How Relay for Life connects participants

WINTERSVILLE -- Mark and Mary Ann Hoobler of Hammondsville were former students of Karen Lundquist's before her retirement as an educator in the Edison Local School District.

Mary Ann graduated from the former Stanton High School in 1976, Mark in 1971.

Through the Steubenville Area Relay for Life to benefit the American Cancer Society, it has reconnected the trio in recent years, not so surprising as the fundraiser dear to Lundquist's heart is one she has inspired others from her days as an educator to come on board as supporters.

"They're 'my kids,'" Lundquist said affectionately as the three took a break during the June relay held at the Robert Kettlewell Memorial Stadium in Wintersville to talk in part about how the relay connects people and impacts lives.

In the Hooblers' case, Mary Ann has been a coordinator for eight years of the mini-relay held at Stanton Elementary School where she is a sixth-grade teacher.

The mini relays are a key fundraising element of the main relay, a concept championed by Lundquist and fellow Edison educator and retiree Connie Crawford years ago. With 23 local schools from varying districts holding mini relays of their own prior to the main relay in June, they raised the highest total ever, generating $55,713.11.

"This is the highest we've ever had in the years of mini-relays," Lundquist said. "I give them all the credit because they do everything at the schools. I've just planted the seed," Lundquist said of the coordinators' role in their success.

While Mary Ann was committed to the effort, the mini relay and main relay took on heightened significance when Mark was diagnosed with cancer in 2015.

"Two years ago I broke my back, and when they fixed my back, that's when they found I had cancer, multiple myeloma, in the bone marrow, which was what caused my back to break, so breaking my back saved my life," explained Mark, a contractor by trade.

That led to six months of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, and "now I'm fine," he said.

The cancer journey, however, put a different twist on the relay as Mark since has participated as a cancer survivor. For Mary Ann, the Relay for Life "got very personal."

"When we do the relay at school, the money you raise for this relay is literally saving lives. It's for research and advancement in the treatment and medicine, and it's really an important thing you're doing, raising money for this cause," Mary Ann said. "Sadly a lot of the kids are touched by cancer either through family members who have had it or died of it or are battling it, so it's a very real thing in their lives. It makes them feel good that they're doing something good that can help people," she added.

In remission now, Mark is back to work not only as a contractor but also in mission work of more than two decades through Mighty God Ministries. "At present we run Bible colleges in Africa -- three in the Congo, one in Rwanda and two in Kenya."

Although always a man of faith, Mark noted the cancer experience changed his perspective.

"I think anytime you go through something like this, it changes your perspective on a lot of things," he said. "It never shook my faith in God or Jesus Christ," he added, but it gave him a new level of compassion for others dealing with illnesses.

"A lot of times on the mission field when you're preaching to people fatally ill or who have a disease that's going to really take them down, when you minister to people and talk to people, you don't understand their state of mind. I can do that now. There are so many other things added to the equation of life when you're battling something like cancer," he said.

The experience has made the Hooblers respect the routine of life.

"It makes you appreciate what I call the ordinary day -- the beauty of the ordinary day," Mary Ann said.

Mark agreed.

"The worse time through my bout with cancer, I would say, man I just wish it was an ordinary day," he said, adding the Relay for Life helps other cancer patients and their loved ones know "they're not going through it alone."

The relay is a place to potentially make a difference, according to Mark.

"The relay puts a spotlight on cancer and how good a thing it can be to be involved. You never know when it's going to touch your life."

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)