Cancer: Fight is on

MSU group raising money for Relay for Life

By Robb Murray
The Free Press

MANKATO —

When the students in Minnesota State University’s Colleges Against Cancer group met for a recent meeting — where they reviewed plans for their cancer research fundraiser Relay for Life — most of them weren’t prepared for how it would end.

Their adviser, Jessica Samens, had some ironically grim news for them.

“Before I even started telling them, I broke down,” she said. “I hadn’t really expected that.”

Samens has thyroid cancer. She’d only known herself for a few days when she told the group. And even though they’ve only known Samens for a few months, the one thing that all members share — they’ve either battled cancer themselves or lost someone who has — made itself known in their reaction to her. One by one the students approached and embraced her.

“It was a tough moment for all of us,” said Samens, a speech communication instructor.

One of the students was Zachary Thieman, president of MSU’s Colleges Against Cancer chapter.

“That definitely brought a somber note,” Thieman said. “We were having a pretty good meeting up until that point.”

Samens’ confession was just one dark spot on this year’s Relay for Life, the group’s annual fundraiser that is scheduled for April 18 in MSU’s Myers Field House. Missing this year from the chapter’s on-campus efforts is Heidi Rensink.

Rensink battled brain cancer in high school and came to college thinking she’d beaten it. But it came back. And she fought valiantly again. This year, however, the fight has taken a toll. Rensink is no longer a student at MSU, but she has been kept informed of the chapter’s activities.

Factor in all the individual reasons students join the group — cancer took Thieman’s mom when he was 15, fellow student Arika Krinke’s grandfather when she was 10 — and the chapter has a lot of reasons to stay scrappy in its fight to help the world get rid of the deadly disease.

Their event will look similar to last year’s. Luminaria will light the path, teams will camp around the room and keep one member walking the relay trail from 6 p.m. April 18 until 6 a.m. the following day. There will be food, testimonials from cancer survivors and entertainment.

All of it is done to raise money toward the group’s goal of $26,000 ($3,000 more than what was raised last year).

Krinki said fellow students have been receptive. She said she and another student recently went around with a can asking people to donate to the cause.

“People were just dumping their change in our can,” the Hudson, Wis., engineering student said. “Most people I know already know about Relay for Life. Everybody, really, is affected by it.”

Thieman was in his mid-teens when his mom died.