Special to The Post-Searchlight

The American Cancer Society urges local companies to help support the fight against cancer in Decatur County by becoming sponsors of Relay For Life.

Cancer touches everyone, and involvement in Relay For Life is a great way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to help the American Cancer Society save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.

Many options for corporate sponsorship are available, including forming a team that will participate in the April 20 Relay For Life; providing in-kind donations of goods; purchasing event sponsor signs for the track display; encouraging employees to volunteer at events; and collecting Relay donations at places of business.

In Decatur County and nearly 5,100 other communities around the globe, Relay For Life unites people to celebrate the lives of those who have faced cancer, remember loved ones lost and fight back against the disease. Relay For Life, the world’s largest grassroots fundraising movement, has so far 29 teams of more than 266 Decatur County residents willing to participate in this year’s Relay For Life.

This Relay For Life event will be held beginning at 6 p.m. Friday, April 20, and is scheduled to end Saturday, April 21, at 6 a.m. at the Bainbridge Middle School track, with the goal of keeping at least one team member on the track at all times throughout the evening. Teams do most of their fund-raising prior to the event, but some teams also hold creative fund-raisers at their camp sites during Relay.

Decatur County sponsorships will be accepted up to the event, but if you want your company’s name on the event T-shirt, the deadline is Friday, March 16. For your company’s name to appear, the donation should be $250, and for the logo to appear, the amount should be $500.

As a global grassroots force of more than 3 million volunteers, the American Cancer Society saves lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; by helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion, the American Cancer Society turn what it knows about cancer into what it does. As a result, more than 11 million people in the U.S. who have had cancer, and countless more who have avoided it, will be celebrating birthdays this year.