By Claudia Balthazar, Staff Writer

Senator Megan Andrews, a freshman, encourages the SGA senators to register for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. Each spring for the last four years—this upcoming spring will make it five—Hofstra clubs and organizations have come together to raise money for the huge Relay For Life event.

Relay For Life is a 12-hour event held from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and has raised thousands of dollars for cancer research in each of its past years. Each organization raises money throughout the semester. On the final day, all participants gather on the Intramural fields to walk in shifts for the entire 12-hour period.

“The reason behind the teams is to get more people involved,” said Andrews. During those 12 hours, club members take turns walking, jogging or even dancing around the fields, to have at least one person representing their group during the entire event.

Senator Ariana Lefebvre and Andrews are both freshmen co-team captains of this year’s Relay For Life and are in the process of planning the fundraising events for next semester. Their set goal is to raise $5,000 and to have at least 40 senators involved in the cause. According to past reports in The Chronicle, the Hofstra community raised nearly $50,000 for the charity in 2009. By Spring 2011, more than $90,000 was raised.

“It [Relay For Life involvement] would be very inspirational,” said Lefebvre. “I was involved in raising money for skin cancer throughout high school so it’s a good way to carry that through.”

Programming Chair Caitlin Rauchle, a sophomore, was the first senator to register for the Relay For Life aside from the co-team captains. She said, “I did it last year for the first time and it was life-changing. It was great to see everyone come together to support one cause and it was very powerful.” She added, “I’m expecting it to be even more powerful for me this year.”

This week in the Greenhouse:

There is $16,395.62 left to award to clubs this Fall. The Spirit Committee encourages senators to get involved with their “Hofstra Celebrates the Holidays” theme this week. Two hours of service for the event has been mandated for all senators. The event will begin next week on Monday Dec. 5 and end on Thursday Dec. 8. Along with other things, the Public Relations Committee is working on increasing SGA’s activity on social networking sites.

This week, SGA discussed Relay For Life participation with co-captains Megan Andrews and Ariana Lefebvre. (Chronicle File Photo)