{"id":6919,"date":"2014-06-05T01:23:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T05:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6919"},"modified":"2014-06-11T17:40:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T21:40:10","slug":"feisty-flamingos-get-fancy-for-fridays-relay-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/feisty-flamingos-get-fancy-for-fridays-relay-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFeisty Flamingos\u201d get fancy for Friday\u2019s Relay for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hundreds of walkers, and supporters are due to descend on Magna International this Friday for Aurora\u2019s Relay for Life 2014, which runs from 7 p.m. June 6 through 7 a.m. June 7.<\/p>\n

As teams gather, rain or shine, on the lawns of the Wellington Street campus, they do so to remember, but also have fun in solidarity raising money to help make cancer history. <\/p>\n

Aurora\u2019s \u201cFeisty Cancer Fighting Flamingos\u201d don\u2019t have far to go when the event gets underway at 7 p.m. The team of seven, made up of Russ Cooray, Alan Higgins, Eileen Indos, Stephanie Maly, Bianca Osorio, Holly Piotrowski, and team captain Lisbeth Goodyear, base themselves at Magna where the employees use their captive audience to raise some much needed funds from fellow Magna employees. <\/p>\n

At press time, the Flamingos had flocked together to raise nearly $1,400 for the charity and they have their sights set on much more to come.
\nThe Flamingos aren\u2019t just mere fundraisers. As co-hosts of the annual event, each year they put on their pink finery to give the place a proper decorating job before Relay-goers begin to arrive. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fun when we all get together and decorate,\u201d says Ms. Piotrowski. \u201cIt is very communal. There are people from all different walks of life, high school students who just raise phenomenal amounts of money every year, but it is also very emotional with the luminaries. You see people of all ages grieving and celebrating because there are a lot of success stories now versus what they used to be. It is like one big happy family.\u201d
\nAnd each Flamingo has their own story of what brings them out each year over the past five years to partake in this communal atmosphere. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am doing this in memory of my grandmother who died of cancer,\u201d says Mr. Cooray, adding his father also had an incurable blood disorder. \u201cI am going to do my best to help out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Maly relays in memory of her sister-in-law, and also a very good friend of hers. Ms. Indos has also had many family members who have lived with cancer. Some have beaten the disease, but others have not. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in memory of them, but it is also to give back to the community,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has been a good eye-opener, I think in terms of how the funds are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team likens Mr. Higgins to Forrest Gump in that when he starts to walk, there is no stopping him. He says he walks in memory of four family members who lost their battles with cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping to get involved, participate, and raise money to find a cure and also [raise awareness] that people should get their bodies checked out,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m fine!\u2019 but when they get it checked out, it is too late. People need to be more aware.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been doing this for the last five years and I can see how people have focused on the loss of their family members and friends, but it is good to see how they cope with it, remember the good times and not the bad times.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the 12 hour relay, each team member leaves with a sense of accomplishment and seeing the sun rise near the end really drives home what this is all about. <\/p>\n

At press time, the Aurora Relay has raised over $61,000. For more information, visit www.relayforlife.ca\/aurora.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of walkers, and supporters are due to descend on Magna International this Friday for Aurora\u2019s Relay for Life 2014, which runs from 7 p.m. June 6 through 7 a.m. June 7.<\/p>\n

As teams gather, rain or shine, on the lawns of the Wellington Street campus, they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1NB","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-01 15:36:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-06-05-06.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}