Pittsfield — Cancer does not stop for rain, and neither did participants in the annual Relay for Life of Berkshire County. The 12-hour annual event was held on Saturday, June 24 at the parking lot of the Guardian Life Insurance Company.
Participants and teams took part in going around in laps at the parking lot of the company, despite the day’s rainy and stormy weather.
Due to the rain and stormy weather, organizers had to scramble until the very last minute to make sure that the event went off smoothly. “Cancer doesn’t stop, but this relay hasn’t stopped in 28 years, and it’s not going to stop because of the rain,” lead organizer Ray Gardino told The Berkshire Edge. “I have been a volunteer for 14 years, and I’ve been running it for eight. My wife, Terrie Gardino, is a 16-year survivor of thyroid cancer, and this event is important to me because it is important to support the American Cancer Society. Everybody has been touched by cancer in some form or another. Everything we raise today will go towards fundraising and research.”
Gardino was scrambling to get certain facets of the event together when The Berkshire Edge interviewed him, and he was strongly adamant that the weather, no matter how good or bad it was, would never stop the event. “This is not a run of any sort because this is a race against cancer,” Gardino said. “While the weather is going to run havoc with this whole event today, we won’t stop.”
According to the event’s website, 27 teams made up of 125 participants took part in the event, which raised a total of $54,930.92.
“This event means everything to us,” Guardians of the Relay member Joe Sondrini said. “My sister is a survivor of breast cancer, and my brother is a survivor of prostate cancer, but he’s been in remission for seven years.”
“My mom, Pat, is a cancer survivor, and she is going to be here today running the survivor’s lap,” team member Melissa Letalien said. “The Relay For Life team at Guardian [Life Insurance Company] was about to go away, but I couldn’t let that happen, and I took it over after my uncle died of leukemia. I will continue organizing this team for as many years as I am on Earth.”
Some teams took part in memory of those who died of cancer, including Team Eric. “Eric was our son, and he died of Neuroblastoma when he was very young,” Team Eric member Theresa Sonsini said. “The American Cancer Society has always been helpful to us, and we like to give back because of that.”
Many of the participants interviewed by The Berkshire Edge lauded The American Cancer Society for directly helping them with their cancer fight, including survivor Abby O’Brien, who is also a Cancer Action Network Advocate for the organization. “As far as I’m concerned, the research funding by the organization saved my life,” O’Brien said. “I had stage three breast cancer, and I was put on an [experimental] study drug because the cancer had advanced very far. I was on it from 2006 to 2021, and it saved my life.”
For Great Barrington Selectboard member and cancer survivor Garfield Reed, the annual event holds a very strong significance. “For the past 20 years I have been here, it has been very exciting and emotional,” Reed said before he participated in the “Survivor’s Lap” that started the event. “The American Cancer Society has helped us all fight cancer. And when we fight cancer, we go all the way, baby.”
For more information about The American Cancer Society, go to its website.
