Problems at Live Oak track and football field force move
Live Oak track troubles have uprooted the third annual Relay for Life and sent organizers scrambling for a new location. Fortunately, Oakwood School, formerly Country School, stepped up to the plate and offered its track and field to the group that every year raises funds to fight cancer.
Relay head organizer Becky Obbema said she heard from the school district the morning of Feb. 10 that Live Oak would be off limits.
“We were very disappointed,” Obbema said. “It is the perfect place to host this event.”
Obbema said district officials told her the newly installed track and football field turf were damaged and would probably have to be pulled up and replaced.
“I’m hoping that by next year the track will be fixed and we can host the fourth Relay for Life at Live Oak,” Obbema said. “It’s the ideal place.”
Organizers were looking forward to using the Live Oak rest rooms, avoiding the need to rent portable restrooms.
But it was not to be and portables will be present at Oakwood as they were the past two years at Community Park.
Relay for Live will begin Saturday, May 22, and end 24 hours later. During that time, teams of volunteers, sponsored by friends, family, businesses and the community, walk around – and around – the track in a lively show of collective intent. Teams come from churches, Home and School Clubs, Scout troops, neighborhoods, knitting groups and just friends – all working to earn as much money for cancer research as possible.
In the 2003 Relay, Pat Brock brought in $20,000 all by herself, Obbema said. The event raised $160,000 in all last year.
Many walkers know people touched by cancer; some have beaten the disease themselves or are still fighting. All say they are working for the cure. People camp out in tents or under the stars, weather permitting and enjoy entertainment and food largely donated by willing sponsors.
Obbema said Rosy’s at the Beach will be serving their famous salmon tacos and the House of Bagels will feed the multitude with their special bagels. The Johnson family of Johnson’s Lumber/ACE Hardware is undertaking to organize and sponsor the Kid Zone, an area designed to keep the little ones happy and occupied when they are not out walking.
Obbema said more sponsors are signing up all the time but the group welcomes as many as possible, both to make the event more enjoyable and to make it more profitable for cancer research.
Posters around town still say the event will happen at the high school but, Obbema said, brightly colored stickers have been ordered and will cover up the outdated reference with the new location.
Thirty teams were signed up at the first Team Captain meeting, Obbema said, probably breaking the record. The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the Holiday Inn Express on Condit Road, just north of East Dunne Avenue. Subsequent meetings are set for March 16 and 30, April 20 and May 11.
Oakwood School, John Wilson Way, west off Monterey Road, south of Watsonville Road. Details on Relay for Life: Becky, 778-6522.
