Just about every day at this time of year, the Daily Home has some mention of teams raising money for Relay for Life, a nationwide effort of the American Cancer Society that focuses on remembering cancer victims, honoring cancer survivors and funding cancer research.

Teams form in workplaces, churches, clubs and schools. They raise money in endlessly creative ways in the weeks before the final event, an all-night walking relay.

Check the Daily Home’s Community Calendar any day of the week during the spring, and you’ll see upcoming bake sales, carwashes, yard sales, luminaria sales, even fashion shows for Relay for Life.

These are important, for they give members of the community a way to participate in the fight against cancer in a small, but meaningful way. Individually, these events, these calendar items, don’t tell the story of Relay for Life. Collectively, they do. Hundreds of volunteers across east central Alabama are raising many thousands of dollars and getting ready for their relay events.

The newest team in the North Talladega Relay for Life, at Graham Elementary School, is nearing its goal of $2,000 through sales of $1 purple-and-white Relay for Life emblems and $5 luminarias.

Graham Elementary team founders Nancy King and Connie Cunningham are themselves cancer survivors. They are focusing the team’s attention, however, on the school’s youngest survivor, little Reagan Cunningham, a second-grader who is undergoing experimental treatment for a rare form of liver cancer.

Every team has heart-wrenching stories of struggle and survival. Ten-year-old Amber DeRamus in Moody is raising money in memory of her mother Jessica. The St. Clair Association of Realtors and Affiliates Team has dedicated this year’s relay to Realtor Maria Price, who is battling cancer. Valerie Shear, co-captain of Jacob’s Angels Relay Team in Pell City, became involved in the Relay for Life after her son Jacob was diagnosed with cancer. Seven-year-old Jacob is co-captain of the team.

Talladega and southern St. Clair counties have three relay events. The events stage special honors for survivors, some with a pre-relay dinner and some with first lap of the walk. Luminarias, votive candles inside paper bags weighted with sand, are lit at dusk to commemorate those lost to cancer.

The North Talladega Relay for Life is May 14 at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind track. A survivors’ dinner at 5 p.m. precedes the relay, which begins at 6 p.m. So far, 106 participants have signed up in 19 teams. They have raised more than $12,400.

The South Talladega Relay for Life also is May 14. Activities start at 6 p.m. at Legion Stadium in Sylacauga. To date, 152 participants in 19 teams have raised more than $2,080.

The St. Clair County Relay for in Life Pell City starts at 6 p.m. April 30 at Pell City High School’s Pete Rich Stadium. So far 298 members of 38 teams have raised more than $27,140.

Complete information about the relays all across the country is online at www.relayforlife.com. There you can watch your team’s progress, make a donation or even start a team of your own.