Every year, BV students fervently participate in a 12-hour walk hosted by Relay For Life, a global organization dedicated to fighting cancer. From all-night events to virtual fundraising, Relay For Life helps communities raise money for the American Cancer Society. 

As an Executive Chair, senior Alexis Forgy was the person responsible for leading and coordinating the Relay for BV, which was hosted March 31. 

“I went to Relay For Life just for fun my freshman year and it was super rewarding to get to see where my money was going,” Forgy said. “We raised over $200,000 — high schoolers can make such a big difference for people that are affected by this.”

Though taking a leadership role requires dedication, there were other ways to get involved.

“It’s a big time commitment for me and other district members — I put more time in than the other students because I am in charge,” Forgy said. “[However,] if you want to be super involved but you don’t have a ton of time to donate to it, we also have a school committee. They don’t have a lot of commitments; they just every once in a while help us with random things.”

Individual committees within the district committees exist as well, providing more opportunities to engage.

“[There’s] foods, activities and logistics,” Forgy said. “Since it’s a 12-hour event, we have to feed people and plan activities for the entire night so people aren’t bored and want to go to sleep.”

With a plethora of factors to consider while organizing the Relay, having enough time to arrange everything was crucial.

“Last year, I was also on the district board; we didn’t have as much time to prepare last year as we do this year,” Forgy said. “It was really stressful last year because we had [around] three weeks to get everyone ready for the Relay, which you have to raise $100 — now $115 — to get to go to the event. With those three weeks, it was really stressful for everyone to rush and get that money.”

Having known since the beginning of the year what the committee needed to do, Forgy felt that planning this year’s Relay was much smoother. Even so, last year’s event consisted of her favorite memory thus far.

“We do this Relay Runway every year — and last year I got to be one of the MCs for it, and that was super fun,” Forgy said. “People get dressed up in these old prom dresses, and we ask them funny questions, [so] it’s like a mock pageant.”

This year’s Relay was equally as exciting for Forgy, albeit less successful than the last one.

“We didn’t raise as much money this year,” Forgy said. “But it was super fun and there was a lot of people, so it was really good.”

Though hard work and determination were necessary for this event, it was completely worthwhile for Forgy.

“I love doing Relay because it’s so rewarding to see how much we can help people that struggle with cancer or people that help take care of others with cancer,” she said. “I’m [always] tired after it, but it’s so worth it that I don’t really care.”