The Cavo Cancer Crushers, formally known as Relay for Life club, has changed more than their name for the 2019-2020 school year. The change was made so that the club was not known just for the relay at the end of the year. They will still be working towards the relay, but they will be also including other activities that involve initiatives to raise awareness and funds to cure cancer. This is a way of helping the cancer community, and not just doing the Relay at the end of the year. Because a lot more will be done within the club, advisor Natalie Rehak was asked to answer some questions about what these changes are going to look like.

How has the club changed from last year? 

“We are now officially the Cavo Cancer Crushers because we wanted to expand beyond the relay and do more.”

What do you hope that the club does more of?
“We are trying to do events throughout the year to raise money for the team. We also want to raise more awareness about cancer and do a monthly cancer theme.” 

Why did you change the club name to Cavo Cancer Crushers? 

“We want to be more than just a relay club and do more than just the relay.” 

Are the requirements to join the club different from last year?

“Not really. It is open to seventh to twelfth graders and this year the requirements have changed that the students will have to do 20 hours of community hours for the whole school year.  They will also need to wear the team t-shirts for when they are at events.” 

Are their a lot of new members this year? 

“There are 198 members! With club advisors included there are 200 people exactly!” 

How many times throughout the year do you think you will guys meet? 

“We will meet at least monthly so 10 times a year and there can be additional meetings.” 

Do you think think that there will be a lot of fundraisers this year? 

“It will be up to the students to fundraise as much as they can. There is currently a salsa fundraiser.”

What more do you want to accomplish in the club last year? 

“At Relay for Life, they are in charge of the survivor tent and this tent is to remember the people who lost their lives to cancer. We also want to focus on seeing people survive and focus on the positives of cancer survival and celebrate more birthdays.” 

How is this club different from other clubs? 

“While there are other clubs that provide opportunities for service, this club has a lot of personal meaning to a lot of people in it.” 

How long has this club been around? 

“Emerson has been participating in the walk for 5 years, but we just finished hosting it for the second year, the kids in the builders club started to walk in the walk and then he became its own club.”

What have you done already? 

“September was Go Gold for pediatric cancer and they did a day of gold where club members wore gold and they are currently raising money and selling gold coins to show support for Josephine’s Garden. This is a location where kids with Pediatric Cancer can go. October was breast cancer awareness month. Club members helped organize and execute the Schecter Care 5k walk for breast cancer and lymphoma and that was on October 5th. There was a good turnout and a lot of money was raised! We are also participating in No Shave November.”

The Cavo Cancer Crushers are an important club that helps support victims and survivors of cancer in many ways. They wanted to expand beyond the Relay and show that they can raise more money and do more for the cancer community than just the Relay. They will do this by wearing different colors for different cancers each month to show their support for different types of cancers. They will still be doing the relay at the end of the year, but they will expand beyond that throughout the year. The school cannot wait to see where this club goes, and EHS is grateful to have so many students and teachers who are focused on finding a cure.