ROME TOWNSHIP — It’s only fitting: This year’s Relay for Life will have a new venue so there ought to be a new team participating.

The fundraiser for cancer research that is billed as a communitywide slumber party is scheduled for May 18 and 19, at the Fairland High School football field. This is the first time the event has been in the eastern part of the county since 2007, when it was for years at the county fairgrounds.

To commemorate the change of scene Fairland High’s student council will have a Relay team for the first time, joining the school’s National Honor Society, a veteran participant. Coming up with the idea was Hunter Schenewark, a sophomore member of the council.

“I know there are a lot of people affected with cancer,” Schenewark said. “I saw my grandfather struggle for a number of years. And I watched my older brother and mother participate (in Relay). They put the example. It is important we participate. It goes to a great cause and sets the example for other schools.”

At the Relay, which starts on a Friday evening and lasts through noon Saturday, teams choose a theme and hold fundraisers before the event as well as during the weekend to bring in dollars for cancer research. A feature of the Relay is that participants stay awake through the night as a symbol of the fact that cancer never sleeps. And before the festivities begin, there is a survivors’ walk where everyone who has conquered the disease can walk. Throughout the evening and next morning teams continue to raise money. All money goes to the American Cancer Society.

The student council team is taking as its theme, “Singing for a Cure,” and will raise money by selling opportunities to sing karaoke.

“I like the whole idea of helping others,” Lexx Wright, a senior student council member, said. “We are doing fundraisers with different grades and all of us members will walk with the survivors.”

Right now the student council team has a goal of $3,500 with at least $1,500 of that raised already. Donations have come from Interstate Batteries of Huntington for $1,000; Short Stitch Custom Embroidery and Rebolt, both of Proctorville, for $100 each; and $300 from the school’s athletic boosters.

Anyone wanting to make a donation may do so by writing a check to the American Cancer Society and send it in care of Mindy Clark, Fairland High School student council, 812 County Road 411, Proctorville, OH 45669.