The 23rd annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life will not be held in the event’s traditional venue in Pottsville.
Instead of returning to Veterans Memorial Stadium at Pottsville Area High School, it will be held May 21 and 22 on The Island in Schuylkill Haven, Charles R. “Chuck” Joy, Port Carbon, the event’s chairman, said at a special event before more than 200 people at the Pottsville Ramada on Saturday night.
“We had the opportunity to go to a new area. And I like the facility, setup wise, the opportunities for parking and handicapped accessibility. Schuylkill Haven’s been vying to take us out there. So we wanted to move forward to seize this opportunity,” Joy said.
Plus, the Borough of Schuylkill Haven, which manages The Island, is allowing the organizers to use the venue with an offer they couldn’t refuse. “They waived the fees for us,” Joy said.
He made the announcement at a Mardi Gras-themed Celebration Event at the Ramada in Pottsville. “It used to be known as the ‘kick off dinner,’ ” Joy said.
Officials at Pottsville Area were not sure why the relay event decided to move.
Last year, the Relay For Life paid a total of $2,048.05 to rent the stadium, according to an invoice provided by Stephen C. Curran, Pottsville Area’s business manager.
“We did not receive a request for the use of the facility, hence we cannot speculate as to why or why not,” Curran said Wednesday.
“To the best of my knowledge, the Relay for Life committee did not submit any paperwork to utilize our facilities this year,” Pottsville Area Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel said Thursday.
The Relay for Life committee had “no major issues” with Veterans Memorial Stadium, Joy said.
“It’s been a great venue. The hospitality has been good with the school board and the school district,” Joy said.
Zwiebel had no comment on the relay moving to a new venue.
“We receive many requests to utilize our facilities from both school-based groups and community organizations throughout the year. We try to accommodate as many requests as possible. The philosophy of the board of directors, as it is listed in the Pottsville Area School District Application and Procedures for The Use of School Facilities, reads ‘Since public schools belong to the people of the school district, and since plant facilities are established, maintained and operated by funds largely provided by local taxes, the board accepts the responsibility for making the public school facilities available to the community for appropriate activities which do not infringe upon, nor interfere with, the conduct and best interest of the school system. It is the board’s intention to grant the use of school facilities in accordance with board policy 707. Since use of school facilities does result in additional operational costs to the district, a fee schedule has been established to recover appropriate expenses and all groups requesting the use of district facilities will uniformly be assessed these fees,’ ” Zwiebel said.
The American Cancer Society Relay For Life began in May 1985 in Tacoma, Washington, as the City of Destiny Classic 24-Hour Run Against Cancer, according to the American Cancer Society website, www.cancer.org.
Over the years, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life has become an international movement that has raised more than $5 billion for the effort to end cancer, according to the website.
Since the Pottsville relay began in 1994, it’s raised more than $3,561,065, Trysha D. Leigel, one of the co-chairpersons of the event, said at the start of the May 2015 relay.
In its quest to raise $137,000 in May 2015, the volunteers at last year’s annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Pottsville managed to acquire $105,000 by the end of its 24-hour relay.
This year, the goal is to raise $120,000, Joy said Saturday.
“We have several new teams signed up and our previous years’ teams are on board as well. With the relay theme ‘Paint Your World Purple,’ our Celebration Event is the start to a great relay of the Pottsville area,” Joy said.