AEDC employees to participate in Relay for Life

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  AEDC employee Shawn Wolfe is encouraging other AEDC employees to participate in the 2013 Coffee County Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society, April 26-27 at the Coffee County Middle School football field in Manchester on Highway 55.

Employees may join team "Remember" to take part in the relay and assist in fund-raising activities.

During the relay, teams of people camp out and take turns walking or running around the track. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event.

Dee Wolfe and her husband Shawn, both AEDC employees, coordinate team "Remember's" involvement in the event. Two teams from AEDC, "Remember" and "Honoring Mark and Moe," participated in last year's Relay for Life and together collected more than $3,000.

The teams raised money at the event by selling Crush Cancer T-shirts, offering chair massages, and providing attendees the opportunity to beat on a donated car with sledgehammers.

"When I arrived in October 2008, AEDC as a whole didn't know what Relay for Life was all about," Wolfe said. "I told my story of my battle with thyroid cancer and asked AEDC to come out and support me and the American Cancer Society by joining a team at Relay for Life. Since 2009, AEDC teams have showed their support and raised more than $28,000 for cancer research."

Wolfe said her life has been touched by cancer since she first told her story at AEDC.

"My Dad found out he had prostate cancer and went through treatment in 2009; in September 2010, I was told I had cervical cancer and had surgery; and then in October 2012, cancer has once again struck my family as my step-mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer," she said. "Relay has meant a lot to me and my family since we first got involved in 2007, but each year it comes to mean more as cancer affects more of our friends and family.

The relay starts at 6 p.m. Friday and ends at 6 a.m. Saturday. All team members do not have to be at the relay the entire night.

As in previous years, individuals can purchase a luminary, track torch or company sign that will be displayed the night of the relay.

For more information about Relay for Life, joining team "Remember", purchasing a luminary or making a donation, please contact Dee Wolfe at dee.wolfe@arnold.af.mil or (931) 454-4313 and Shawn Wolfe at shawn.wolfe@arnold.af.mil. Individuals can also register online at www.relayforlife.org/coffeetn.