Sarnia's 19th annual Relay For Life is going virtual this year due to COVID-19.
The event is the Canadian Cancer Society’s largest nationwide fundraising initiative.
Fundraising specialist Paula McKinlay said there are a lot of differences with this year's event but the passion and the people are still there.
She said they're still kicking off the event with the survival victory lap Thursday, which gets going at 7:30 p.m.
"With us not being able to walk around the track and celebrate, we're going virtual. Leadwave Technologies will be doing their traditional speech, listening also to our Face of Hope, Sarah Heath, and then all of the survivors' names will be read out like they usually are," said McKinlay. "Our survivors are encouraged to wear their yellow shirts with pride, take some pictures and add them to the Facebook page."
McKinlay said COVID-19 is not going to stop Friday night's luminary ceremony either.
"So the luminary ceremony will be different but it's a way to still bring us together and remember those that we've lost along the way to this horrible disease," said McKinlay. "People are encouraged to light their luminaries at a point in time and share them on Facebook, because when we walk that track usually during relay live, we love reading those people's sentiments, so we want to see them on Facebook so that we can also remember those that we've lost."
McKinlay said they'll wrap things up Saturday with a virtual concert, featuring Paul Langlois from Tragically Hip, Brett Kissel, Joel Plaskett, Peter Katz, and The Reklaws.
For more information, click here.
