By By Adrienne McKenzie
Plans for the kick-off event for Relay for Life is underway, according to committee co-chairs Becky Ganey and Deborah Camp.
The committee had a meeting to discuss the details of the kick-off event and the actual Relay event Thursday afternoon at David's Catfish House.
The kick-off event will be held earlier during the year than in past years due to interest shown in the community for an earlier date. Also, the kick-off will be held in the afternoon instead of at lunchtime in an attempt to get schools more involved. The tentative date for the kick-off is Aug. 23 and the location is being "worked on" by committee members.
"Everybody expressed interest in the kick-off coming early," Camp said. "We are looking at the schools being more represented so we will hold the event at 5 p.m. and we will see if the YMCA is available on Aug. 23."
From 5 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. everyone in attendance will mingle and from 5:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. ceremonies will begin and a guest speaker will talk to the crowd about why Atmore does the Relay for Life event.
The theme for Relay for Life this year is "Cancer has no Borders." Each Atmore Relay for Life team will choose from a list of countries that also hosts Relay for Life in their country. At the kick-off, committee members are going to try to incorporate types of food from different parts of the world to tie in the theme of Relay.
"We could do finger foods from different countries instead of a sit down meal," Camp said.
The Relay for Life event will be held in April, 2008 and the location has not been set.
Committee members at the meeting Thursday included Camp, Ganey, Cindy Lee, Walt Butler, Kitty Day, Myrna Monroe, Sherry Digmon and Angela Boatwright. Also at the meeting was Carolyn Marston with the American Cancer Society.
The Relay for Life committee will meet again with a brown bag lunch Aug. 16 in the Atmore News building.