'Paint the Town Purple' highlights upcoming Relay For Life

Story and photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Town commons tree trunks boasted new purple ribbons on May 9.

“Paint the Town Purple” is a Relay For Life event that is held just a few weeks prior to the main event to draw awareness to all types of cancer and the hope for a cure.

“ ‘Paint the Town Purple’ Saturday was a great day,” said Lynn Marston Dingey, Relay For Life co-chair. “I love the whole idea of ‘Paint the Town Purple.’ A cancer survivor's journey is not easy. Painting the town purple is just our way of showing them their community's support.

“We decorated the Town Commons with purple ribbons to offer a symbol of hope to cancer survivors and then set up to sell doughnuts and purple bows to raise some much-needed funds to support cancer survivors on their journey through Relay For Life. We sold 135 dozen doughnuts, so I'm going to assume there were a lot of moms that were happy to have Krispy Kreme doughnuts for Mother's Day.”

Relay For Life will start at 3 p.m. June 6 in Town Commons. Activities include a survivor celebration, kids’ activities, a basket raffle, vendors, live music and superheroes. The costume lap is set for 5:30 p.m., and movie night starts at 8 p.m.

“We'll end the night with our Luminaria Ceremony at 10:15 p.m.” Dingey said. “All cancer survivors are invited to join the survivor celebration. Contact Dylyn at 716-725-9696 or at dylyn.harrison@cancer.org for more information or to RSVP (RSVP not required to attend). Relay For Life event info can be found at www.relayforlife.org/grandislandNY.”

Looking ahead: The lawnmower races are scheduled for June 14 in the vicinity of 3957 West River Road.

“We kick off the day with the Kevin Doring Memorial Walk at 10 a.m., along with our car/truck/bike show,” Dingey said. “Once the walk is done, we start testing lawnmowers, with the lawnmower races officially starting at noon with a kids’ race (mower provided/no registration fee). Registration for all events starts at 9 a.m. The Grand Moose Lodge will be selling hot dogs and burgers from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Look for the Boy Scouts collecting tattered flags for a flag burning, a flag quilt raffle, face painting, photo booth fun, and a grab bag raffle.

“All proceeds from the day will be donated to Relay For Life.”