Yorktown to Honor Relay for Life with “Purple” Friday
Yorktowners will have the chance to show their support for the anti-cancer Relay for Life event this Friday by wearing purple and raising awareness on the annual “Paint the Town Purple Day.”
Yorktown Supervisor Michael Grace will officially announce the day at 9 a.m. Friday, and the YAC cheerleaders will be on hand to motivate the crowd.
The day will also feature discounts from area businesses, with profits going to benefit Yorktown’s Relay for Life, which will be held this year from June 8-9 at the Jack DeVito Field.
The event will also be celebrated in Yorktown’s schools, with students and teachers writing the names of those lost to cancer or cancer survivors on a piece of paper. These pieces will eventually be joined into a long paper chain — the “Chain of Hope” — as a way to bring the community together.
In the Yorktown School District, “Paint the Town Purple Day” will be celebrated on Thursday, as students will not be in school Friday. The chains from the various schools will be paraded at the main Relay for Life event on June 8.
The day’s events will continue with Yorktown’s Arbor Day celebration, to be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Patriot Garden behind Yorktown Town Hall. At that ceremony, a purple flowering tree will be dedicated to symbolize the charity.
“Paint the Town Purple Day” will culminate at Ceola Manor, with “Dancing with the Yorktown Stars II,” which will feature prominent Yorktowners like Grace and Councilmen Terrence Murphy and Dave Paganelli. Examiner Media Chief Operating Officer Faith Ann Butcher will serve as one of the event’s judges.
At the Yorktown Town Board meeting Tuesday night at the John C. Hart Memorial Library in Shrub Oak, Relay for Life steering community member Grace Anne Ring said the day’s an important milestone in the buildup to the June event.
“Our goal is to have a town-wide celebration of what can be done when we work together,” she said.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
