This week is Crusade Week, a weeklong push for the Relay for Life team at the University of Northern Iowa to get more people involved in the event and understand what it’s about. This is an important week for the members of Relay for Life as it is a big recruitment week for anyone wanting to sign up and participate in the event. The week is split up into days with a different recruitment event occurring each day.

Monday’s event involved Luminarias, small paper lanterns, which were on campus during the day and lit up that night. 

Tuesday’s recruitment effort was an informational table in the Union, and a bank night in the evening giving people an opportunity to donate cash.

Wednesday’s event was a “birthday party” where anybody already signed up or signs up for a relay can receive a cupcake. There was also a game where the competitors get the chance to win free relay registration. 

Thursday and Friday’s events are taking place in the WRC, with tables set up with information about Relay for Life.  

Haley Manternach, junior mathematics teaching and middle level education dual major, and vice president of Relay for Life at UNI explained that the events are mainly geared towards college students.

“However,” Manternach said, “Relay for Life, in general, is a community-wide event [that involves] little babies to grandparents.”  

In addition, most of what the Relay for Life group is trying to do is recruit as many of the people as they can for the event, which will occur in April. 

Kelly Angell, a community manager of the American Cancer Society, works closely with not only the UNI community of Relay for Life, but also three other communities in their yearlong preparation process for the event. 

Angell stresses the importance of the event and the assistance it brings to the fight against cancer.

Angell said cancer is quickly becoming the number one cause of death in the U.S. and that there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to find better research and treatments. This is why Relay for Life exists — to fund research and patient programs. 

“It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t been impacted by cancer,” Angell said. “We have the choice to do something about it, and the Relay for Life is an event that fights every cancer, in every community, every day.”