'Relay For Life' benefits cancer research

June 06, 1998

By KERRY LYNN FRALEY

Staff Writer

Hagerstown resident Ginger Barger remembers feeling helpless during friend and co-worker Lisa Barger's battle with cancer.

"She was my best friend all through my life," said Ginger Barger, 34, who said the two shared the same last name but weren't related. "It's tough to watch someone suffer and not be able to do anything."

She said she felt like she could do something positive by walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in honor of Lisa, who died at age 35.

"I hope we can help someone else where they don't have to go through what she went through," said Barger, who participated in a 13-member team including co-workers from the Williamsport Redmen Club, club members and her three daughters.

The team was one of 19 teams participating in this year's 24-hour relay event, in which team members took turns circling South Hagerstown High School's track, said Charlotte Lockwood, area director for the American Cancer Society.

The teams, composed of eight to 15 people related by blood, friendship, workplace or other affiliation, were responsible for having someone walking the track at all times from the start of the event Friday night until its conclusion Saturday, Lockwood said.

Each team member also was charged with raising $100 to benefit cancer research and American Cancer Society efforts, she said.

It was the second year employees of DM Bowman Inc. in Williamsport participated in the event.

"It's a team effort. We all work at it," said receptionist Arlene Shupp, 44, of Williamsport, who said employees donate money, pitch in with fund-raising efforts and come out for the relay event.

The company raised much more than the $1,500 required from its 15 team members, said controller Cindy Joiner, who said it would give $10,000 to the event this year.

Joiner, 37, of Waynesboro, Pa., said the death of her mother from cancer in 1996 prompted her to get involved with the event last year.

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