friday evening at Teutopolis Junior High School for the annual Relay for Life of Effingham County event.
Inspired by Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, the theme for this year’s event was “Masquerading for Hope.”
The turnout at the Relay this year was down a bit from last year, but organizers had anticipated a smaller crowd due to the fact that there were several other community events taking place in the area the same night, including the EffinghamHAM-JAM and the CSS (Community Support Systems) Art Auction & Community Celebration.
“As everybody knows in the area, there are more than a couple events going on tonight,” Ron Mietzner, one of the event’s organizers, said in a speech during the opening portion of the event. “We might be a little small, but our hearts are full. And we’re ready to welcome our survivors and give them the love they deserve.”
Despite the turnout, about $59,000 had already been raised by the time the event was underway Friday, and this is in addition to the approximately $2,000 that had been raised through an online silent auction which included items like tickets to St. Louis Cardinals games and gift cards for local businesses.
The fundraising goal for this year’s event is $92,000, and organizers have until the end of August to raise funds.
“We’re still raising the funds and doing all of the work,” Stephanie Smith of the American Cancer Society said in an interview Friday. “We’re just so excited to have the people out here who are able to make it out tonight and just even to stop in for a minute before they go on to the other activities in the area.”
In the past, the event included a luminaria ceremony in which white paper bags with the names of individuals impacted by cancer written on them were lit at 9 p.m., but this year, because the event ended at 9 p.m., organizers opted for a “Garden of Hope” filled with colorful pinwheels displaying names instead.
“We hope that the pinwheels bring more life and just more hope and bright colors to the event as well,” Smith said.
Smith said that in addition to raising funds for the American Cancer Society, supporting cancer research and providing cancer patients with the services they need, Relay for Life has built a “community of support” for cancer survivors and caregivers. She added that her favorite part of the event each year is seeing survivors ring the bell at the end of their lap around the track.
“Coming together every single year with Relay for Life truly does build a community, and it’s your Relay for Life family,” she said. “You see them grow from a one-year survivor to a ten-year survivor, and just seeing that and seeing them walk with different groups is always so impactful.”
Among the survivors taking part in this year’s event was Janet Lorton, 60, of Beecher City. Lorton was diagnosed with breast cancer about 18 years ago, but she no longer requires treatment.
“I was one of the lucky ones,” Lorton said. “I was blessed, very blessed.”
Lorton said taking part in Relay for Life events over the years has helped survivors like herself feel less alone in their fight against cancer.
“We need a cancer cure, and it’s also inspirational seeing all the survivors,” she said. “It just helps you realize that we’re all in this together.”
Another survivor at this year’s Relay, Joyce Fearday of Effingham, has been taking part in the event for about 20 years now. Fearday, 73, was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2001 and had to undergo treatment for about a year.
Fearday believes that the event gives survivors some of the motivation they need to keep fighting, and she likes that it allows survivors to speak with other people who have had similar experiences.
“We need to lean on each other and support each other, and during those troubled times, it’s just fantastic to have somebody that knows what you’re going through and are willing to help out or to give you that boost,” Fearday said.
The survivor speaker for this year’s event, Avery Braunecker of Effingham, told residents about her recent battle with breast cancer. Braunecker was diagnosed with grade 3 breast cancer in June of 2023, and she had just given birth to her daughter in Nov. of 2022.
“We were so happy and living in bliss,” Braunecker said. “In early-mid April, I found a lump on my left breast but chalked it up to a clogged milk duct since I had just stopped breast feeding.”
Braunecker said she was working as a teacher at a local dance studio and as a social worker in the medical field at the time of her diagnosis which also came shortly after her family’s “world was rocked” by another tragedy.
“They tragically and unexpected lost my brother-in-law to his battle with depression in early May of 2023,” she said.
Braunecker’s initial diagnosis hit her hard, and she became even more fearful when she learned that her cancer had advanced to stage 3.
“We had just talked about trying for another baby,” Braunecker said of herself and her husband, Cole Braunecker. “What was overwhelming and scary was not knowing what to do or how to advocate for myself. I didn’t know what to do or think.”
However, Braunecker said that the support she received from the medical team treating her helped alleviate some of her concerns, and she called them the “most amazing set of doctors and nurses anyone could ask for or imagine.”
“I knew God was going to see me through this and lead me to victory,” she said.
After undergoing six months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and 25 rounds of radiation therapy, Braunecker is just two more immunotherapy treatments away from having her pre-treatment appointments become follow-up appointments.
“These people are working for me, so I can see my daughter walk down the isle at her graduation and wedding one day. These people want victory for me and have every best intention.”
Several of Braunecker’s family members were in the crowd at the event Friday, including her grandparents, Gin Gardewine and Fran Gardewine of Teutopolis. Like Braunecker, they are both cancer survivors.
“It was hard when she told us,” Gin Gardewine said of Braunecker’s diagnosis. “She’s doing very well.”
Gin Gardewine was diagnosed with colon cancer 11 years ago. Fran Gardewine was diagnosed with melanoma after it was found in one of his ears, but it was removed about five years ago.
Gin Gardewine, 81, said she’s been coming to the event for quite some time now, and she always enjoys seeing survivors who attending previous events come back to ring the bell again.
“It gives you a good feel that people are so generous.”
Anyone interested in donating to Relay for Life of Effingham County can do so by visiting the group’s website at relayforlife.org/effinghamil, and those looking to make a bid in the online auction can visit 32auctions.com/EFFCORFL2024.