Cancer has touched all of us in some way. Recently Lighthouse employees came together to honor the lives lost to cancer, celebrate survivors, and support the caregivers who selflessly help others. As a team, we decided to take action and get involved by giving back. The America Cancer Society's Relay for Life event on June 8 was quickly approaching and a great fit, as it would allow all of our global employees to participate from anywhere by donating, walking, or both.

Relay for Life started in May 1985 when Dr. Gordon "Gordy" Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Washington, raising money to help the American Cancer Society with one of the nation's biggest health concern: cancer. Gordy spent a grueling 24 hours circling the track at the University of Puget Sound. Friends, family, and patients watched and supported him as he walked and ran more than 83.6 miles and raised $27,000 to help save lives from cancer. As he circled the track, he thought of how he could get others to take part. He envisioned having teams participate in a 24-hour fundraising event. The next year, 19 teams were part of the first Relay for Life event at the historic Stadium Bowl and raised $33,000.[1]

With the event and charity selected, we set out to achieve two goals—raise $25,000 in support of the American Cancer Society and walk for 24 hours straight in solidarity for Relay for Life.

After it was announced internally, we saw a wave of employees jump in and support. In addition, members of our employees' families and our board were inspired to join in and support the cause. We saw remote employees from across the globe sign up as well as several folks from our offices in Zürich, London, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle participate as well. In the end, we saw over 60 Lighthouse volunteers walk (not including all of their family members and friends) in 5 different time zones across the world!

"This was our biggest Lighthouse Cares event to date," said Stacy Ybarra, Vice President of Marketing and Executive Sponsor of the Lighthouse Cares committee. "The wide-spread contributions and participation from across the team is a true testament to our culture of camaraderie and care."

Together, our Lighthouse team exceeded our goal by walking for 24 hours straight and almost doubling our fundraising goal with a grand total of $43,536.69. Check out this video highlighting employee participation during the relay.

[1] "Our History" from https://secure.acsevents.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=relay_learn