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Mostly Cloudy Central District embraces Relay for Life
After the recent death of beloved Calhoun High School history teacher Douglas Smestad, a team of students and teachers responsible for planning the school's first-ever Relay for Life last spring have promised to preserve his memory by helping to make the American Cancer Society fundraiser a Bellmore-Merrick Central District tradition.
On Sept. 24, committee co-chairs Brianna Gerbasio, Nicole Imhof and Kristina DeFranco, along with adviser Wendy Simson, American Cancer Society staff partner Sarah Sobel and Calhoun Principal Nicole Hollings, gathered in a small room on the school’s second floor.
With a tray of chocolate chip cookies and a fan to cool the warm room, the team discussed plans for the next Relay for Life.
Going district-wide
The upcoming relay is now officially named Relay for Life BMCHSD. “The idea here is to rotate Relay for Life around our schools in the district from year to year,” Hollings said. “Although the next relay will be held here at Calhoun, we’d like to rotate it to another school and so on.”
In addition to Calhoun, Hollings said, there was also participation by Grand Avenue Middle School on April 24; she said she is thrilled that the event will now include all five district schools on May 13 next year.
“We have a principals’ meeting coming up soon, where we’ll be able to iron out more details,” Hollings said. “But seeing as how our first relay went, there is no doubt in our minds that the upcoming events will be just as successful, if not more, now that the entire district is participating.”
“In our first year, we made over $73,000,” said Gerbasio, a senior. “We were so amazed at the amount of support coming from the community and students that we thought this would be a great event to try to involve the rest of the district in.”
Preparations for Calhoun’s first Relay for Life began in the spring of 2014. “Then-juniors Matt Koffler, Adam Myers and Paulina Fein began a Relay for Life team called Smedstad’s Knights,” Hollings said. “They participated at the 2014 relay event at Molloy College and helped raise more than $10,000 in Doug’s honor.”
