By Jason Portras
This past Sunday, Revelstoke’s Annual Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay For Life event was held at the old Mountain View School grounds.
It was a scorcher of a day for the 10 teams that participated. Thankfully, there were tons of great refreshments and food to replenish both body and spirit.
Here is a selection of images from the day’s events:
The ceremony began at 10 am when Cheryl Fry called on the bagpipe band to lead Revelstoke’s cancer survivors on the first relay lap of the day, called the Victory Lap. Jason Portras photo The drummer leads the procession of survivors. Jason Portras photo Revelstoke’s cancer survivors being led by their honour guard. Jason Portras photo The McTaggert family was all smiles. They headed up Team Hope. Jason Portras photo Local resident Doug Hamilton would like all of Revelstoke’s residents to probe and prod our local MLA and other government officials to have cancer treatments offered here. Many patients are forced to drive to Vernon regularly for their treatments or miss them altogether when the pass closes, which we all know happens quite frequently. Jason Portras photo Revelstoke’s cancer survivors. Jason Portras photo Revelstoke’s talent was amazing! From top-bottom, left-right: Jade-Lyn Harder making her violin sing, Sara Carey crooning, Garett Cooper slamming skins, Kade Hansen shredding his axe, and Heather Harder singing her heart out. Jason Portras photo Unfortunately, they couldn’t all be winners. Fortunately, these three could and were. From left to right, Juliana Carter won 1st place and $600, Monica Parkin came in 2nd with a prize of $300, and Aza Deschamps got 3rd and $200. Jason Portras photo Here’s another view of the top three Talent Contest winners — Monica Parkin, Aza Deschamps, and Juliana Carter. Lovely ladies. Bex Reid-Parkin photo There was lots of stuff for kids to do and prizes to be won, and they all had a blast! This game, put on by the RSS Grads, was aptly called Bra Pong. Jason Portras photo And, for the adults, Helios partnered up with Sue Ross of Jade Mountain to offer massages by donation. Jason Portras photo There was a lot of head-shaving going on for the cause too! Jason Portras photo This year’s theme was “Lights, Camera, Cure!” And a beautiful, tasty treat it was. Jason Portras photo A very well-dressed group was the Mad Hatter’s Party. From left to right, they were: Dawn Freison as the perfect Alice, Jason Kipping as a boisterously fun Mad Hatter, Jackie Heppell as the 3 of Clubs, Kaleena Hamond was a very sexy Queen of Hearts, and Alice Strong to keep them all in line. Jason Portras photo The RSS Grad team were Superheros of the event. Superman Devin Cole, long since graduated and from a different team, was a welcome addition to their group. Jason Portras photo United Church Minister Ken Jones was the Lion-Giraffe Man on stilts strides along with Glen McTaggert. Jason Portras photo Southside Market offered a mountain of free bottled water to all participants and spectators. It was a very welcome prize on this sweltering June day. Jason Portras photo The infamous (in the eyes of children and parents) Bouncy Castle was never allowed to rest the entire time! Jason Portras photo Team Gloria provided a bubble machine to the great enjoyment of these little guys. Jason Portras photo The talent show contestants and a few of their friends jam to a fun-filled rendition of “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen. Jason Portras photo Team Gloria also put on a hoola-hoop contest for the kids. Jason Portras photo EZ Rock’s DJ put out a call to all attendees to donate money to get Mayor David Raven up to, somewhat reluctantly, belt out a Johnny Cash tune. It was originally supposed to be Rod Stewart’s Forever Young, but I guess he didn’t feel up to that one. On a related note someone out there somewhere has a video of His Worship singing his heart out. Jason Portras photo Next up, the talent show judges reversed roles and got up on stage to sing their hearts out. Jason Portras photo This was a great father-son moment later in the evening with Dan Sculnick, member of the local band 45 Minutes and his little guy. Jason Portras photo Luminaries were set up to spell ‘HOPE’ and to line the relay circle in honour of those who have survived and those who have succumbed to cancer. Jason Portras photo The storm clouds threatened the event later on, but never burst. Here are the luminaries that lined the path. Jason Portras photo As the day passed into night, the event wound down. See you next year! Jason Portras photo High-resolution copies of Jason Portras photos are available from The Revelstoke Current for $10 each. $7.50 of that goes to the photographer and $2.50 goes to The Current . Call 250-814-9849 or send an e-mail to editor@revelstokecurrent.com for more information.