Proud to live in Oakwood

Dear Oakwood Residents,

This past weekend I volunteered on a committee to organize a Relay For Life. This was not my first time volunteering for the American Cancer Society, or Relay For Life. I had volunteered in other communities in the past, however, when I heard Oakwood, my home town, would be hosting a Relay I wanted to get involved.

I met the committee, an ambitious group, who set a lofty fundraising goal, or so I thought. This ambitious, fun and generous committee got the word out to the community and Oakwood, you proved me wrong!

The community got behind this event from the start, offering the high school as our location for the event. Local businesses stepped up to the plate, sponsoring the event, helping to promote it and assisting in fundraising.

Monthly, the committee met at Starbucks (thank you) to plan; and monthly we grew closer to our goal, more teams joining, more people donating! Yet, still I worried, had we set our sights too high?

Then the day arrived, on Friday, July 13, 2007 at 6: 00 pm I saw the community come together!  And for 18 hours, 29 teams had participants walking the track. For 18 hours we gave dollars for baked goods, to play games, to get our hair cut, to get our nails painted, to turn songs on and turn them back off!  For 18 hours we remembered, we honored our loved ones, sharing stories, laughing and crying. For 18 hours we walked to remind ourselves cancer never sleeps. For 18 hours we walked to remind cancer WE won’t sleep until there is a cure!  And at the conclusion of 18 hours we raised over $53,000 (surpassing our original goal) to go towards cancer research, education and advocacy!

Through those 18 hours I realized just how proud I am to live in Oakwood. A community that comes together for important causes such as Relay For Life.

Oakwood, I THANK YOU!

Sincerely,
Stephanie Yenn

top of page