By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Relay for Life of South Shelby will kick off at 6 p.m. May 11 at Chelsea High School.

Chelsea High School students have been planning the event since the end of Relay for Life last year, girls’ basketball coach Wayne Trucks said. A student-and-faculty softball game and faculty talent show to raise money.

“The kids get worked up and excited when you are showing a different side than what they see,” Trucks said of the talent show.

Nine male faculty members have been competing in a mustache-growing contest.

“We all stopped shaving a couple of weeks ago. The kids will get to vote to who they want to just have the mustache,” he said. “Whoever raises the most money has to shave everything but the mustache and leave it for a week. If you remember Ron Burgundy in ‘Anchorman,’ that’s how bad it’s going to be.”

The Relay for Life event will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“The idea with the relay is cancer doesn’t stop and neither do we,” Trucks said. “One member of the team will continue to walk the entire night.”

The event will have food, a dunking booth, kids activities and much more. A luminaria event will begin between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

“Those are to honor those who won the battle and those who didn’t,” Trucks said. “We put their name on the luminaria. As you walk around the track, you get to notice ‘in honor of’, ‘in memory of.’ At 9 or 10, we turn off the lights, and you see the candles that are lit to honor loved ones.”

All proceeds from the event go to the American Cancer Society.

“Last year was our first year at Chelsea High School. We did make our goal, and so it’s the challenge of trying to make it again this year,” Trucks said. “Every dollar we raise is one more dollar to finding a cure and one more than we had to begin with. Even if we don’t reach our goal, we still made a difference.”