Registration started at 10 a.m. and closing ceremonies were held at 10 p.m. In the 12 hours between, large crowds — which remained steady through most of the event — attended the Northern Dallas County Relay For Life at Dewey Field Saturday.
Activities began at 12:15 with a signing of the National Anthem and continued uninterrupted throughout the day and into the evening hours.
A wide variety of speakers, musical guests, performers, games and sponsored laps — a “beach attire” lap was just one of many — helped keep the atmosphere lively.
As darkness fell bidding at the on-site silent auction ended, and luminaries began to light the way around Kaufman Track. Many were also placed in the south bleachers and spelled “Hope” in large letters. Donors who wished to do so could write a message or simply put the name of a loved one lost to cancer on each luminary.
Despite the Iowa and Iowa State football teams playing on television and the pleasant weather, crowds were steady, and even the annoyance for a hungry and seemingly ever-present mob of mosquitoes could not dampen spirits.
“It is a relay, right?” one lap taker said. “As long as you are moving around the track they won’t get you.”
The annual event serves as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and helps draw attention to a disease that, as ACA pamphlets read “If it has not effected your family, it is more than likely you are familiar to someone who has been effected, directly or indirectly.”
