Local Relay for Life volunteers chose a slightly unorthodox route for their “first lap” kickoff ahead of the main event in May: the Valencia Town Center.
Through the doors, past the LUSH store and down the escalator, about 25 members and supporters of the “Peace, Love, Cure” team – one of over 70 Santa Clarita Valley teams who participated in Relay for Life last year – trailed a banner displaying a picture of local musician Sean Wiggins.
Wiggins, who now lives in North Hollywood, has been battling stage four ovarian cancer for about three years, said Wiggins’ friend and Peace, Love, Cure member Patti Miller. Miller said Wiggins has been performing for the past 15 years, and was a repeat act at Wine 661 in Valencia.
“We’ve been friends for a number of years, and from playing … (her) gigs,” Miller said. “And so I know her friends, all her groupies that come watch her. We’re all friends, so it’s a great community.”
While the proceeds from Peace, Love, Cure’s fundraising efforts in Relay for Life will be made in honor of Wiggins, they’ll ultimately go to the American Cancer Society, which invests money in cancer research, lodging and transportation programs for cancer patients and prevention screening education.
Of all local Relay for Life organizations nationwide, Relay for Life of Santa Clarita Valley regularly makes the top 50 – sometimes the top 20 – of Relay for Life fund raisers, said Jen Minard, a member of the Relay for Life of Santa Clarita Valley captain’s co-council.
Peace, Love, Cure team captain Yvonne Salas has been volunteering with Relay for Life since 2013. While she oversees a core group of about 15 volunteers, she said, she manages over 100 Peace, Love, Cure volunteers who organize the Luminaria ceremony, where paper bags are decorated and lit with a candle placed inside in honor of anyone who’s fought cancer.
“My grand-nephew, who was 23 months old, lost his battle to leukemia, and so … I’ve been involved since then,” Salas said.
She said that the team’s fundraising efforts are significant in an age when cancer has become drastically more treatable than even 20 years ago. And while Salas doesn’t know Wiggins personally, the wide reach any given team’s social network allows them to be made aware of local cancer patients they may not otherwise.
“Sean’s been fighting, fighting, and gigging is her passion, and it keeps her going,” Miller said. “We’ve got all our Wiggins warriors bracelets that we wear. So she’s supported by many … we’re all praying for and keeping her going.”
With the support of the Peace, Love, Cure team comes social and emotional strength that looked inexhaustible Saturday morning, walking at a steady, energized clip through the nearly empty mall.
“When I was going through my cancer battle, like this team was around, they’ve continued to support me throughout my recovery,” said Peace, Love, Cure team member Jaymie Wisdom. “Having their mission, I just feel a whole sense of camaraderie, support and team spirit.”
At the end of the mall walk-through, Peace, Love, Cure members filtered into the nearby Lazy Dog restaurant for their fundraiser, where a portion of meal proceeds would go to Relay for Life.
That’s one of the perks of the “first lap” tradition, a practice that now happens globally several months ahead of each region’s major Relay for Life event, Minard said, and was started back in 2019 by a New York volunteer named Joe Gillette.
“He was a big-time fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the organization, and he didn’t want to wait until his (Relay for Life) event,” Minard said. “So he’s like, ‘Why don’t we do a lap? … So that’s what kind of kicked off … If all they got to do is just walk around their dining room table, they took their first lap.”
The first lap can be anywhere, at any length. So why not do it outside the fundraiser lunch’s door?
This year’s Relay for Life of Santa Clarita Valley is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on May 2 at Central Park, located at 27150 Bouquet Canyon Road.
