Taking off from the home of Anne Sullivan, Youth liaison for Elmhurst Relay For Life, a dozen students, from York and IC, showered Elmhurst cancer survivors with hope and springtime with daffodils while the skies showered the rest of the city in grey.

“[The daffodils] spread hope,” York junior Kaitlin Templeman, said. “When people open the door they all just have big smiles on their faces.”

Daffodils are the official sign of hope for the American Cancer Society and these deliveries have always been a tradition; but thanks to the Mary K. Steffens Foundation, Relay For Life teams and volunteers partner with Relay’s Survivor Caregiver Committee to carry on this beloved tradition.

“A large part of why we’ve been able to keep it [in Elmhurst] is because [high school students] are willing to deliver them,” Sullivan said.

Receiving daffodils is an annual spring tradition for Elmhurst survivors.

“I think [delivering daffodils is] remembering them and I think a lot of them are very touched by it; I know I would be,” said Norma Peterson, co-chairperson of the Survivor Caregiver Committee. “Just that somebody remembers, even if it’s been many years, that they’re a cancer survivor and they’re still here and they’re still fighting.”

Students got in their cars in the early afternoon of Sun. April 15th, spreading out around Elmhurst to hand-deliver daffodils to cancer survivors.

“It’s a great reminder that I’m still here, and that everybody else still cares,” said Sandy Cerrone, one of the survivors who received a daffodil.

To some people, the daffodils were a bright reminder that they won their fight, while to others the daffodil was a sign of spring and hope.

“Daffodils are my favorite flower, absolute favorite because every spring they’re the first to come up and they’re a sign of hope and they are a sign of life,” another survivor, Mary Oehler-Peak, said. “And they’re yellow and they’re just so pretty.”

Relay For Life began in May of 1985, as Dr. Gordon “Gordy” Klatt walked and ran, circling the track, at the University of Puget Sound for a full 24-hours in Tacoma, Washington, to raise money for cancer.

Every year since, cancer survivors along with teams of the young, the old, the able, and the disabled walk in venues all around the world to raise money for the same disease as Dr. Gordon Klatt.

This year, 2018, marks the 25th anniversary of Elmhurst Relay. Throughout the years, the Elmhurst Relay has raised $4,439,642.

“That’s MILLIONS!” Sullivan said.

This year’s Relay For Life event will begin at 6 pm in the York Community High School field house on Friday, June 1st; please come out to support the teams and enjoy the event.

Everyone is welcome!