By Michael Farnworth

For the Journal

POCATELLO— Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad and Chubbuck Mayor Steven England made a proclamation Wednesday night at the annual Relay for Life seasonal kickoff meeting.

The two mayors proclaimed to a room of 60 participants and team leaders that Friday May 20, is Paint the town purple day, and July 15 and 16 is the Bannock County Relay for Life days.

"I think it is very important that the community be involved in this program," Mayor Blad said, "I think every person in the country is affected by cancer in some way, whether it is a family member, or friend or family member of a friend, everyone knows someone that has this disease. I am very proud that our community gets so involved."

"Our community is so very strongly involved with this program," Mayor England said, "and I think it is so important that as a community government, we show that we are 100 percent behind the community and the program."

This was the third year that the Team Leader meeting was held to kick off the Relay for Life events, and the group used the time to let other teams know about various fundraisers in the area to raise money for cancer awareness.

The first event being held is the Bark For Life event, which is being held on Saturday May 14, at the OK Ward Park in Chubbuck. Pre-Registration begins at 9 a.m. with the blessing of the dogs at 10:45 a.m., and the walk will begin at 11 a.m. For more information about this event you can call Melinda Johnson at (208)681-4283 or by clicking the Bark for Life tab at www.relayforlife.org/pocatelloid. As of Wednesday evening there were 59 dogs registered for the event.

Linda Davies of Pocatello had one of her hand made aprons on display at the meeting. The Aprons, and a quilt they are raffling off, were created using pieces of men's shirts, donated by the men themselves.

"I was laying in bed one night," Davies said, "and it just came to me. My husband and I lost a daughter to cancer, and I watched my husband trying to figure out how he could fix things, how he could make our daughter better. I knew he would give the shirt off his back to fix it all." Davies continued by saying, "thats where the idea came from. Men are fixers, and so we've asked men to give the shirts off their backs, and we use pieces of those shirts to make the aprons to sell, and to make the quilt which will be raffled off."

Billi McCoy is the event Chair-Woman for the Relay for Life event this year, and was in charge of the meeting.

"We need silent auction items and canned food for the events," she said to the crowd, "anyone that wants to drop these items off can take them either to Anthony Nelson at the Met Life office building at 410 North Yellowstone in Pocatello, or Billi McCoy at the Key Bank at 105 North Arthur, in Pocatello.

Nelson also let the group know that their Flocking program has raised $1,600 dollars so far, and that the Relay for Life now has 73 teams registered for the July 15,16 event. Cost of registering a team of 15 is $125 for adults, and $75 for a youth team. The deadline for team registrations is June 1, and you can register for the event by going to the website: www.relayforlife.org/pocatelloid

The Groups flocking program is a program in which a person can pay $10 to have a flock of 15 pink flamingos placed in a yard of their choice.