Relay for Life remembers, celebrates, offers hope

That's me in the yellow poncho on the 2010 Survivor's Lap.

It's spring and, all across our country, community members are preparing for their annual Relay for Life. Relay began in Tacoma, Wash. in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, Relay has grown from a single man’s passion to fight cancer into the world’s largest movement to end the disease. Each year, more than 3.5 million people in 5,000 communities in the United States, along with additional communities in 20 other countries, gather to take part in this global phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer

We're just a week away here in Bogalusa, as members of the Washington Parish community will gather at Goodyear Park on April 15. In my 61 years, times have changed from cancer being a disease we seldom heard of to one that has touched nearly every man, woman and child in some way. That is all too evident as one looks on as people gather together for Relay ... young, old, middle-aged, red, yellow, black and white ... there is no immunity to cancer's touch.

Over the years, I've been involved in a 15 or so Relay events in five cities and four states but I never expected to walk that first lap. Oh, I've walked along with those on that lap -- the Survivor's Lap -- walking alongside them, offering encouragement ... but never did I expect to be part of it. That came in Thomasville, NC in the spring of 2005 after my God, my caregivers, my doctors and I kicked "Bubba's" butt. You see, I felt it would be easier to fight something with a name and my head and neck cancer -- metastatic squamous cell carcinoma -- became "Bubba." We fought through 192 hours of chemo, 123 doses of radiation and the loss of 70 pounds in less than five months ... and "Bubba" was whipped.

That Friday evening, as the public address announcer called for survivors to gather on the track, I remember standing there in an "out of it" sort of way. About that time, Thomasville's mayor, Maj. Gen. (USA ret.) Hubert Leonard came up, wrapped his arm in mine and said, "Let's go, John!" And go we did and for the very first time, I understood how very important it was for those onlookers to be there ... to be walking alongside you and offering encouragement ... to care.

Relay for Life is a time when we gather to celebrate. We celebrate the lives of those who have battled this horrible disease – their memories and their spirit – and the lives of those who continue the battle, either actively or with the disease in some stage of remission. But we also gather to celebrate those who stood alongside us … at times when the battle left us too weary to know to know they were there, our hand in theirs … and often behind us, wheeling us along when our legs simply couldn’t do what our minds wanted. … our caregivers.

That year in Thomasville, members of my Rotary Club -- who had never before been involved as a group -- raised more than $10,000 and five of them stayed with me all night long ... visiting with one another and with others who spent the night and taking turns walking laps. I sold some of my fellow Rotarians on the idea of getting involved ... really involved ... and they ran with it. Of course, it wasn't a hard sell and Steve Martin, Joseph Walker and Whitney Hardin made it happen in such a way that I was overwhelmed.

As a survivor of six-plus years now, I would ask all of you who know someone stricken by this disease to take the time to attend your Relay for Life. The Survivor’s Walk kicks things off and the lighting of the luminarias offers all the opportunity to remember our loved ones who have gone on … and I will always remember my fallen friends and family members in a way befitting their respective battles and coined by my cousin, Howard, who finished his fight on Oct. 17, 2007 in Iowa City, Iowa: “My cancer won’t kill me, but rather it will die with me.”

Be there to honor their memory, share strength with them for their fight and to remind one and all that not a single person is in this fight by themselves. Not one.

Can you tell me ... ?

"What's the biggest story you ever covered?" I was asked when being interviewed for a small town editor's job.

After thinking about it, I knew there really wasn't one set answer, and I told them that.

"But, what about Hurricane Katrina? It has to be the biggest story you ever covered. It has to be the story of a lifetime."

No, not if you're located more than 100 miles from where Katrina made landfall ... not if you're more than 50 miles away from the nearest flooded neighborhood or storm-destroyed building in Slidell.

But that's the geography tied to living anywhere in the region where Hurricane Katrina hit back on Aug. 29, 2005. To those who watched from the safety of their homes elsewhere, every community down here was flooded and there were buildings destroyed around every corner ... and the dead bodies ... oh, the humanity of it all.

Yes, the greater New Orleans area was hit devastatingly hard. Slidell was slammed and the Mississippi Gulf Coast was horrible ... but here in Bogalusa, where Katrina's eye passed 15 miles to the east, it was the aftermath that was the story.

Trees downed everywhere, no power for weeks, no phones and what seemed to be the hottest weather of the year.

At The Daily News, the days following Katrina were spent trying to get to the point where we could once again publish a newspaper. We learned in an otherwise dark newsroom that a 7kw generator would power three Macs, a single-headed shop light and a fan. Because there was no power, there were no businesses to call on to sell advertising, so sales reps looked for photo opportunities and took notes. The news staff, which was down to myself and lifestyle editor Barbara "Bob Ann" Breland, took photos and notes in anticipation of the day we would once again print.

While the major media descended on New Orleans and their corporate owners got broadcast outlets on the air from other locations and the Times-Picayune put out a newspaper on-line from Baton Rouge until it could again print a newspaper three days later. It would be another 11 days before we in Bogalusa would put out a newspaper ... and that, in itself, takes most of the "breaking" out of the news.

Our effort was one of logistics: the who, what, when, why, where and how we would get our job done. The reporting part was easy ... you cover the food and water lines, the complaints about FEMA, try to find gasoline when you hit half-a-tank, wipe the sweat away, watch the power crews assemble and work ... and you repeat it day after day after day.

I told the corporate hack that and must have emphasized the logistical part a bit too much in his mind, for it's the thing he remembers today about that interview. I didn't get that job and, when I became a finalist for another editor's job within his organization, couldn't even get the courtesy of a phone call to tell me why he wouldn't allow the publisher to interview me!

Bogalusa was a shambles after Katrina, but we were whole. There was no gymnasium filled with body bags and there was no water lapping at the eaves of houses ... ours was a community filled with tales of woe as well as being filled with wonderful volunteers from around the country.

For that, I'm thankful. I'm thankful our coverage of the storm turned into much less than our counterparts to the south and east ... even if that's the way it was imagined elsewhere.

My biggest stories, in no particular order:
• Mother places baby in hot clothes dryer after hearing voices
• Would-be Klan member killed after she decides she doesn't want to join and seeks to leave
• Series of tornadoes rakes the Mississippi Delta, killing more than 20 ... warning sirens go off as we walk throughout a destroyed downtown with flashlights and spotlights amid an eerie silence
• Santa Fe Railroad seeks to abandon line through West Texas and connecting into Mexico (our coverage led to the saving of the line)
• Texas educational reform
• Water rights issues in West Texas
• Death of furniture industry in Thomasville, NC and its impact
• NAFTA
• Educational issues in Bogalusa City Schools
• Nolan Ryan's 300th win and 5,000th strikeout
• Massive hail storm with softball-sized hail that hit Big Spring, Texas on May 10, 1996, destroying eight homes
• Crop-killing hail storm in Nebraska in 1995
• Manhunt for a multiple killer in the Texas Hill Country with DPS troopers standing watch over the dozen or so print and broadcast reporters

Yes, Hurricane Katrina was the biggest natural disaster to ever hit the United States, but it wasn't even the biggest news story in Bogalusa that year ... that belonged to a maverick politician who issued contracts to friends and cronies, spent money and then went back and convinced the city council to post-date the paperwork!