HEART OF RELAY AWARDS - 2011 Recognition of American Cancer Society Relay For Li fe Best Practices Nationwide

Description: The Heart of Relay Award is presented to the top three events

demonstrating successful practices, innovations, programs and activities that further the Society’s mission and the Relay For Life movement; particularly those activities that can be replicated across the country. The Heart of Relay categories are:

Community Event Categories:

1. Mission Delivery 2. Survivorship Engagement 3. Advocacy 4. Youth Engagement in a Community Event

Youth/CAC Event Categories:

5. Youth Event Mission Delivery

6. Youth Event Survivorship

To qualify: All events that follow the National Relay For Life Standards are eligible to apply. The Review Committee will consider the following:

• Year-round engagement • Inclusion of Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back • Increased presence of ACS, ACS CAN, and/or Relay For Life in the

community • The number of people reached • Ease of duplicating activity across the country • Measurable goals and outcomes

To apply: Applications including any attachments (photos, for ms, clippings, etc) must be submitted electronically to your Chris Reichert by August 15, 2011. Divisions must submit final nominations to chris.reichert@cancer.org by August 15, 2011. Division winners are announced during the September Division Relay Summit.

National winners are announced to Division lead staff in October & awards will be sent to Region Relay Manager.

Application – Community Event - 2011

HEART OF RELAY, MISSION DELIVERY AWARD This award recognizes a promising practice in Mission Delivery which may include Cancer Prevention & Detection Awareness, Uniting Communities, Research Promotion, and other outreach. Consideration will be given to the following:

• Year-round engagement • Inclusion of Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back • Increased presence of ACS, ACS CAN, or Relay For Life in the community • The number of people reached • Ease of duplicating activity across the country • Measurable goals and outcomes

Name of Relay For Life Event: Western Lancaster Co unty Date of Event: June 24 th, 25th 2011 Division: East Central State: Pennsylvania County: Lancaster County Population: 507,766 Lead Volunteer: Rosie Ugliuzza Lead Staff: Julie Strickland Phone Number: 717-413-3075 Phone Number: 717-39 7-3745 Email Address: rosie.ugliuzza@yahoo.com Email Addr ess: Julie.strickland@cancer.org How did your Relay For Life engage the community in Mission Delivery?

In an attempt to reach more people in our community , our Event Chair Rosie Ugliuzza spoke at a Rotary meeting in Elizabethtown. She was accomp anied by several of our committee members

who had several types of mission and ACS literature with them. We also reached out to many churches in the area to assist with our Survivor di nner to celebrate them at relay and had an overwhelming response. We also advertised to the c ommunity via a newspaper article to recruit our 2011 Honorary Survivor and Caregiver chairperso ns. We were able to bring a new family into Relay who were otherwise unfamiliar with the event.

What were the goals set, and outcomes achieved in Mission Delivery through Relay? Unfortunately, we didn’t have a Mission Chair for 2 011. However, our goal as a committee was to

make sure we presented some type of mission moment and/or highlight an ACS program at each team rally, as well as highlight mission in each mo nthly newsletter. Our Health Initiatives staff partner, Kelly Edwards, contributed a few letters t hat we included in the newsletters about that month’s cancer awareness tips and trends. We also made it our goal to have mission moments read throughout our relay event and to include fun mission activities for everyone to get involved, such as the Road To Recovery Race. We achieved the se goals and we were able to fill our Mission Chair and Advocacy Chair positions for 2012 !

Did you include Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back? If so, how?

Yes. We had a Survivor Dinner in which our honorar y survivor spoke. He told of his battle with his cancer, how his wife helped him to continue to figh t and how he was able to use ACS for information to help him and his family fight back t ogether. In the Survivor dinner tent, we had a Happy Birthday banner hung for everyone to sign. W e also included a Luminaria Ceremony, which has grown each year, not only in number but a lso in beauty and attendance. More people stayed to remember and honor their loved ones. We also had a Fight Back Ceremony and our Advocacy Chair for 2012 was using the Tobacco Tax p oster to make people aware of an issue that needs to be addressed and she was able to get a lot of signatures. We also had the mission/fight back book passed around at our event and almost fil led every page to send to Congress--very exciting!

What did you specifically do in Mission Delivery before, during and after the event? How will you carry this work out in a year round strategy? Before the event – Shared ACS mission moments, pati ent service programs and ACS CAN at each team rally. We also awarded Spirit Bucks all year to participants for attending meetings, answering mission trivia, getting their annual scre enings, etc. During the event – Held the Road To Recovery race, had mission moments spoken throughout the event, passed around the Mission/Fight Back book fo r all participants to fill out, used the Tobacco tax poster for awareness. After the event – Mailed the signed Tobacco Tax pos ter to our representatives. Year round strategy – Work with the Mission and Adv ocacy Chairs to set goals to engage our communities more and to have our teams understand w hat ACS CAN is all about. We also will work to increase our ACS CAN members. Can any of the ideas used be duplicated by other events across the country? If so, how?

Yes. Have a DJ at your event and let them say the mission moments throughout the event and have mission activities that include the mission m oments, such as Road To Recovery where the participants need to answer a mission moment quest ion to continue on with the race.

Additional Comments/Photos: Our relay event is in the rebuilding stages and we feel that we have made great strides in only a few years. For example, last year we only h ad the mission moments read at relay. This year, we made it a goal to incorporate more mi ssion information and activities at the event and throughout the year. We feel we have ach ieved this and benefitted from this by now having a Mission and Advocacy Chair for 2012. Please see photos below!

Thank you!

Applications and supporting attachments MUST be submitted electronically to Chris Reichert by August 15, 2011.

Approved for National Recognition

Approved for National Recognition Reviewed/Approved by: (Division rep) ___________________________________

We held a tent site decorating contest. This team, Sam’s Survivors, chose to go with our theme of “Saving

Lives.”

A signature from our Happy Birthday banner.

Survivor/Caregiver picnic dinner reception. Attended by nearly 200 people!

Bainbridge Believers working on their Road to Recovery racecar.