By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Two years ago this month, Chuck Kelley, electrical construction and maintenance instructor at Northern Maine Community College, received news that changed his life forever.
THIS YEAR’S ANNUAL Relay for Life for Aroostook County was held June 5-6 at Northern Maine Community College.
Twenty-four area teams walked throughout the night to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society. Prior to the start of the event, there was a special lap dedicated to cancer survivors and caregivers. Among those leading this year’s lap were Chuck Kelley (holding the banner on the left), electrical construction and maintenance instructor at NMCC, and Kevin Simmons (holding the banner on the right), owner of the Caribou and Presque Isle Inn & Convention Centers. Relay for Life is a fun-filled event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money to help the American Cancer Society in its mission to save lives, help those who have been touched by cancer, and empower individuals to fight back. (More photos will run in a future edition.)
He was told he had colon cancer.
“I was diagnosed during a routine yearly physical,” he said. “It caught me totally off guard. I was sent in for some additional tests and a colonoscopy was part of that and that’s how they found it. I had no clue at all prior to that.”
Fortunately the cancer was caught sooner rather than later.
“Earlier would have been a little better,” said Kelley. “Within a couple of months of finding out, I ended up having surgery; I had part of my colon removed. I also went through six months of chemotherapy, and now I’m cancer free. I’ve been tested and they’re keeping a close eye on me, but everything is A-OK. I feel good and my strength is back. Everything’s going well.”
Finding out he had cancer was “life changing.”
“It was a pretty dramatic thing,” he said. “At the time, it really could have gone either way until after I had the surgery and found out how successful the surgery was. That’s when I could take a breath and a sigh of relief. The chemo was more of a precautionary insurance measure that my surgeon recommended that I go through. You really think about what’s important in life. Family and the support of people around you makes a lot of difference, and that’s what helped me get through it.”
As a way to celebrate his survivorship, Kelley joined the nearly 300 people at this year’s annual Relay for Life for Aroostook County, which was held June 5-6 at NMCC. Relay for Life is a fun-filled overnight event designed to bring together those who have been touched by cancer in the community. More than 200 Relays are being held throughout New England in 2009, all celebrating survivorship and raising money to help the American Cancer Society in its mission to save lives, help those who have been touched by cancer, and empower individuals to fight back.
“I participated in last year’s walk, too. I finished my chemo up in late February, and I was here last year participating in the survivor walk. It was a way to put some closure to it,” Kelley said, “and now I’m back for the same reason … trying to move on.
“The Relay for Life is something I like to get involved with just for my own personal experience,” he said. “It’s good to raise money and help support cancer research and help find cures and better diagnosis. It’s also a good way to get the word out about early detection and get people thinking about screening and doing what they should with their health care. It was early detection and routine health care that really made a difference for me. I can’t stress the importance of that preventative-type health.”
Miles Williams, who is the manager of customer service at Maine Public Service Co., headed up one of the many teams that participated in the Relay for Life.
“We had a team made up of various employees from various departments,” he said. “We had about 18 members from the company, plus some of their family members. It was a good-sized team.”
This was the first year MPS formed a team.
“My wife, Sharon, is a breast cancer survivor. It will be five years this October that she was diagnosed,” said Williams. “Last year, we were invited by some close friends of ours to come over, so we did. After that, we thought it would be nice to be members of a team. At MPS, we have a wellness team and we were using this as one of our wellness events.
“Our company promoted the event through the wellness team, and they asked me if I would be a co-chair which I’ve done with Terry Campbell. Terry lost her daughter to cancer a couple years ago, and some of the other members of our team have lost parents or close friends to cancer, so we have a connection to the cause,” he said. “I was so happy to co-chair our team with Terry. We’ve had a blast doing it.”
Williams said the MPS team raised close to $3,000 for the American Cancer Society.
“We had a silent auction bake sale at work,” he said. “That went very well. We also raffled off a quilt that was made by one of the employees. We sold over 500 tickets for that. We had a real good response from the employees.”
Karen Gonya, co-chair of the Aroostook County Relay for Life planning committee, said this year’s walk was bigger and better than last year’s.
“There were 24 teams that took part in this year’s Aroostook County Relay for Life, up from 13 teams last year. Teams ranged in size from six to 30 members, and they were joined Friday evening by a number of community members who registered to walk in support of the event without being affiliated with a team,” she said. “In total, nearly 300 walkers took part in the event – a record number for us.”
While the overall amount raised is not finalized, approximately $45,000 had been turned in as of the close of the Relay Saturday morning.
“This is a tremendous jump over previous years. After the costs associated with the Relay have been calculated, we’re hoping for a net profit of around $43,000,” said Gonya. “Last year had been our most successful year to date with $26,000 raised. This is incredibly exciting, especially given the current economic times.
“A number of the Relays in other parts of the state saw a decrease in funds raised despite great efforts on their part, so it is particularly pleasing to see how generous our family, friends and neighbors in Aroostook County were in support of the fight against cancer,” she said.
Gonya said the local walk would not have been possible without the support of community businesses, organizations, as well as a tremendous volunteer effort by numerous individuals.
“On behalf of the planning committee, I want to extend a sincere thank you to the companies that provided monetary or in-kind gifts, and/or provided support for their employees to put time into organizing their team and fund-raising efforts,” she said, “as well as to all of the many individual people who volunteered their time in so many ways to make this event such a success.”
