“Cancer doesn’t sleep, so we don’t either,” Colleges Against Cancer President Matt DeLance said about Relay for Life’s all-night event.

NIU’s chapter of Relay for Life is currently gathering teams together for the April 1 event. The organization’s goal is 50 teams, and so far 20 have been formed, DeLance said.

Relay For Life is an overnight event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for research and programs of the American Cancer Society. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds or parks and take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one member on the track at all times.

Because Relay For Life is a community gathering rather than an athletic event, anyone can participate. Teams form from businesses, clubs, families, friends, hospitals, churches, schools and service organizations.

Relay for Life started in May 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt took the first step of his 24-hour walk/run around a track in Tacoma, Wash. He clocked 83 miles, raising $27,000 to support the American Cancer Society. The following year, 220 supporters on 19 teams joined Klatt in this overnight event.

There are currently more relay sites than there are counties in the United States, DeLance said.

Money raised from Relay for Life goes toward cancer research, whose funding has supported 32 Nobel Prize winners. Services such as Man to Man, a prostate cancer support and advocacy group, are also funded from Relay for Life proceeds, DeLance said.

Past participants have taken part because of personal reasons.

Tiffany Grant, a senior journalism major, said she got involved with Relay for Life because she has family members who have survived cancer and family members who have died from cancer.

Ariane Dickerson, a senior sociology major, felt the event had an effective message.

“It was really touching watching people that survived and their families together,” she said.