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SUBMITTED PHOTO
Roman Zabicki, owner of Crab Cakes, watches as Doug Braun, chef/manager,
makes a donation to the restaurant’s Cookin’ Up a Cure display for the
American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. The walls in the restaurant
are covered with Relay cards filled out by customers who made at least
a $1 donation. The Relay for Life is this weekend.
Preparing
3000 candles for the Relay For Life luminaria ceremony is not an easy
task. The candles have to each be wrapped with foil at the bottom before
they can be placed in paper bags partially filled with sand.
Wrapping that many candles with foil takes a lot of time, a lot of patience
and a real desire to be of service to one's community.
That is the task the students in Lori Blate’s special education class
at Yosemite High School have accepted for the past two years. The students,
assisted by YHS students who are teacher’s aides, by Mrs. Blate, and by
classroom instructional aides, set up a production assembly line to wrap
the candles. They have been working on the project for almost a month.
This Saturday morning [May 17], Mrs. Blate’s students will be at the opening
ceremony for the Relay at 9 a.m. at the YHS track. Then they will continue
with their community service project by filling the bags with sand. Later,
they will help put the luminaria in place around the track.
Relay committee members say they don’t know how they would be able to
prepare so many luminaria without the help of Mrs. Blate’s students. “This
is an amazing amount of work and very time-consuming; we can’t adequately
express our appreciation to these students for their help,” one committee
member said.
Mrs. Blate is grateful for the opportunity for her students “to give back
to the community that gives so much to my special students.” Mrs. Blate’s
class is operated through the Madera County Office of Education.
This will be the fourth annual Relay For Life held in Eastern Madera County.
The event is held on the track at YHS. All money raised through the Relay
goes to the American Cancer Society to help continue its research to find
a cure for cancer, to provide services to cancer patients and their families
and to provide education about cancer and early detection.
Examples of how Relay contributions help the American Cancer Society in
its mission are: — Reach to Recovery introduces breast cancer patients
to select survivors trained by the ACS to answer questions and provide
emotional support — $500 pays for visits to five women.— The ACS National
Cancer Information Center receives 1.2 million calls from around the country
every year to its 24-hour toll-free line (1-800-ACS-2345). Cancer information
specialists answer questions about cancer treatment options and local
cancer resources — $250 pays for 83 hours of toll-free access.— Look Good
... Feel Better beauty counseling sessions for cancer patients conducted
by the ACS involve professional training and program logistics — $800
pays the cost of consultations for four women.
For more information about Relay For Life, or ACS services available,
call Eastern Madera County Relay chairman Janice Ellis at 683-0968.
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