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Show The Emery County Review, Tuesday, June 24, 2008 VOICES B1 Celebrating the People and Lifestyle of the San Rafael Swell Area Community Gets Animated for a Cure Emery County’s 2008 Relay for Life surpassed last year’s record-breaking total as $38,750.04 in donations were raised for the American Cancer Society. Teams rallied support for the fight against cancer and with the help of more than 30 sponsors, lifted the annual event to its most successful year ever. Last year the Relay raised more than $33,000.00 for cancer research, breaking previous records and giving organizers a lofty goal to surpass. Relay for Life organizers had set a goal for a total of $40,000.00 for this year and while the event did not raise quite that much, surpassing last year’s record was reason enough to smile. Twenty-five teams gathered at the Emery High track on June 21 for an evening of celebration, remembrance and resolve to continue the battle against cancer. As it did last year, the Miss Relay Contest proved to be one of the more memorable events of the evening as male team representatives performed for an appreciative audience in women’s clothing as they fought for the Miss Relay crown. (for more on the Miss Relay contest see Page A2). The team of Danny’s Dolls raised the most team contributions, bringing in $2,813.69 for cancer research. As teams walked laps on the track throughout the evening, the Cottonwood Elementary team had the distinction of completing the most laps with 700. Carol Stilson of the Cottonwood team was the individual who walked the most laps, completing 100. CASEY’S WORLD There’s Nothing Easy About Being a Woman Casey Wood On June 20, I found myself participating in a competition which gave me a greater respect and sympathy for women. That competition was the Miss Relay Pageant at the annual Relay for Life event. I learned a few important and surprising things that I had never considered before. Three especially stuck out to me. One thing that I found especially surprising was not the difficulty of putting on make-up, but the difficulty of removing it. I attempted three different times to scrub away the mascara and eye liner from my eyes to no avail. Some came out, but I felt like more than removing the make-up, I was just getting soap in my eyes, which I imagine women often have to deal with, and I am here to tell you: it hurts! Even as I type away at this keyboard more than 24 hours later, there are some traces of eye liner that no matter how hard I’ve tried, I cannot remove. The next thing that stuck out to me is the painful choice of footwear that women wear. I wore flip-flops and learned that unlike men’s flip-flops, women’s flip-flops really hurt your feet. After about 10 laps and six hours of wearing them, I was more than ready to permanently remove flip-flops from my wardrobe. The pain of flip-flops made me wonder, “How bad must high heels hurt?” After asking a few of the other contestants, and some women, I learned that the pain I was feeling was marginal compared to the pain of high heels, instantly adding high heels to my top 10 list of things to never, under any circumstances, wear. The most prominent and horrible thing I noticed that women wear is a bra. The brassiere is the most horrible, itchy, uncomfortable thing ever invented. I have no doubt on this. I wore one for six hours and was in complete agony, but women wear them every day. I don’t know if there is a more horrible thing to have to do. I think I would rather have an ingrown toenail than wear a bra. The resolve women have to wear such indescribably horrible contraptions each day is truly magnificent. Due to these feelings of pain, which I hope to never experience again, I now see women in a new light. A light of undying respect and admiration for their ability to do what they do. But thinking back, I wonder if it is truly their resolve that gives them the ability to bear such cruel and unusual punishment, or perhaps if women just have an undiscovered stroke of madness, and are now, at this very moment, in a secret meeting, plotting to destroy, or take over and rule, the earth. Probably not… but it’s definitely something I think we should look into. |
