Tonight, at approximately 6:30 p.m., one of the most moving and highly-touted events to be held in Sampson County will gets its annual kickoff, and we are hoping that it be the beginning of a very successful six months for Relay for Life and its organizers.

The kickoff meeting, designed as a sort of launch party for the upcoming event, also gives organizers their first look at the number of teams they can expect, the type of fund-raising that will take place leading up to the big weekend and a laundry list of other items it will take to pull off a successful 2009 campaign.

Dozens of teams are already certain participants for the Relay, but we are hoping to see that number grow again this year, proving what we already know — that this event has provided as much in the way of outreach as it has pulled in funding for cancer research.

As unfortunate as it is, cancer touches nearly every person in this county directly or indirectly, and it serves as the common thread that joins us together in support of such a worthwhile cause.

The Relay is certainly about raising money for cancer research, but it is so much more than that ... so much more.

Sampson County’s Relay is about fellowship, kindred spirits sharing their heartaches and their joys; strangers joining with strangers, neighbors with neighbors, friends with friends and families with families to rage a unique brand of war on the enemy cancer.

It’s about faith, shown in hundreds of ways during the course of Relay each year, and demonstrated in humble fashion during the actual event, as cancer survivors provide uplifting testimonies about their personal battles with the disease.

It’s about courage exhibited by survivors as well as those who’ve had family and friends fall victim to cancer’s rage.

And even all those things don’t come close to defining what Relay for Life is in Sampson County and what it means to thousands upon thousands of people who brave their way through their own experiences with the disease.

Tonight, we’ll begin Relay all over again, paving the way for yet another successful year in the event’s history.

And it won’t be about raising money, although every penny we raise will bring us, we pray, that much closer to a cure. It will be about the people, about the disease and about doing everything we possibly can to rid our lives of this raging monster that knows no boundaries.