“Well, 2020 was a rough time and we were used to getting together at her house and everything, and we were going to try to honor her and still get together, but in 2020, because of COVID, we couldn’t get together,” Baxter said. “So, a few of us decided to do (Relay For Life). It was kind of a last minute thing.”
At least 200 people gathered at the fairgrounds in Lawrenceville on Friday night for a Gwinnett Relay For Life that was a little different from normal because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
While the event — which is regularly heralded as the world’s largest Relay For Life event — traditionally has a carnival-like atmosphere, this year’s event was more subdued and done as a two-hour “drive-in relay.”
Still, organizers found a way to inject some fun into the event with activities such as the traditional Purple Glove Dance, a game where kids got to see who could get dressed up in hospital scrubs the fastest and a competition where cancer survivors were wrapped up in purple crepe paper by their caregivers. Agape Music Group sang for attendees as well.
And, the event was capped with driving luminaria lap where attendees tuned in to a radio station and listened to a Gwinnett Relay-specific playlist as they drove past luminaria bags that honored people who died from cancer before they left the fairgrounds.
“For just a two-hour event, I think it was successful,” relay co-event leader Angel Roussie said. “I was really pleased. We sold a lot of luminarias and those all represent a name … This was better than nothing. We didn’t want to have no event at all.”
There were several first-time Gwinnett Relay For Life participants in crowd Friday night.
Grayson resident Mary Edg was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2020 when she went in for a mammogram. She then underwent a lumpectomy last June.
Edg, 72, went into remission after that, and celebrated six months of being cancer free earlier this year. She will undergo another check for cancer next month, but she and her sister, Patty Pennington, decided to celebrate at Relay for Life Friday night.
“I like it,” said Edg, who had previously participated in Relay for Life events in Brunswick with a former employer. “It’s good. I’m just sorry we don’t have the survivor walk (because of COVID-19).”
But, there’s always next year’s survivor’s walk.
“And, I will be here,” Edg said.
Pennington said she actually liked that their first Gwinnett relay was smaller than normal because it allowed them to ease into the annual event and get a taste for what it is like.
“It’s not as overwhelming,” she said. “It’s a little easier to see what goes on so next year, when we come back, we won’t be lost.”
Meanwhile, Suwanee residents Tony and Tamika Sirmons were also attending their first Relay For Life event in Gwinnett County, although they had previously attended relays in Clayton County dating as far back as 2009.
Tony Sirmons has been diagnosed with cancer twice. He was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2009 and later diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer in 2013. They participated in the Gwinnett relay with the team from Radloff Middle School, where Tamika Sirmons works.
“It’s great,” Tony Sirmons said on Gwinnett’s relay.
His wife added, “It’s an inspiration. You feel a sense of community with everything that’s going on.”
The event even had an extra special meaning for regular Gwinnett relay attendees after last year’s event could not be held because of the pandemic.
“This is my infusion of hope and I missed it last year,” Gwinnett relay veteran Jill Henning told the crowd.
Emcee Ben Haynes thanked the crowd who showed up for participating this year as the event wound down.
“It’s a little different this year, but guess what, we’re here, right,” Haynes asked the crowd. “We’re out here and we’re doing it, and we’re doing it for a great cause.”
And, as for “Thelma’s Faves,” they may not have decided to participate in this year’s relay until not long before it happened, but they certainly made their mark. Relay officials presented when with a special spirit award — a giant Connect Four game — at the end of the night in recognition of their enthusiasm at the event.
“I think it’s awesome,” Baxter said. “We’ll definitely be back next year and bring the entire family.”
