South Side High School will host a Relay for Life in 2018

Starting in spring 2018, South Side High School will be hosting a Relay for Life for the first time in Rockville Centre history.
After an impassioned request by members of the school’s Cancer Awareness Club at a public work session on Feb. 1, the Rockville Centre Board of Education enthusiastically approved having the popular cancer research fundraising event at the high school.
“When Rockville Centre comes together you guys move mountains,” said Megan O’Brien, the Cancer Awareness Club’s faculty advisor. “Let’s move mountains together.”
She has lost loved ones to cancer, her aunt survived cancer and she herself has had a cancer scare. “Cancer brings fear, hopelessness and helplessness,” she said at the meeting.
Her club provides a space for young students to share these feelings, but it would like to do more, according to O’Brien.

She came to School Superintendent Dr. William Johnson with the request for South Side to host the Relay in early January, and he encouraged her to give a public presentation in front of the board.
“It’s exactly the type of thing you want kids to be involved in,” Johnson said in a phone interview. “It connects them to the community at large, and makes them think far beyond themselves as just students.”
Club members Giulia Pugliese and Angela Sourial, both 16, also recounted their painful experiences with the deadly disease.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, young or old, a child or a parent or even in good health,” Pugliese said. “And I’m sure every person in this room is thinking of someone right now who is currently fighting or has unfortunately lost the fight and I’m truly sorry for that because I know that pain and I experience it every day.”
Sourial then spoke. She said she started participating in Relays for Life after cancer became a huge part of her life, affecting a very close relative. “The money from this event goes to the American Cancer Society to support patients and conduct research,” she said. “Thanks to the millions of donations people have made toward the event, that research played a huge role in the lives of so many people including that very close relative of mine, which was my mom.”

Correction: A previous version of this story indicated that Megan O'Brien's mother was a cancer survivor. It was her aunt who has been 10 years cancer free.