Local Relay for Life organizers are gearing up for their kickoff meeting in the coming weeks.

Chairperson Carrie Turner said the community’s help is needed to raise funds for the $110,000 goal.

“The community is welcome and encouraged to attend,” she said. “Come to sign up a team, or to just learn what Relay is all about or to give your input and support.

“The community is always very, very supportive, and we need that support again this year,” she said. “It is truly not about the few committee members that work throughout the year. Instead, it’s about the committee members and the entire community working together to make a huge difference.”

Turner said that while funding research for cures for cancer is important, the county’s Relay for Life program takes it a step further.

“We feel it’s about reaching back into our own community to help those who are going through tough times now,” she said. “Relay gives assistance through support groups, lodging, fuel costs, food assistance – you name it. Relay gives back to our people, which make us work even harder. It’s a phenomenal cause that truly adds joy to my life.

“Relay for Life helps me look outside myself to think of how I can help others around me,” she said. “And I love being a part of Relay, and I can guarantee you that if you attend the night of Relay, and see the survivors take their walk around the track and see then watch the luminaries being lit in memory of others, you will never be the same. It’s moving. It’s important. And it’s what we need to remember.”

At the last Relay for Life, the community raised $108,000.

Turner said the kickoff meeting will be held Mon., Oct. 10, at the Covington County Board of Education at 6 p.m.

This year’s theme will be announced at the meeting, Turner said.

Additionally, there will be a meeting once a month until April.

For more info, call Turner at 427-3802 or Sonja Godwin, vice chair, at 428-2102.