Cancer Victims Honored Creatively

EMPORIUM, Pa. – Family members and friends will be able to memorialize cancer victims by decorating bags for the American Cancer Society's Creating A Cure event on May 30.

Those bags will be set up as a maze for the program's 10 a.m. opening ceremonies at Sizerville State Park, along Route 155, six miles north of Emporium.

Creating A Cure, which replaces the Relay for Life, has a goal of raising $30,000 for cancer research, education, advocacy and patient services.

Unlike luminaries, the yellow, orange, green and hot pink paper bags will not be lit by candles but filled and adorned with memories.

"I think it's important to express the way you feel about the person that you lost," said Creating A Cure member Karen Hutton. "It's a way of honoring them."

The bags along with forms are available for a donation of any amount at Olivett's Shurfine Foodmart, Reid's Hometown Emporium and the Cameron County Chamber of Commerce/Artisan Center in Emporium.

Mail them to: American Cancer Society, 300 Chestnut St., Emporium, Pa. 15834 by Monday, May 25, to ensure being listed in the program.

For more information, call Hutton at (814) 486-1706.

Pictured, Marcie Gummo of Emporium admires a bag filled with memories of her son, Josh, who died of cancer more than a decade ago. Bags like this one will be set up as a maze at Sizerville State Park during the American Cancer Society's Creating A Cure event on May 30.
(Photo provided by Alex Davis Media)