Xo-Heart by Team Lafayette, IN

We came together as a team because all of us has been touch by cancer and decided to have all our funds donated to the American Cancer Society in one name. The Pat Keady Memorial Fund. She was the wife of one of our team members who is a nationally known collegiate former head men's basketball coach, Gene Keady. The weekend of this event fell on the week that was the anniversary of his wife (Pat) passing from cancer and a heart attack two years ago. We wanted to help Coach get through this tough time and do something positive in his wife's honor. What was unique about this Relay was it was all relay for the Purdue campus and they wanted wanted to get more staff and faculty involved. But no one stepped up to the plate, so the Lafayette team with Coach Keady decided to do so. Because Coach Keady was there, this brought alot of people to come to the event and participate. Most of teams in the relay had nine months to prepare for this event and collect funds. We jumped in 4 weeks before the Relay event and got creative in securing our funds and gave 100% participation by each donating something in the silent auction -our team raised over $4,200. We also had the oldest cancer survivor on our team - 94 year old, William Goff, who is the father of one of our Xocai members (Dawn Copas). It was fun night of bonding for our team, we generated funds for cause and helped one of our team members get through a tough time.