There’s no nobler cause than that of dedicating your school life to saving lives. That is the goal of the Relay for Life Club, as its handful of members work together to fight cancer. One of the greatest ways the club campaigns against cancer is with their annual 24-hour marathon held at Clark Magnet each April.

This year’s event was held April 11 when the president of the Relay for Life, senior Sareen Shatikian, along with two of its members, sophomores Nanor Asadourian and Arpi Iskandaryan, came to Clark to participate in the 24-hour walk/fundraiser.

The team set up a booth of activities where games from the Clarktoberfest were displayed. Visitors paid $1 to play the games. Other booths were set up by other organizations across the grass area. Most had raffles, but a few had activities, all of which were available for a $1 donation.

However, the activity didn’t stop there. The main purpose of the 24-hour event was to walk. Participants walked around the Clark’s athletic field, and for every round they completed, the cancer fund would receive a $1 donation. This might sound tedious at first, but, as Iskandaryan said, “[It was fun] because we were with all of our friends having fun and walking at the same time. We were all singing and dancing a lot so that was the main fun part.”

Attendees could also pay $100 donation for which they would not only get free food, including Domino’s pizza, Krispy Kreme donuts and Wienerschnitzel hot dogs, they would also be allowed to stay overnight at the school. “We barely slept at night at all,” Asadourian said, “We were up walking around most of the night, because we enjoyed the satisfaction of the thought that we might actually do something about helping with cancer.”

As the morning sun arose, the students packed up, removed their tents, cleaned up the campus, walked around a bit more, and then finally left around 7 a.m. The event raised $40,000 a bit short of the established goal of $70,000.