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The annual Tri-Valley Relay for Life event will be held at Dublin High School this Saturday, starting in the morning and carrying on through the night.
The purpose of the relay is to celebrate cancer survivors and to honor cancer victims as teams of participants continuously walk or run around a track. The opening lap is reserved for survivors of cancer, and the subsequent lap is for the caretakers supporting their families or friends suffering from the illness.
The relay will start at 9 a.m. and end after 24 hours on Sunday morning.
Originally divided into separate events from the cities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore, organizers came together and combined all of them into one single venue to bring families, relatives and friends closer together.
Ken Mano, the volunteer coordinator and a relay participant for the last seven years, has a personal connection that he says inspires him to help other cancer victims and survivors to discover hope and unity.
“My wife is a two-time breast cancer survivor who is currently in remission,” Mano said. “Part of the appeal of this program is to see so many cancer families come together and to honor their loved ones during the nighttime when their names are inscribed on the luminaria bags, which is truly a beautiful sight.”
Throughout the entire day and night, anyone who is interested in volunteering or participating is encouraged to walk a lap. Teams are also organized to raise funds for the fight against cancer and team members take turns walking around the track for the entire 24-hour period, signifying that cancer survivors never stop fighting for a better day.
The event at Dublin High will have live entertainment, food booths and information regarding cancer. Teams are organized to raise funds, and this year’s goal is $100,000. In addition, luminaria bags will line the track in the evening, and each bag will have the name of someone who has battled cancer on it.
One highlight of the Relay for Life event are the purple ribbons decorating the light poles in downtown Pleasanton in conjunction with the event — purple is the official color of the entire program.
The backstory of “Paint the Town Purple,” as the initiative is called, involves a Japanese lung cancer survivor named Mr. Minura. Minura is the founder of “Relay for Life” in Japan, and in the early morning hours, he would look out at the horizon and notice the purple color of dawn.
Each morning was a reminder of one more precious day of life, and it inspired Minura to designate it as the official color of the Relay for Life event to represent the positive emotions of cancer patients who are filled with joy during sunrise.
Several regional leaders, including Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne, will be attending the event.
In association with the relay, a Survivors Celebration was already held in May at the Stanford-Valley Care Medical Center.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story listed an incorrect position title for Ken Mano. The Pleasanton Weekly regrets the error.
Thank you for the correction, Ken. The Pleasanton Weekly has changed your position title in the article, and we regret the error.
Ken is not the event organizer, I’m just the volunteer coordinator, Martel Marshall is the chairman of the event, she is a long time Relay Volunteer. Thanks for the nice article, this is a great event celebrating cancer survivors, its very touching and also sobering as cancer victims are also honored.