Wofford fraternity sponsors Relay for Life Wednesday
April 9, 2012
APO schedules music, entertainment for six-hour event
SPARTANBURG, SC – April 9, 2012 – The Wofford chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a national co-educational service fraternity, will host a Relay for Life on Wednesday, April 11, from 6 p.m. to midnight on the horseshoe behind Main Building.
The event will include a variety of bands and other entertainment for the 17 teams participating and their supporters. It is open to the Wofford community as well as the entire Spartanburg community.
The Wofford chapter of APO, Pi Iota, already has raised more than $6,000 for the American Cancer Society, the beneficiary organization for Relay, says organizer Taylor Thomas, president of the Wofford chapter. Relay is the main volunteer-driven cancer fundraiser for ACS. The primary objective of the Relay is to raise money for cancer research and cancer patients while also spreading cancer awareness, celebrating the lives of survivors, remembering those who have lost their lives to cancer, and uniting a community in the fight against cancer.
Thomas and James Detter, vice president of APO, will open the event at 6 p.m., with Kym Cole, a representative of the ACS for the South Carolina Upstate. The Wofford Men singing ensemble will perform the National Anthem, and Dr. Ron Robinson, the Perkins-Prothro Chaplain at Wofford, will provide the opening prayer.
Survivors and caregivers will be honored at the event, Thomas says.
Other student performers include the Goldtones and members of SCATE (Sharing Creative Arts Through Expression). Then, a DJ will be on hand throughout the night to provide music and other entertainment.
Each of the 17 teams will have their own themes and will have displays and events around the horseshoe. “The athletes will have a Home Run Derby, the American Chemical Society will have a ‘periodic table of cupcakes,’ and the Tri-Deltas will celebrate birthdays,” Thomas says. “Teams will be dressed and their tables decorated.”
Thomas encourages cancer survivors and caregivers from the Wofford community and throughout Spartanburg to participate. “The event will be family friendly, and we will have a variety of events highlighting survivors and caregivers, such as the Luminary Remembrance Lap and Luminary Ceremony.”
The Pi Iota Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega has been chartered at Wofford for 46 years, and aims to provide service opportunities that involve the entire campus community rather than just the fraternity, Thomas notes.
APO is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at more than 350 campuses, an active membership of some 17,000 students and more than 350,000 alumni members.
For more information about the Wofford Relay for Life, go to www.relayforlife.or/woffordsc or visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wofford-Relay-for-Life/285105878209750.
