Great Barrington — A devastating storm cut short this year’s Relay for Life at Monument Mountain High School on Saturday, June 23. The event, which moved from the Guardian Life Insurance Company in Pittsfield to the high school track this year, was supposed to last 12 hours.
The Relay for Life is a benefit for the American Cancer Society, a nationwide nonprofit organization founded in 1913 with the mission of eliminating cancer. The organization offers services and support to people who are dealing with cancer and their families, and also conducts research into cancer. According to the organization’s website, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with some form of cancer within their lifetime.
Just before the event started on the morning of June 22, no one who attended knew the severity or the extent of what the storm was to bring to the high school track later that afternoon. Ray Gardino, the primary organizer for the event, was busy going all across the field making sure that everything was prepared and ready.
Gardino has been an event volunteer for 15 years and his wife Terrie Gardino is a 17-year survivor of thyroid cancer. “This is all about the fight against cancer,” Gardino said. “We always do this for good karma. People like my wife would not be around today if it wasn’t for the American Cancer Society.”
Almost everybody who took part in the event either was a cancer survivor, had a friend or family member who dealt with cancer, or was a caregiver for someone who dealt with cancer.
Abby O’Brien of Pittsfield took part in the event with the Mixed Bag of Nuts Team. The team participated in memory of Pittsfield resident Andrew Maguire who died in 2022. O’Brien is an 18-year Stage Three breast cancer survivor. “To me, the money that goes to the American Cancer Society’s research is the most important,” O’Brien said. “I was in a breast cancer study because the cancer was very vicious. The organization put me in a study to try to stop my cancer, and I had special new chemotherapy. I’m alive and well right now thanks to their research. The more research money we get, the better off the people in the future will be.”
The theme for this year’s event was “Scaring Up A Cure,” and many of the participants took part in the Halloween theme.
By the time the event started at 10 a.m., everything appeared to be set for the 12 hour relay. As per Relay for Life tradition, cancer survivors and their caregivers took the first lap.
With hard work from volunteers, the luminarias, which would have been lit around the track around 8:30 p.m., were all ready for the event’s evening ceremony.
Almost four hours into the event, a microburst storm hit the Monument Mountain High School track. Wind and rain destroyed the event area, including pop up tents that were set up for team members. “We only had a few minutes’ notice about the storm,” Gardino said after the event. “I don’t know how long it lasted, but we were just getting pelted by the rain and the wind. All of the luminary bags that we left under the main tent were all destroyed. The tents were all blowing away, and the wind knocked down two of the porta potties. The tents were all a mangled mess and it was horrible.”
Gardino said that there were two minor injuries from the tents being blown over. “But fortunately, nobody got seriously hurt,” Gardino said. “Someone could have gotten impaled by one of those pieces of flying metal from the tents.”
Around 3 p.m., Sharon Silvernail Hunt posted on the Real Pittsfield Information Facebook Group advising residents to stay away from the track and that the event was over.
“The most disappointing thing to us is that, due to this storm, we lost a year’s worth of hard work and planning for this event,” Gardino said. “Everything was planned for this event right down to the last detail. We had a great start that morning, and everything was rolling along, but then this storm hit.”
Gardino said that, despite the storm ending the event early, an estimated $54,463 was still raised for The American Cancer Society. However, Gardino said that much more would have been raised had the storm not cut the event short. “We will still collect donations at our website until August 31, and we are rescheduling the ‘Golf Ball Drop’ and luminaria ceremony for the next few weeks,” Gardino said. “At some point, looking back at what happened with the storm, you have to say that this is how things go sometimes. But you know what? We will rebound. We will schedule these other parts of the event soon. It won’t be as large of scale as the Relay for Life event, but we will do something when we can.”
To donate to the Berkshire County Relay for Life, visit their website.
