Dwight Bedinger will lead the Survivor Lap at the Dillon County Relay For life which will be held on May 20-21 from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the Dillon Christian School track.
Dwight has been involved in Relay since 2008.
In May of 2008, he was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer and had surgery at Duke. For the next three years, not only was Dwight at Relay as a Survivor, he has been Team Captain for the Latta Baptist Church team.
In January of this year, Dwight was at the first Relay Team Captain’s Meeting. He told us that his Dad had been diagnosed with Bladder Cancer. Later in January, he went to us Texas and spent the week with his dad, Charles Bedinger. His dad passed away in January from complications from the cancer.
While in Texas, Dwight began to have health problems himself. In February, he was diagnosed once again with cancer. This time it was in his right kidney, and it was a different type of cancer from his original cancer. On April 1st, again at Duke, Dwight had his cancerous kidney removed.
In March, his daughter-in-law also lost her father who was fighting prostate cancer.
Dwight is a survivor in every sense of the word. Monday, May 16 Dwight was back for another Relay meeting, this time to pick a site for his team.
He’s not able to do a lot of physical work yet, and they are just going to take a spot and sit back and enjoy the Relay for awhile.
He doesn’t have all of his strength back physically yet. But his strength to fight is as big as anybody’s.
Bigger than many, he is a Survivor in every sense of the word. This is just one survivor story. There are many amazing people who make up Relay.
You should come out to Relay and meet some of them. You just might be surprised.
The schedule of events is as follows:
6:00-Opening Ceremonies -Sound: Johnson Dean -Emcee: Bobby Meekins
-Invocation
-National Anthem- Erika Lynn Bryant
-Welcome & Introductions-Barbara Rodriguez
-Survivor Speaker-Jo Ann Price
-Caregiver Speaker-Marie Wolfe
-Survivor Lap Will Be Led by Dwight Bedinger
-Survivor Lap-What Faith Can Do-Kutless
-Caregiver Lap-The Climb-Miley Cyrus
-Recognize Relay Queens-Beth Tyndall & Donna Sweat. Queens will lead team parade.
-Team Parade
7:00-Stephanie Johnson
7:15-Union Baptist Drama Team
7:30-Mallory Townsend
7:45-TIP Step Team
8:00-Debbie Hill
8:15-Jackie Lockamy, Jr.
8:30-Shag Music- Everybody Shag
8:45-Alison Hedgepeth
9:00-Byron Mew
9:15-Krista Jackson-Drama
9:30-Gene Tanner
9:45-Sharon Graham
10:00-Luminary Service
11:00-Union Drama Team
11:30-Relay Race- Warriors For Lauren
12:00-Hoola Hoop-Wix
12:30-Hershey Kisses-Second Baptist
1:00-Egg Toss-Union Baptist
1:30-Doughnut Fishing-Franco
2:00-Wet T-Shirt-VICTORIES/Lauren’s Legacy
2:30-Activities & Dancing until 5:00
5:00-Clean Up
5:45-Last Lap
6:00-Let’s Go Home
The luminary service at 10 p.m. is always a special part of the event, but there will be a change to it this year.
Instead of using sand in the luminary bags this year, we are using canned goods.
Each team will provide enough canned items to put one can in each luminary bag. That will be used to weight the bag, rather than the sand.
When the luminaries are taken up (wee hours of Saturday morning), they will be loaded onto a truck or trailer for transport to Helping Hands (operated by the Johnson Foundation) for distribution as needed. A designated area will be set up for those who wish to bring additional canned goods.
This year’s theme is Fighting Cancer Across the United States of America. Each team chooses a state for their campsite. This year’s teams include: Dillon Congregational Church-Sonshine Friends, Dillon County Sheriff’s Department, Franco, Latta Baptist Church, Lauren’s Legacy (Pyerian), Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, Open Door Community Church, Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, Second Baptist Church, Second Chance, Shiloh Chapel, Union Baptist Church, VICTORIES, Voice of the Living Word Church, Walking for Papa, Warriors for Lauren (DCS) and Wix.
Co-chairs for this year’s event are Melissa Thompson and Faith Mew.