Relay for Life is shrinking at UF.
In the past five years, the organization has seen a roughly 52-percent decrease in attendance and a 49-percent decrease in fundraising.
Some at Saturday and Sunday’s events said Dance Marathon, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals fundraiser, may have influenced the decrease since the events are held close together.
About 1,000 people raised roughly $65,000 for cancer research this year, said Vanessa Honorat, the event lead.
Five years ago, about 2,100 participants raised roughly $127,000, according to Alligator archives.
“We just had a lot of trouble getting people motivated to fundraise,” Honorat, 21, said.
The 13th annual fundraising event was from 3 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday on Flavet Field. The UF biology senior said the organization had technical difficulties putting the registration webpage online at the beginning of Fall, which may have affected participation.
At 2:45 a.m. Sunday morning, “Imagine” by John Lennon echoed across the field as the remaining 100 or so people broke down tents, folded chairs and collected trash, ending the relay.
During the event, each team fundraised, which included selling food, hosting a photobooth, face-painting or crafting buttons with cancer-awareness ribbons on them.
“We could’ve had a better turnout, but it was a successful event,” said Blake Hygema, the special events chair.
Hygema said he thinks attendance has decreased as Dance Marathon has become more popular.
“Not to put down other organizations, but there’s just a lot going on,” the 20-year-old said.
Although attendance has decreased, Hygema, a UF food and resource economics junior, said Relay for Life still holds a special place in his heart.
He said he enjoyed the luminaria ceremony, when about 100 white paper bags holding candles lit the track as people walked around in silence.
As he walked in the candlelight, Hygema said he reminisced about his grandfather pulling him in a red wagon through Jacksonville’s streets. His grandfather died of gallbladder cancer in January 2016.
“It was a goose bump feel,” Hygema said.
Kelsey Stefan, a UF psychology sophomore, said it’s hard for students to attend both Relay for Life and Dance Marathon every Spring.
“I would like to see more people next year,” the 20-year-old said. “But I also think it’s hard for college students to fundraise in general when they’re broke.”
Stefan is part of the UF Pre-Professional Service Organization, the second-highest fundraising team this year, with the event leadership being the first, according to the UF Relay for Life webpage. She said her team was successful because they fundraised about $3,500 all year, hosting restaurant nights and selling cupcakes and shirts.
“It’s been a lot of hard work, so it’s amazing to see it come together,” Stefan said.
Contact Jimena Tavel at jtavel@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @taveljimena
Volunteers sit on the stage on Flavet Field during Relay For Life on Saturday. The volunteers pictured were willingly donating their hair.
