Mood Music at Relay for Life

Walking along the outer rim of the Frostburg State University track proved a difficult task as the night of Friday, April 15, faded into what was technically Saturday morning. Besides discovering a path free of obstacles through the tents erected for Relay for Life participants, football and soccer games, as well as the respective balls had to be avoided. Cold gusts of wind whipped long hair across rosy cheeks. Pounding music inspired those walking the track to break into dance despite how weary they should have been.

Some participants certainly were too exhausted to dance and were taking a well deserved rest on the mats placed in the inner field that the track encircles. Wrapped in colorful fleece blankets, Emily Pendleton, a sophomore at FSU, and Kayla Boettinger, a sophomore at Salisbury University, talked animatedly to each other and passersby as they reclined atop the mats. It was approximately 1 a.m., and they had been there since the event started at 6 p.m. Friday evening. Both agreed they were physically tired, but they were certainly not sleepy.

"Our second wind's coming," began Pendleton.

"Not that our first ever really stopped," finished Boettinger.

As they tried to regain their physical strength, Pendleton mouthed some lyrics to the Green Day song that was blaring from the huge speakers nearby. Both girls were surprised at the wide variety of music played for those at the event. Of course, at 1 a.m. most of the music was upbeat to inspire energy in the tired crowd still diligently circling the track to raise money to fight cancer. The girls revealed that they heard some slower songs played earlier in the evening. "In the Arms of an Angel" by Sarah McLachlan emotionally affected both Pendleton and Boettinger during the silent walk. It "made more of an effect," Pendleton said of the song choice.

Both girls were not only affected by the music, but by the deadly grasp of cancer as well. Pendleton lost three of her four grandparents to lung cancer before she was born, before she even had a chance to know them. Boettinger lost her uncle, to whom she never had the opportunity to become close, to another form of cancer, though her aunt is a survivor.

The time passed quickly for the two girls as they volunteered to raise money to fight the disease that claimed their loved ones.

Pictured above: Left--Kayla Boettinger, Right--Emily Pendleton