Downtown Rochester

On Saturday, June 20th the City of Rochester participated in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life event held at Hart Middle School.

The Relay for Life is a 24 hour event in which organized teams participate in a walking event to help gain donations for the American Cancer Society. This year, there were 42 teams involved in the greater Rochester area. It was the first year that the City of Rochester fielded a team for the event. Team Rochester is pleased to report that they had a prescence for the entire event and kept a team on the track for the entire duration of the 24 hour event.

Although truly a team effort, extra thanks need to go out to Rochester City Clerk Lee Ann O’Connor and Rochester City Councilmembers Ben Giovanelli and David Zemens. Lee Ann took on the work of organizing the team and preparing spreadsheets and time tables to coordinate the team members. In addition, she spend hours and hours at the event site assisting with the details of Team Rochester’s effort.

Councilmember David Zemens took an early hand in coordinating the details of the event, and for several months was the leader in gathering donations for the team. However, as the event drew near Council Member Ben Giovanelli jumped in with both feet and began gathering donations and coordinating all the details of the team’s campsite. It wasn’t long before Ben became the overwhelming leader in donations. In addition, Ben spend nearly the entire 24 hour period on site at the event, handling any matter that needed handling as well as providing much of the hardware for the team’s campsite.

Congratulations are indeed in order for the entire team and to all those who solicited donations, gave donations, walked in the event or otherwise supported the team effort. Team Rochester is proud to report that as of the date of this article they gathered $2,100.00 in donations paid directly to the American Cancer Society. Great work and a job well done!