On Apr. 27, Langley’s track will be consumed with purple shirts, music and scattered tents. But this is simply a final celebration of months of work done by the Relay For Life committee, team captains and team members. While it will mark Langley’s first time hosting Relay For Life since the 1990s, it will be my fourth year as captain of my team, “Color Me Cured.” Over this time I’ve gained a unique perspective as to what goes on behind-the-scenes of Relay.

A Relay For Life team captain’s role is essentially to (1) recruit friends to join their team, (2) encourage their team members to fundraise, and (3) to work out team logistics of the event. But I’ve discovered the hard way that these three seemingly simplistic goals are more easily said than done.

Back when I first created my team during freshman year in 2009, I knew next to nothing about Relay For Life. It was a challenge just to fill out forms, deal with finances and figure out exactly what an “on-site fundraiser” or a “luminaria” were. I was overwhelmed when I took on the task of making decorations for our campsite and found myself cutting out and painting around over 20 oversized, cardboard M&Ms.

Luckily Emily Flessas (who, coincidentally, also writes for the Saxon Scope) became my co-captain and we attempted to conquer these obstacles together. However, by the time our event was only a week away, we were still confused as to what exactly would take place during the 12-hour walk.

But just like everything in life, being a part of Relay takes practice. After that first year we became smarter about our planning and took our fundraising goals to new heights. That’s not to say there weren’t still issues.

For instance, when we tried to fundraise at Langley by selling doughnuts in the gym lobby, we found out that the money could not go directly to Relay For Life since funds raised in school must be used to buy a specific product. We found a loophole by deciding to purchase Relay “Luminarias” with any cash we made–only to be told that there were further stipulations that took us weeks of thinking to accommodate.

Despite all of these complications I am by no means complaining. Through Relay For Life I’ve met so many people affected by cancer–people who fight much bigger battles than the meager obstacles I face as team captain. Every poster I paint or dollar I raise is worth it just to see the smiles on the cancer survivors’ faces when it’s all said and done.