The 18th annual Shelby County Relay for Life event will be held this (Friday) evening on the square in downtown Harlan. Teams can setup their camp beginning at 2pm this afternoon. The schedule of events starts at 4pm with the opening ceremonies and flag rising. Suzie Mages with the American Cancer Society says a guest speaker will hit the stage around the same time “We are also very lucky this year to have the American Cancer Society Vice President of Operation come join us. We have never had a national guest before. So because Shelby County has such a strong relay, she was very excited to come. Joy King will be speaking around 4:15-4:30.”

The Relay teams will be introduced at 5-pm with a team lap. The most moving part of the Relay for Life night is the survivors lap. Decked out in purple, survivors will make a complete lap around the square at 6pm followed by a reception in the southeast corner of the square. Nadine Kenkel, a Shelby County resident and cancer survivor will be a guest speaker during the lap. Entertainment, food and the luminary ceremony will be held throughout the evening starting at 7pm.

Mages says the committee decided to do the luminaries a little different this year “During each hour on the hour, [there is] an ‘Hour of Hope’ sponsor [who has} donated money to be the sponsor. [They are] given a commercial and then [Relay organizers] will going to divide up the luminary names and read them throughout the evening.”

The luminary lighting ceremony is scheduled for 9-pm with a street dance with the Road Haus Band wrapping up the night. In the event of bad weather, the Shelby County Relay for Life will move the event to the Harlan Community High School gymnasium.

Before the event takes place, one Shelby County Relay for Life team starts-off a little early with a fundraiser walk. Team Schulte won the team spirit award at the 2013 Relay for Life event and in honor of that, they are walking the trophy from Westphalia to Harlan. Their journey from town to town will start on County Road F-32 then onto Highway 59 before reaching Harlan. You can follow the Schulte’s walk and the full relay for life event on Facebook by searching Relay for Life of Shelby County.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)