By Elijah Mercer



More than thirty members of SigEp DC Delta raised over $1000 and walked for cancer research Saturday night in Bender Arena at American University’s annual “Relay For Life.”



Relay For Life is the main volunteer-driven cancer fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. The event is held to spread cancer awareness and celebrate the lives of survivors, caretakers, patients, and those who lost their lives to cancer. For a night, students, survivors, and caretakers stay up to raise money for cancer in honor of Relay’s “Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back,” slogan. “Relay” events are usually held in local communities and on college and high school campuses. Some events have even extended to military bases.



The local Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) organization hosts the AU event, which began in 2009.



DC Delta alumnus Br. Robbie Schwartz delivered the opening speech during the Luminaria ceremony, a light ceremony where participants decorate paper bags to celebrate and remember those who have fallen to cancer. Schwartz, who recently lost his mother to cancer, spoke about his responsibility as a caretaker.



Many current undergraduate brothers contributed to the event as well.



Br. Daniel Knoll, Br. Tommy Medaglia and Br. Robert Pines worked directly on the event. Knoll co-led AU’s recruitment committee, while Medaglia and Pines worked closely with CAC to organize and fund the event itself.



Br. John Scianimanico read a poem entitled “One Little Candle” as part of the Luminaria ceremony. Scianimanico also spoke about ‘remembrance’ after losing an aunt to cancer. SigEp Relay Team Captain Br. Elijah Mercer encouraged participants to fight back against cancer during closing ceremonies after he lost his father to colon cancer the summer before freshman year. Mercer served on Knoll’s committee and received a gift card to Potbelly’s for speaking at the event for a third year in a row.



Freshman Br. Zachary Morrice contributed the most money to SigEp’s Relay Team. Morrice raised $500 of the team’s total $1,135. In total, AU raised over $80,000.



The event was part of AU’s “Greek Week” this year. Brothers received points for their “Greek Week” team based on attendance. SigEp has had the largest participation of any social Greek organization on campus at Relay since the event’s inception at AU.