As we are a part of a society that helps us grow and shapes us to be the person that we are today, it is only natural and fair that we give something back to our community. Many organizations strive to provide the youth the opportunity to do just so and the “Relay for Life” Club is not an exception. “It lets [the students] work for a purpose,” Said Berenice Diaz, the Advisor of the club “We are looking to help the community…and to help funding the American Cancer Society”. The club welcomes anyone who is interested in joining and fighting for a good cause. The members come together and meet every Tuesday and major events are held every holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and so on.
For many in the club, being there has been a great experience and senior Tenzin Ngawang considers it as her “small second family”. “We are pretty close to each other, everybody knows everybody else.” Explained Ngawang. From sophomore Chon Huynh’s perspective, the club is enjoyable because “it can be really fun sometimes to work for people”. On the other hand, the Vice President of Relay for Life club, senior Stella Aratoma, likes the club because of the effort they put in to help others. “[Our work] shows how much we care for the club” Said Aratoma who first joined Malden Against Cancer but changed her mind and decided to join Relay For Life as it appears to be more “appealing” in her opinion. As the advisor of the club, Ms. Diaz commented that the group of kids is “funny…and relaxed” and come from different backgrounds. She explains that Malden has a wide range of people coming from many places within its population and that leads to the club having diversity within the group. For Diaz, her experience with the club has been “good, and positive”.
Life is not without the struggles it provides us along the way. Relay for Life club faced some obstacles due to the unexpected snow days during February. “Snow days put us behind schedule and so, candies haven’t really sold” Explained Diaz. However, she quickly added in that aside the arising issue, there has been improvement as well. “Breakfast sales has been improved and we make more money compared to last year,” Said Diaz “Our goal this year is to make about $2500”. Similarly, the Treasurer of the club also has the same motivation in mind as she hopes to fundraise a lot more this year, “Our priority in this club is to be ready for the Tough Overnight walk in April” Said Diaz.
In order to reach the goal established, the club has been working monthly, trying to do a fundraising every month. Each has a different theme that is related to that month. Diaz explained that “for example, February is known as the month of love and so our theme would be about love. December is a holiday month and the theme for that month would be holiday-related”. “We sell out whenever we can” Said Aratoma. These events serve, to Huynh, as an opportunity to “do something about [cancer]” and “try to make a difference” in the community.
As these people come from different background and have different life stories, their reasons for joining the club are different as well. While Huynh became of part of the Relay for Life to make a change in the community, Aratoma joined because she felt “inspired” as the club “makes people feel like they can do something for a cause”. Additionally, she also had much experiences with cancer and has always wanted to “get involved in helping some cancer-related club in school”. Alike to Huynh’s justification for him joining the club, Ngawang decided that she would sign up to be a part of the club because “it felt really nice to give back to the community” and her friend is also in the club.
The club is looking to help the community, especially the part that is and had been affected by cancer. “It is [pretty] hard to see people [who] are hurting” and the club gives him the chance to help other people“. “The club gives the kids an opportunity to share their stories about cancer with others …[and] the kids are really receptive” Said Diaz “[The club] is, overall, great”. If you are interested in joining, please report to room H413 for more informations.
