In the courtyard between Old Town Newhall’s parking structure and some of the area’s main attractions, like the Laemmle Theater, purple Relay for Life booths were strategically positioned as a dragnet for reeling in passersby Saturday.
It wasn’t unintentional, said Brad Peach, the American Cancer Society West Region’s co-lead volunteer and longtime Santa Clarita chapter member.
“There’s still, surprisingly enough, tons of people (who) have never heard of Relay for Life. And so … we’re in a perfect position for people walking through,” Peach said. “And, of course, we’re not shy at all, so we’ll jump right in and say, ‘Hey, y’all come see us at Relay for Life.’”
Santa Clarita Valley’s Relay for Life is coming up fast: May 2, Central Park, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. In the run-up to the spring event — which this year has a bigger fundraising goal than the local American Cancer Society chapter’s had in years, Peach said — promotional events like these typically play a part.
Saturday’s booths included kids’ games, face painting and, as always, pamphlet upon pamphlet full of information important to cancer patients and their families.
The American Cancer Society’s Santa Clarita chapter is one of the biggest fundraisers in the country. Its Relay for Life event is currently ranked the 19th biggest fundraiser out of 2,000, said Peach, but he added the chapter’s still rebuilding since the COVID-19 pandemic significantly cut down patronage.
“Our goal is to raise $375,000 and it’s our strongest goal we’ve had in the last decade. And I think we’re going to (make it) … Let me rephrase that. We’re going to make that,” Peach said. “The relay’s in two weeks, but we still have two months, 60 days following that, to fundraise for them.”
The American Cancer Society’s services to cancer patients cover the logistics of many stages of cancer treatment, from lodging and transportation to make that treatment more accessible to a 24/7 hotline for people who’ve been diagnosed.
“So if you’ve just been diagnosed and you’re scared … and 3 o’clock in the morning comes around, everybody’s asleep, but the demons are in your head … you can call somebody and they can talk it to you, and intelligently talk to you,” Peach said.
To those ends, the organization’s Santa Clarita chapter alone has raised $9 million since it began in 1999, Peach said.
Multiple generations of Peach’s family are Relay for Life volunteers: His parents got involved after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, followed by ovarian cancer, 27 years ago, with more cancer diagnoses to follow. Since then, multiple members of the Peach family have been touched by cancer.
That was also the time when Brad’s child Angela Peach became a Relay for Life volunteer — at 5 years old.
“We were sponsored originally by my dad’s work,” Angela said. “And then throughout the years, we’ve changed different sponsors and then became our own team, the Buccaneers. I came up with that one was like, 8, and it’s just kind of stuck … It’s very important to my family.”
Angela said Brad’s mother was the most significant reason Relay for Life had become an important part of their lives, and why they’d been moved to reinvest in a community of cancer survivors and caregivers with an ever-widening ripple effect of support.
Case in point: When someone in Angela’s orbit was recently diagnosed with cancer, Angela was the natural person to call.
“My … best friend’s partner’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I was the first person he called to get all of the information that he could through resources through the American Cancer Society,” Angela said. “It’s just been such a huge part of my life, and having my entire family be involved, and now my partner and our little family being involved, and seeing her be so passionate about it, just kind of moves me in the right direction.”
