Colleges Against Cancer turns red and blue into purple

Everyone saw red and blue around campus on Tuesday. On Wednesday, everyone who walked across the Washington Avenue Bridge saw purple.

Colleges Against Cancer put up purple posters and balloons across the bridge to grab attention for next semester’s Relay for Life , an annual fundraising event put on by the American Cancer Society .

Next semester, teams of about 10 people each will gather in the University Field House over a night and walk around the track.

The actual Relay for Life event isn’t until April, but Colleges Against Cancer President John Kieffer said ithe organization wanted to kick off early. He said the more time teams have to raise money, the easier it will be to get the $100 required for each participant.

Amanda Reigel, a chemistry sophomore, participated in last year’s Relay for Life. She was glad that she signed up early this year, she said.

“It gives us, like, six months to fundraise instead of like one or two,” she said, “which makes the $100 goal easier to get to.”

Although Reigel signed up to do the event with her friends, other student groups use this as an opportunity to give back to the community. Brittany Magnuson , a senior and a member of the American Marketing Association student group, signed up a team through the group.

Volunteers for Colleges Against Cancer were stationed at Coffman Union with a computer to sign people or teams up on its website, volunteers said.

Kieffer said this year’s event was a great success. At this time last year, he said, only four people were signed up. This year 76 people have signed up. He said he’s still expecting more people throughout the rest of the semester.

“By the end of the semester, we should have, I’m estimating, hopefully 90 teams signed up,” he said.

Kieffer said participation in the Relay for Life has grown each year since it began at the University three years ago. He said he hopes to get 176 teams this year, which would be an improvement over 152 teams last year.

Cassi Smiley , an event organizer, said it was a bit difficult to balance spending money and promotion when planning the event.

“We don’t want to spend any money because all the money that we make will go toward our Relay for Life goal,” she said. “It’s a really cool thing having all the money go to initiatives that we’re doing on campus.”