Ball State University students will transform their steps and their voices this weekend into money for scientific research that could save thousands of lives.
Lisa Shipley, Ball State's Relay for Life team development chairwoman, said more than 400 students on 38 teams will fight sleep and chilly temperatures Friday and Saturday for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.
Teams collected donations and pledges from family and friends in exchange for taking turns to walk around a track on LaFollette Field from 3 p.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Saturday. All proceeds are used to conduct cancer research, Shipley said.
WCRD and local bands will provide music, and additional entertainment will include kickball, Ultimate Frisbee and the annual Miss Relay Pageant, Shipley said
Although this year's Relay for Life was scheduled for the same day as the Late Nite Carnival, the number of participants and teams almost doubled from last year, she said.
Instead of viewing the conflicting events as a disadvantage, Shipley said teams will be able to collect change from carnival attendees throughout the evening. Students will pass by LaFollette Field on their way to the carnival parking lot, she said.
"We plan to take full advantage of [the carnival]," Shipley said. "We urge everyone to go participate in the carnival, but we still ask that one member of the team stays on the track at all times."
Shipley, who is also captain of The Revolution's "Christians Crushing Cancer" team, said she turned Relay for Life into a yearly tradition for herself because cancer had affected people she knew.
"I've had a handful of individuals, mainly family, who have or have had cancer," she said. "Recently, just last fall, we found out my dad had skin cancer, and my great-aunt, who had like five different types of cancer, died last year."
Phi Mu Alpha fraternity's music director Tucker Day said the fraternity co-sponsored a 40-minute fundraiser concert with Sigma Alpha Iota sorority Thursday in Bracken Library to raise awareness about Relay for Life. About 30 people showed up to support the group, and more than $50 was raised, he said.
"We were asked [to help] by loved ones who were in pain, and we wanted to give a helping hand," Day said.
Phi Mu Alpha members will perform the national anthem Friday to kick off the Relay for Life event, he said.
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