CARIBOU, Maine — Chocolate lovers from Caribou and beyond flocked to the Caribou Middle School on April 20, to buy homemade confections and support the American Cancer Society during the 6th annual Relay for Life Chocolate Festival.
The 2019 Aroostook Relay For Life is led by event co-chairs Jordyn Madore and Chantal Pelletier, and will take place from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on June 22 at the Caribou High School track.
At the chocolate festival on Saturday, Madore said this will be the second year the relay takes place with the 11 to 11 schedule. Previously, it was held from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., and many volunteers, guests, and relay teams would leave around midnight in order to get some sleep.
Madore said the new schedule “gives people more opportunities to get out on the track.”
The annual chocolate festival is one of many ways relay teams can raise money to fight cancer, with a total of 12 relay teams setting up shop Saturday at the middle school to sell homemade treats.
12 Relay for Life teams set up shop in the Caribou Middle School Cafeteria on April 20 as part of the 6th annual Chocolate Festival, which raises money for the American Cancer Society.
(Chris Bouchard)
Madore said the event included cakes, a visit from the easter bunny, and to numerous games downstairs for young children.
“All proceeds will benefit the relay for life,” she said.
Tamra Keaton, captain of the relay team “Cancer Crushers,” said this is her first year with this particular team, adding that she used to participate years ago with a different team.
By 11:30 a.m., Keaton said her team had already sold all of their cheesecakes and “massive whoopie pies,” but that they still had cupcakes, brownies, chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate chip cookies available.
Keaton said she and her four teammates, with the help of family, prepared all of the treats the day before the event.
“We all collaborated,” she said. “We recruited some family members to help us out, and got it all together yesterday.”
She said that everyone on the team has been impacted by cancer, and that she lost her father to cancer. The team’s goal, according to Keaton, is to “get help to those out there who need it.”
Aroostook Relay For Life team “Cancer Crushers” sold plenty of chocolate treats during the April 20 Aroostook Relay for Life Chocolate Festival, including cupcakes, cheesecakes, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels.
(Chris Bouchard)
Lisa Leduc of the UMPI Owls relay team said “we give a hoot” about cancer, and that the team consists of roughly 20 to 25 UMPI faculty, staff, friends, and family.
Their goal this year is to reach the $100,000 mark for funds raised over the last ten years. Leduc said the team is “very close” to hitting that number, and that they were trying to sell as much chocolate as possible to get there.
“We’ve sold out a lot of our stuff already,” she said. “We have chocolate lips and mustaches, no bake cookies, s’more kits, cupcakes in a jar, and chocolate dipped pretzels.”
While Leduc did not make any of the treats offered at her team’s stand, she did make some of the offerings at a table featuring full cakes and pies. A team of roughly half a dozen volunteers were responsible for the UMPI Owls’ chocolate offerings on Saturday.
Leduc was diagnosed with cancer on June 4, 2004.
“I started [with Relay for Life] on June 4, 2005, one year after my diagnosis,” she said, “and I was hooked. Some of the research the American Cancer Society has done in fighting breast cancer, which was my cancer, was actually used in the chemotherapy I received. I believe the American Cancer Society not only supports patients through their 1-800 number, but that they’re going to find a cure. So I’m working today, and have been working for the past 15 years, to live in a world where nobody has to hear the words ‘I have cancer’ again.”
According to Leduc, roughly 150 to 175 Aroostook County residents are diagnosed with cancer every year.
“If you think about it,” she said, “it’s like someone is diagnosed with cancer every other day. That’s why we’re out here; that dollar for a brownie could be the dollar that finds a cure.”
For the upcoming Relay for Life event in June, Madore said she hopes to see the community come together and get involved in any way they can, and that teams can even sign up the day of the event if they’d like.
“I think a lot of our community believes the relay is just a marathon that you have to run or walk,” she said, “but it’s also a great time for the community to join together under one cause. My message for people would be to come out, experience relay for yourself, and get involved.”
