More than anything else, the Relay for Life of Shelton and the Naugatuck Valley is about the cancer survivors, according to co-chairmen Kristen Ostrowski and Jason Carlucci.
They said this year’s Relay, held Saturday and Sunday at the River Walk Park in downtown Shelton, featured 61 Relay teams, usually named in honor of a survivor, or of someone who passed away from the disease.
“That’s what this event is about. It’s to honor our loved ones,” said Ostrowski.
One of the oldest teams, Bubba’s Buddies, was organized to celebrate the survival of Bubba, the nickname for 20-year-old college student Stasiu Gucwa, who triumphed over cancer when he was a child.
“He had brain cancer — medulloblastoma,” said he mother, Teresa, at the Bubba’s Buddies tent Saturday. “He was given two weeks to live.”
She said at age three, Stasiu complained of headaches and kept falling asleep all the time. His pediatricians checked him out for Lyme disease and other problems, but couldn’t pin down the cause.
“They were looking for anything but brain cancer,” Teresa Gucwa said.
Finally, they took her son to Bridgeport Hospital where a neurologist did an MRI scan that led to the diagnosis. But doctors weren’t very encouraging, believing that the undiagnosed malignancy had progressed too far.
Staciu was admitted to Yale Children’s Hospital for an experimental treatment that included surgery, 31 radiation treatments and 48 weeks of chemotherapy.
“He beat all odds,” Teresa said. “He was their first survivor.”
At the time, back in the 1990s, Staciu’s miraculous survival was covered by the local news media. The Bubba’s Buddies team tent was decorated with displays of those news stories.
Staciu looks like a middle school student, because the radiation treatments damaged his pituitary gland, which regulates an individual’s growth.
He said he is now a sophomore at Southern Connecticut State University studying sports management with a minor in wellness.
The Relay for Life is the major annual fundraising effort for the American Cancer Society. Volunteers organize Relays in their local communities, encouraging teams of individuals whose lives have been touched by cancer, either as survivors or as the relatives, friends or co-workers of cancer patients, to gather pledges for donations to the Society.
The Relay is an 18-hour event, from 2 p.m. Saturday until 8 a.m. Sunday morning. During that time, the participants and survivors take turns walking around a track on the inside of the River Walk Park.
Music and other entertainment is scheduled throughout that period. After dark, the Relay walkers will carry luminaria lanterns in memory of those that have died from cancer.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the American Cancer Society, which has adopted the motto, “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays,” and the local Relay started off on Saturday with the guests and volunteers singing “Happy Birthday” to the cancer survivors.
Ostrowski and Carlucci said most of the money goes for research, education and patient support programs.
They said they both became volunteers and co-managers for the Lower Naugatuck Valley Relay after someone close to them got cancer.
Ostrowski said she started to volunteer for the Relay for Life 15 years ago to help a friend’s mother who was a survivor. Since then, she has known many more people who have had cancer. This is her third year as co-chairman.
“We know too many people who have had cancer. That’s why we got involved,” said Carlucci, who began to participating in the Relay last year and stepped up to co-chairman for this year’s event.
He said his mother was an ardent advocate for cancer survivors. When she passed away, he decided to continue her fight for her.
“The passion that she had was great,” he said.
Click here to read more about Carlucci’s story.
Another youthful cancer survivor, 11-year-old Emma Alden, was lounging with the team sponsored by the Soul Seekers, a paranormal investigation group from Naugatuck that her parents, Patrick and Angela Alden, belong to.
Angela Alden said her daughter was diagnosed in 2006 at age four with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Her story was not so different from Staciu Gucwa’s, including a month of misdiagnoses. Emma’s mother said finally they took her daughter to the emergency room at Waterbury Hospital where the doctors determined what was wrong with her.
Emma was treated for 2 – 1/2 years at Connecticut Children’s Hospital in Hartford and has been cancer-free for five years.
“We’re very lucky. She’s one of the lucky ones that made it,” Angela Alden said.
Many of the volunteer participants were just there to raise money, like the team sponsored by Valley Karate, a Shelton martial arts school. Valley Karate co-owner Sarah Berger said the students at the school have raised pledges for a “kickathon” scheduled for next weekend, when they will collectively make 2,013 karate kicks and donate the money to the American Cancer Society.
“We certainly want to support the American Cancer Society and those people who are affected,” Berger said.
