Close Menu
Berlin, Ocean Pines News Worcester County Bayside Gazette Logo Berlin, Ocean Pines News Worcester County Bayside Gazette

410-723-6397

Berlin welcomes back Relay for Life

By Greg Ellison

(May 13, 2021) After staging a successful event in Berlin for the first time last fall, the annual Relay for Life of North Worcester County is poised for a return visit on Oct. 2.

Prior to 2020, the fundraiser for the American Cancer Society involved an overnight camping trip at Frontier Town on the Friday before Mother’s Day, but covid-19 restrictions last year caused the event to be turned into a drive-through affair lasting two hours in downtown Berlin.

Dawn Hodge, the volunteer chairwoman of the Relay for Life North Worcester County committee presented plans to replicate last year’s approach during the mayor and Town Council meeting on Monday.

“What we did last year was the luminaria along Main Street and that worked out great for us,” she said.

Every year the Relay for Life gathering includes a sunset luminaria, where participants illuminate white paper sacks decorated in honor of a person who was affected by cancer.

The “Luminaria Ceremony of Remembrance” honors people lost to cancer, aids those suffering from cancer and celebrates those who have overcome the illness

With pandemic concerns remaining, organizers are again opting to forgo the overnight affair at Frontier Town.

“We have more people interested in coming for a quick event and leaving,” she said.

The current plans would also extend the event along Main Street from 3-8 p.m. this year.

“We would have some activities during the day,” she said. “We were going to have each team pick a store or restaurant and … do activities in front of their store.”

The approach borrows on past events when fundraising teams had dedicated campsites seeking to obtain financial support.

“At Frontier Town, we all had campsites where everybody did their own little thing,” she said.

Some teams’ campsites involved games or offered items for sale or raffle.

“We’re hoping to do that with stores and restaurants in town,” she said. “Later at night, once the sun goes down, we do our luminaria, which is not real fire in the lanterns and the bags dedicated to the survivors and people they have lost to cancer.”

Hodge also credited Stevenson United Methodist Church, a longtime Relay for Life supporter, for providing event space.

“They have stepped up and said they would host,” she said. “We’re going to be on their lawn area and they are also going to host our survivors reception.”

Hodge said Atlantic General Hospital Regional Cancer Care Center would host the reception for cancer survivors.

Entertainment has yet to be confirmed but is not expected to take place outdoors.

“What we would do is try to have any entertainment, instead of being out on the street, in different locations so people will go into the businesses,” she said.

Berlin Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood said organizers have not requested any town services or road closures.

Mayor Zack Tyndall asked if parking was restricted along Main Street during the event last October.

During Relay for Life in 2020, town officials restricted parking on Main Street and limited traffic to one way southbound for the event’s two-hour duration, which Hodges said proved counterproductive.

“We did but what happened is people thought the whole road was closed,” she said. “It cut a lot of our traffic out.”

Fleetwood said Berlin Police Chief Arnold Downing Jeff has recommended forgoing limiting parking on Main Street this year.

“That gives the impression to pedestrians the road is closed,” he said.

The council voted unanimously to approve the special event request.

For more information visit relayforlife.org/northworcestermd or facebook.com/NorthWorcesterRelay.