Campus Leadership preps for 40th anniversary year.
“Ending Cancer Starts On Campus,” the new slogan of the Campus Relay For Life Program, was a central focus as volunteers and ACS team members representing the top-performing and rising star campus Relay For Life events gathered in St. Charles, IL, on July 26 - 28. The Campus Relay For Life Leadership Summit, led by the volunteer National Campus & Youth Engagement Team (NCYET) and their ACS partners, rallied around a “Be Bold” call to action as we prepare for the exciting 40th anniversary of Relay For Life in 2025. Throughout the weekend, the summit created a best-in-class experience for top and rising star events, recognized event results, and provided the opportunity to share new and exciting updates ahead of the 2024 - 2025 season. Attendees are pictured below.
“This year we wanted to be different from our meetings in the past to align with current trends. We selected a different type of venue, a different schedule, new ideas, and new focus to ensure our volunteers and ACS event partners felt supported as they plan for the next school year,” said Dillon Spencer, director, College & Youth Engagement.
Two representatives from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) who specialize in the Youth Relay For Life program joined the summit to demonstrate the partnership between our organizations, and Helen Kiroplis from the CCS served as the master of ceremonies for the event to help bring a new fun energy that kept everyone going the entire weekend.
During the weekend, volunteers and their ACS partners received specialized training on leadership development, tackling accountability conversations, and planning experiences that everyone wants to participate in. Saturday night also featured an awards ceremony where the top five events were recognized, and events were also recognized for year-over-year growth in revenue, teams, participants and survivors. The ceremony also featured volunteers from Relay For Life of Union County Vocational Tech School and Relay For Life of Northeastern University to share more about how they were successful with yearly growth.
Yash Gursahani, NCYET Top Performers chair, stated, “The Campus Leadership Summit went better than I could have imagined. The big goal for me was getting students to connect beyond their obvious love for Relay For Life. I think we really succeeded, and I cannot wait to see them collaborate through the next year.”
To see which events were invited and all materials presented at the summit, visit https://www.acsresources.org/campus/leadershipsummit/
