Rally brings excitement for Relay
Event kicks off annual fundraiser, raising $2,000 on average for cancer research
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A half-decade-old cancer fighting tradition continues today.
Amanda Dei, sometimes known as Mandy N. O'Pants was a well known Yellowknife musician formerly with the band The Breakup. Before she died of ovarian cancer in 2013, she and Shiri MacPherson organized a pre-Relay for Life event called Rally the Troops. The fundraiser continues tonight at Northern United Place. - NNSL file photo |
Five years ago there was a Relay for Life team who called themselves, "No Pants Army," run by a former Yellowknife musician named Amanda Dei, who had ovarian cancer. The name originated from Dei's online nickname.
"People would call me Mandy Pants and I just don't like pants," she said in an April 2012 Yellowknifer interview. "So Mandy N. O'Pants kind of stuck."
During the survivor walk at Relay for Life in 2012, Dei met 15-year-old Shiri MacPherson, who also had cancer, and together they organized the event "Rally The Troops For Relay."
In February 2013 Dei succumbed to her illness, but the cancer-fundraising event she helped create lives on.
"We're continuing on where (No pants army) left off," said MacPherson.
MacPherson's relay team, "Rainbow Lawdettes," organizes the event with another team "Girl Space." Both are teams consist of children and MacPherson said the point of the event is to get people excited. The event is taking place tonight at Northern United Place at 7 p.m.
"On average, 75 (people show up)," she said.
MacPherson said, for her team alone, the event has raised $2,000 annually.
At the event will be a silent auction, which will include tickets to Folk on the Rocks and live music and food. The event was originally organized by Dei and MacPherson's groups but now the Canadian Cancer Society runs the event and the two teams just host it.
Relay for Life is scheduled for Friday at the William McDonald Middle School track.
"I find, because it's the kick off, it just gets everybody in the mood for Relay," she said.
