The following article is the second in a monthly series about participants in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Hampshire County, which this year takes place June 17 and 18 at Look Park in Florence.
They may be young, but Olivia Lombardi, 15, and JD Pruett, 14, of Northampton, have been moved by their own close connections to cancer survivors to go beyond simply walking on a team in the American Cancer Society’s annual fundraiser, Relay For Life.
The two have become the first-ever teen co-chairs on the organizing committee for the Hampshire County version of the relay, overseeing survivor and caregiver events.
“Relay is its own unique entity, a completely different animal, separate from anything I’ve ever done,” Pruett said.
Relay For Life is a 24-hour event that allows participants to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost and fight back against the disease. In its first year, the Hampshire County relay raised $24,000; last year, $220,000 was raised, which was $5,000 over the goal.
In the relay that takes place over two days, June 17 to 18 at Look Park in Florence, teams take turns walking on a temporary track to earn donations they’ve solicited for cancer research and programs.
In their roles as co-committee chairs, Pruett and Lombardi have been brainstorming new ideas for the events that take place in addition to the relay. Along with the yearly survivor and caregiver lap ceremony and the survivor dinner, Pruett and Lombardi are planning a release of balloons carrying messages of hope and other sentiments written by those affected by the disease.
The teens have been working to get more survivors and caregivers involved by creating a pamphlet and distributing it at nursing homes, hospitals and doctor’s offices, and reaching out to other individuals in the community via phone, letter and email.
They also plan to host an ice cream social for survivors and caregivers to provide an opportunity for them to share stories and connect with others in similar circumstances.
Lombardi, who has participated on relay teams for four years, said her mother, Jill Turat, an elder law social worker, has helped her develop the ability to relate to people of different generations. “This really gave me a foundation for how to connect and help people despite any age gap,” Lombardi said.
From the moment she first became involved in the relay in 2012, she said, she “instantly fell in love with the atmosphere, the support and the unspoken connection with everyone there,” She said she saw the effects cancer has in participants all around her, but it wasn’t until her godmother, who prefers not to be named, developed breast cancer two years ago that it hit her directly.
“She is like a second mom,” Lombardi said of her godmother, who recently learned her second diagnosis of bone cancer is in an advanced stage. “When cancer impacts you, you almost feel helpless, but relay is a way to do something toward this awful disease affecting millions.”
Pruett, whose uncle, Bernie Rubin of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has lymphoma and recently needed additional treatment, was also drawn in by the way relay touches lives. “I see what it does to others,” he said.
Lombardi met Pruett in an acting seminar at Northampton High School this year and invited him to co-captain her team, Tye Dye for Tim. She said she sensed he would be “a significant contributor and a valuable asset to the team.”
Tye Dye for Tim is dedicated to a friend’s father who passed away two years ago from melanoma, Lombardi said. Each person on the team has a goal of raising $200 per person, rather than the average $100. The team also sponsors events to get more people involved, like a soccer clinic in the fall, she said.
Pruett says his parents — his mother, Marsha Pruett, is a Smith College professor and psychologist, and his father, Kyle Pruett, is a child psychiatrist — have exposed him to complex, intense issues. Yet that did not prepare him for what the cancer survivors and caregivers associated with the relay face, he said. At the recent kickoff for organizers Pruett told the crowd that caregivers and survivors “deserve every honor” for what they are forced to deal with every day.
He said he is approaching the relay “with an open mind, motivation and a big heart.” And, so, he was game when Lombardi said she was ready to do more than be on a team this year.
Teens taking on organizational responsibilities is important to the fundraisers, says Sheila Peralta, the community manager for Relay For Life. “They give fresh and innovative ideas to a life-saving mission.”
Pruett agrees. “True change is in the hands of the younger generation,” he said, “and if at a young age we aren’t inspired to do something in the world or if we are too sheltered from the horrific but true stories to understand what is actually going on, the world will only get worse.”
To learn more, volunteer or donate, visit www.relayforlife.org/hampshirecountyma
Shannon Grossman is a student at Westfield State University. She assists with publicity for Relay For Life of Hampshire County.