by Colleen Casner | Feb 7, 2015 | News Slider
Cancer doesn’t sleep, so Lipscomb didn’t either. Participants joined in community to fight cancer at Lipscomb’s third annual Relay for Life event Friday night through Saturday morning in Allen Arena. By 2:25 Saturday morning, over 400 participants had raised $33,000. The structure for the event symbolized a day in the life of a cancer patient. “The relay is symbolic of the struggle that people who suffer with cancer have to go through, the journey that they have to go through, through the night, but we believe that there’s hope in the morning,” junior Chloe Rogers said. Even though participants had plenty of fun, many participated because of personal connections to cancer. Sophomore Sarah Wood lost a close mentor to lung cancer over the summer. “I actually came to Lipscomb because I started working with a woman here doing songwriting and stuff like that,” Wood said. “She worked in the Christian music industry, and I would send her my songs and she would critique them. I just got really, really close with her, and she lived here in Nashville. I fell in love with Lipscomb and that’s why I’m here — because of her. She was like a second mom to me.” Wood performed with her band, The Arcadian Wild, as part of the entertainment Friday night. Wood said that she enjoyed performing for fellow students in a larger venue and supporting a worthy cause. “I think just what Relay for Life is doing means a lot to me, and it’s such an amazing [thing] to be a part of — raising money to cure cancer,” Wood said. “We’re just honored to...
by Erin Turner | Feb 5, 2015 | News Slider
When one of McKenzie King’s family friends was diagnosed with breast cancer, she knew she wanted to make an impact on the cancer community for the rest of her life. “It just seems like the longer you live, the longer you know people that have either had it [cancer] directly or know someone who has had cancer,” said King, whose passion for the fight fuels her participation in Relay for Life. King, a senior molecular biology major from Omaha, Nebraska, was first impacted by cancer during her sophomore year in high school. King watched Sydney Vanderspuy, a close family friend, fight cancer. She also saw the effects of cancer first-hand with her pastor and a close friend in the Army. King’s interest in the cancer community didn’t stop when she came to Lipscomb. During her sophomore year at Lipscomb she volunteered at the Hope Lodge, a home-like environment cancer patients and their caregivers can stay at during treatment. During her time as a volunteer, she was able to connect with cancer patients by giving tours of Nashville and providing transportation to treatment. It was also during her sophomore year that she became a part of the Relay for Life committee. As King has grown closer to the committee over the years, she is especially looking forward to staying up and having fun this year. “Looking back, I think that the most enjoyable part for me is staying up a little bit later, because as you go on throughout the night we never stop doing anything.” At this year’s event, there will be Zumba, yoga, lip sync, ping-pong, zorb ball soccer and inflatables...
by Stephanie Schiraldi | Feb 3, 2015 | News Slider
Relay for Life is hitting especially close to home this year for junior Kristen Lammons. Lammons, an elementary education major from St. Augustine, Florida, is finally got the chance to introduce her biggest supporters in Phi Nu to her fun-loving, warrior of a dad. Lammons’ father was diagnosed with stage 4 mantle cell lymphoma her freshman year. After recently celebrating a year cancer-free, Mr. Lammons will be joining her at this year’s event as Phi Nu’s cancer survivor. “I think he was really honored that we thought about him and reached out to him [to be our survivor],” Lammons said. “It’s so important to me to invite him into it that I think it’s important to him.” “My dad is definitely a man’s man, we call him a businessman redneck,” Lammons said. “He’s just a great provider and that’s something I’ve always admired of him.” Lammons said that even through her father’s rigorous chemotherapy schedule, he still remained supportive of their family and stayed true to his character. “Watching him throughout all of that, even though he wasn’t feeling good and his personality was different, he still encouraged us and loved on us regardless,” Lammons said. Despite a transitioning family during the journey, which included Lammons studying abroad and her sister getting married and moving across the country, Lammons said they still managed to grow closer as a family. “It definitely brought our family close together and made us more real about being intentional with each other and spending time together,” Lammons said. “It was really awesome to watch my mom serve him. It made their marriage way stronger.”...
