Oak Forest Relay for Life Named Top in Nation

Participants in Oak Forest's Relay for Life really know how to rally.

Just ask the American Cancer Society, which awarded the Oak Forest version of the national event the Heart of the Relay Award for its engagement of caregivers and survivors on Tuesday, Aug. 23. Oak Forest's event beat out nearly 5,000 other relays across the nation.

This year's event involved roughly 450 people on 38 teams and raising nearly $98,000, which the American Cancer Society representative called "an amazing feat for a town with a population of just over 28,000.

"We have many other larger communities, neighboring communities, in fact, which don't raise the amount of money you all raised each year over the last six years," the representative said. "That's something you all should be very proud of here in Oak Forest."

Oak Forest's relay first won the Illinois division for its survivor and caregiver engagement, then went on to compete at the national level. It was the sole winning relay, for survivor and caregiver engagement.

"We actually engage our survivors and caregivers all year round," Kubilius said. "Some relays do their relay and honor their survivors the day of the relay. We relay in Oak Forest all year long. Oak Forest, as a community, has backed us 100 percent.

"We're a relay family, a relay community," said Kubilius. "We're just not people fundraising, we are a family.

"I told them all that I love them all, and I really do."