American Cancer Society's Relay for Life 2005
June 3-4
Vernal's 9th Relay involved many surrounding communities including Roosevelt, Duschene, and Dutch John. Over $110,000 was raised this year!

Matthew and Deegan were on the front page of the Uintah Basin Standard!! (That is Roosevelt's--a town near Vernal--newspaper.) Cool! Matthew wanted to ride his bike during the Survivor Lap because his feet and legs have been hurting him a lot from the vincristine. Deegan wanted to ride because he's just a little guy and wouldn't have been able to keep up!

Matthew's picture was also in Vernal's newspaper, The Vernal Express, which had a really nice story in the "Expressions" section. Matthew's comment to being in both papers, "I'm so completely EMBARRASSED!!!" Oh he makes us laugh! Notice his coat?! By the time the luminary ceremony started, it was freezing cold here! Crazy June weather...

I took pictures of the luminaries I made the night before the Relay. I made one for Deegan, Matthew, Lexi, and Melanie.

I tried taking a picture of them lit up. It turned out okay.

Matthew was thrilled with his Star Wars luminary I made him!!!

Deegan and Matthew waiting during the Opening Ceremony, then being recognized during the Opening Ceremoy.
Deegan's mom is standing to the left of him.

Deegan on the left and Matthew on the right during the Survivor's picture. I marked Lexi with an "L" and she can be seen in the picture with Matthew. I put an "M" on Matthew too just to be silly I guess.

Pictures with Tuff Hedeman coming soon!!!

Journal entry about the Relay:
June 4, 2005, Saturday
What a great day we had Friday and Saturday!!!!
The Relay for Life in Vernal was held last night. It is so nice to meet with this area's survivors and other community members who come out to support these incredible survivors. It was Deegan (age 4, dx ALL Dec. 2004) and Lexi's (age 11, dx ALL Feb. 2005; treated with very difficult high-risk protocol) first Relay. Lexi has had lots of yucky chemo all week and has been throwing up a lot. We were so happy that she made it just in time to be honored during the Opening Ceremony. Her mom didn't think she would be able to make it, but she surprised us all! Deegan and Matthew were so cute! Since Deegan is just 4 and Matthew's feet have been killing him from the vincristine, the 2 of them had permission to ride their bikes around the track for the Survivor's Lap. They had a ball!!! Lexi made it on her own power, bless her heart. We were all so proud of her. Then we all walked around to look at the luminaries. Another survivor-friend who is 19 now, made Matthew a STAR WARS luminary!!!! Matthew was so EXCITED to say the least. He plopped down on the track and looked at it as close as he could. They had written, "Matthew Our Little Fighter" and "Yoda says: Brave as a Jedi he is" on the bag and had found some pictures of Star Wars characters which they glued on it. He loved it!! Deegan made him an Incredibles luminary and Melanie made him 4 luminaries that had his 1st grade school picture on it. Lexi's mom made one for Deegan, Matthew, and Lexi which said "Friends fighting Leukemia together" and had each of their names on it." As you can tell, we love the luminaries and the Relay.

This year's Relay also had some fun carnival games which were a huge hit with the kids!!! They had so much fun playing the games for little prizes and going down the huge blow-up slide. (Even Deegan's mom went down the slide! Go Mindy!) Then for the Luminary Ceremony Melanie spoke. She had a slide show of pictures throughout her treatment to go along with her talk. She is truly inspirational to many people. Lexi's mom told me that Lexi has been having an extremely hard time getting through the past 2 weeks of Ara-c given at home. It is making her very sick. She's been really sick with all her chemo so far. It is getting harder and harder for her to have that hope she needs, the desire to keep taking these dreadful medicines, so when they mangaed to make it back for the luminary ceremony, Lexi is old enough to take everything Melanie said straight to the heart. It brings tears to my eyes, tears of joy, knowing that Melanie was able to give that much-needed hope back to Lexi last night through her talk. Lexi's mom told me that Lexi ran to Melanie after her talk and gave her a hug and told her that she had given her hope againto get through everything. I felt honored too, that Lexi's mom would share that with me.

So today we went to pick up Matthew's luminaries. We always go back the next day because I save all of his. Deegan and his family were there too. And guess what!!??? Matthew, Lane, and Deegan got to meet Tuff Hedeman--retired 4 time World Champion Bull Rider!! See, the Lane Frost Challenge was being held in Vernal this weekend too. Lane Frost is a famous professional bull rider who was from a little town near Vernal. He lost his life while bull riding. So Tuff Hedeman was here for the Lane Frost Challenge. He came over this morning to the Relay and spoke for a few minutes. Deegan is a huge cowboy! He has his own horse and even has a "cowboy" name...Stony Ridge. LOL..he's hilarious. In fact, the Make A Wish organization got tickets for Deegan and his family to go to the Lane Frost Challenge tonight and they get to sit in the VIP area. How cool is that!? Well Deegan and Matthew went up to get Tuff Hedeman's autograph and then everyone wanted pictures of the three of them together. It was neat. My Lane got an autograph too. Wish he would have gotten to be in the same picture as Deegan and Matthew, but he was okay about it.