Nov. 4, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life at Northwestern University began two years ago as an initiative from within the athletic department, and in just two years has grown into one of the best Relays in the entire nation.
Northwestern's second-annual Relay For Life, held last May, netted $101, 000 for cancer research and earned the highest per-capita award for an all-college Relay at the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life University meetings held recently.
The event began in 2003 with teams comprised mainly of Northwestern student-athletes and expanded in 2004 under the direction of former NU field hockey and basketball student-athlete Suzi Sutton to include groups from the entire University.
The 2005 Relay For Life, scheduled for May 20-21 in Welsh-Ryan Arena, is being co-chaired by Lacey Connelly of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and field hockey sophomore Wenny Ng (Vernon Hills, Ill./Stevenson).
"Suzi basically started Relay For Life at Northwestern and the athletic department has always been a driving force behind it," Ng said. "The department opens its facilities and every sports team participates in some way. The second year was much improved because it was not just the athletes, but different clubs and students from all over the University."
Sutton set a fundraising goal of $60,000 for last year's event, but participants shattered that mark by more than $40,000 to reach the award-winning number. This year Ng hopes to build on last year's amazing success.
"This year we have a net goal of $92,000 and we hope to break that mark as well as increase the number of teams that participate," Ng said. "We want to get even more people on campus involved including professors, graduate students or anyone else who wants to help."
For more information on Relay for Life, visit the American Cancer Society's Web site at www.cancer.org or call 1-800-ACS-2345.