Article and Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

The Grant County Relay for Life 2014 held its kickoff event Saturday afternoon at the Silver High School cafeteria.

Volunteers were on hand to help teams register, organize teams, and learn about sponsorships and what Relay for Life does for the community and the American Cancer Society.

Last year, the funding raised increased by 50 percent over the previous year, from $40,000 to $60,000. According to event chairwoman, Archi Padilla, the goal this year is $80,000.

Also available at the kickoff were pages of information about not only the services offered by the ACS at its site, cancer.org, but also the efforts its lobbying arm, ACS Cancer Action Network, does on the state and federal levels to create policies that are good for care for patients and prevention of cancer.

Total cancer-related appropriations in New Mexico in 2013 equaled $7,373,300.

The ASC CAN on the federal level spends 86 percent of its dollars on program services, with 14 percent going to supporting services, of which 6 percent is for fundraising efforts.

Volunteers are key to all fundraising efforts by the American Cancer Society. In Grant County alone, since 2005, the Relay for Life has raised more than $450,000 dollars toward research, advocacy and services for cancer patients.

One of the striking statistics was that nearly 14 million people in the U.S., who have survived cancer and countless others who have avoided it, will be celebrating birthdays this year. Many of them are your friends and neighbors.

Stay on the lookout for more information on Relay for Life.

For online registration, visit relayforlife.org, search for the town or zip code and register a team or a single participant.

For more information on the Grant County/Silver City Relay for life, contact event chairwoman, Archi Padilla. at 310-703-2948.

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