•	WHAT: American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life annual fund-raiser
•	WHEN: 6 p.m. Friday, June 1 through noon Saturday, June 2
•	WHERE: Paulding County Fairgrounds
•	WHO: Sponsored by American Cancer Society

By NANCY WHITAKER

Progress Staff Writer

PAULDING – The 2012 Paulding County Relay for Life will be held from 6 p.m. Friday, June 1, until noon on Saturday, June 2, at the Paulding County Fairgrounds. The theme for this year is “Tailgating to a Cure.”

The Relay for Life will commence at 6 p.m. with the opening ceremonies featuring TANG and the raising of the flag conducted by the VFW.

Also at 6 p.m. there will be the survivors, caregivers and team captains lap. Those participating in the Survivors lap may register at 5:15. If you are a cancer patient, cancer survivor, caregiver or a team captain, please attend so you can be among those being honored.

A chili cookoff will be held beginning at 6:30 p.m. Contestants may drop off their chili at 5:45 in the extension building. The voting ends at 8:30 p.m.

At 7 p.m. the birthday party will begin with the theme “Celebrating a World with More Birthdays.” There will be a pinata, limbo contest, musical chairs, cupcakes and the “Happy Birthday” song.

At 8:30 p.m. there will be The Road to Recovery Race. You can build your car from 6-8:15. The race will be held at 8:30 p.m.

At 9:30 p.m., the “Super-Fan” winner will be announced. The participants will be announced at 6:30 p.m. and will turn in their money at 9 p.m. the Super Fan is a person selected from each team who will go around the grounds collecting monies for cancer.

OSU “Superfans” Larry Lokai (aka Buckeyeman) and Dennis Singleton (aka Coach Tressel) will be at the Relay For Life of Paulding County on Friday, June 1.

The Luminaria Ceremony will take place at 10 p.m. on Friday night. This is a very emotional time and everyone is invited to attend. Luminarias are lit and placed around the track in honor or memory of loved ones. Luminaria can be purchased at the relay or in advance. During this event music will be presented by Kristen and Steve Wendell and the invocation is to be given by James Langham of the Church of Christ.

A full schedule of entertainment is set for the event, with Pure Volume D.J. Ralph Gonzales kicking the night off. Gonzales will have the stage from 5-8 p.m. with David Bussing performing from 8-10.

Jerome Schooley will do the honors of entertaining from 10 p.m.-midnight. Taking the music into early morning will be Soundhound DJ Service with Rob Schwiebert, who will spin his tunes from midnight -10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

More music will open the day on Saturday as The University of St. Francis Jazz Combo plays from 10:30-11:15 a.m.

In addition to entertainment, other activities will include: raffles from 6 p.m. Friday until 10:30 a.m. Saturday with a silent auction being held at the same time.

Erika Pease will have her photo booth open.

At 7 a.m. Saturday morning, there will be a pancake and sausage breakfast.

At 9 a.m., there will be Zumba with Reta Ptak and at 11:15 a.m., the silent auction and raffle ticket winners will be announced and awards will be presented.

Kids won’t want to miss the T-N-T clowns, the moon bounce, jail and bail, school spirit hour, game time, trivia and more.

Public relations chairperson Michele Arend said, “We are hoping to raise at least as much as we did last year, but you never know in this tough economy. However, we have faith that everyone in Paulding County will join us in the fight against cancer. We just want everyone to come out and have a good time while raising money for Relay for Life.”

For further information concerning the local Relay for Life June 1-2, see the Web site at www.relayforlife.org/Paulding