For many years, New Tampa’s annual “Relay For Life” would bounce back and forth between Freedom and Wharton high schools, raising funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society. (ACS).
Coming out of Covid, when the event had to be held virtually, organizers have had to consider new ways to make the event exciting and increasingly successful.
Last year, New Tampa joined forces with other areas to host the North Tampa Relay For Life, and this year, North/New Tampa has combined with South Tampa, East Hillsborough, and the Fishhawk/ Bloomingdale area to form one giant event.
Called the “Relay For Life of Greater Tampa Bay,” this year’s event will be held at Raymond James Stadium beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, carrying on throughout the night, and ending at 5 a.m. on Sunday, March 3.
Relay for Life is always a free event to attend, where the community comes together to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost and fight back against this dreaded disease.
While this year’s Relay will be a large combination of people and events that have previously taken place all over the Tampa Bay area, New Tampa still will be well represented.
“We have 19 schools from North Tampa participating, plus businesses, churches and community partners,” says Tori Millington, one of the event leads.
Tori is a 2017 graduate of Freedom High. She has been participating in Relay For Life since she was just a kid. It was 12 years ago when she first walked alongside her mom, Carol, whose childhood best friend was battling cancer at that time.
“I fell in love with the event,” says Tori. “And more and more people in my life were affected by cancer.”
Unfortunately, Carol’s best friend, Claire, ultimately lost that battle, as did Tori’s grandfather.
Those events — and the influence of Relay For Life — have touched Tori deeply. So much so, in fact, that she is now a medical student at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, studying to be an oncologist.
“We say we Relay for a world with more birthdays,” says Tori. “Right now cancer is a big deal and scary, and holds a lot of meaning. But one day, we’ll live in a world where cancer is in the history books.”
She says money raised from the event not only funds research, but also services for patients, such as transportation to appointments, wigs and makeup, and even hotels for family members while they are undergoing treatment.
“Participating in Relay has made me realize how much work needs to be done and how it takes every dollar we’re raising to help every single person along the way,” says Tori. “They don’t need to worry about treatments while they’re going through them.”
As an undergraduate honors student at UCF, she started doing research to fight cancer in new and innovative ways. In April, she’ll present that research in San Diego, CA, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research.
She explains that her research looks at a molecule that has a high level of cancer cells and identifies the genes that transport it. Hopefully, this could lead to a therapeutic drug that would block the transport system, depleting the cells of that molecule.
“I’m very proud of Tori,” says Carol. “She’s always known that she wanted to be a doctor and she’s followed through and become so involved.”
Carol and Tori (photo, above left) emphasize that the Relay is not a race — it’s more like an all-night party. While some team members do walk the track throughout the event, for the community, it’s a free event with performances, games and food, plus a free dinner for survivors and their caregivers and a ceremony to honor those who have been lost.
Survivors and their caregivers also walk the first lap (top photo), and a luminaria ceremony is held at 9 p.m.
While the Relay will run all night, there are security checks as it gets later into the evening, so it’s recommended that the general public come out to experience all the fun from 3 p.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday.
One of the many team members who will be out at the event is Freedom High senior A.J. Glass, who is heading up the school’s team sponsored by its Math Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta.
Like Tori, A.J. has been involved with the event for years, first participating when he was just nine years old.
Back then, his aunt Kimberly Gonzalez led a team of participants at Clark Elementary, so he joined her team. Now, Kimberly and A.J.’s mom, Natalie Glass, lead a team at Freedom together, and A.J. is the captain of the team.
“The event itself is so fun and exciting,” says A.J. “It really is a celebration and [the goal is] to fundraise as much as possible. It brings people back year after year. This year, being at RayJay, it will be on a much larger scale and hopefully it will be that much more fun.”
He says that while some high school students only show up because they are looking for service hours, they can’t help but leave with an appreciation for both survivors and caregivers and a better understanding of the ultimate goal of all the fund raising.
Relay For Life of Greater Tampa Bay is free and open to the public. For more information, visit RelayforLife.org/tampabayfl.
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