The History of Pink Heat:
(Written by team captain Tiffany Lybarger)
Pink Heat was created because of a very special woman, my grandma Lois. She was my favorite person in the whole world. Growing up I loved talking to her, loved when she would come visit, loved at Christmas time receiving the package from UPS and looking and waiting to open the big gift that said 'open last' on it. My best moment was making the drive to Texas to visit for a week. I couldn’t imagine life without her and sometimes I still can’t believe she isn’t here. Grandma Lois was team captain of a Relay For Life team in Hereford, Tx. She raised amazing amounts of money and always was so proud when she found out I was participating in my Relay for Life as a team member in my hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. As a twelve year cancer survivor she was committed to helping find a cure and when the cancer returned she remained positive and insisted that technology was so advanced from her first time around and that a cure was on the horizon. She believed in the cure and she believed it was going to happen before the cancer took her. In 2007, at the age of 62 she lost her battle with cancer. In 2009 while I walked an emotional lap after lap on the track in the early hours of the overnight Relay For Life in my new town Waldorf, MD I had a vision of creating my own team. I reflected on all my years with the Relay in Pennsylvania as a helper and not a leader and I realized 2010 was going to be the year that I carried the torch on for my grandmother. I was going to create a team not only for her but for her best friend Lori Brothers who also lost the fight to cancer. It was time I took over where my grandmother had left off and raise money and awareness for the cure she believed in, the cure she thought was going to happen before she lost her fight. I could have chose to just continue to show up at Relay and show my support but I wanted to be something more and be something she would be proud. That something more turned out to be the creation of Pink Heat.
My team Pink Heat participated in their first Relay For Life in Charles County, MD in June of 2010 with 8 team members. Since then we have grown to a team of 30 and raised over $17,000.00 for the American Cancer Society. For the 2013 year our team goal is $10,000.00. I know she is proud, I know she is watching. I know that this passion for a cure has overcome us, but in some ways I wonder if this is just how she felt. The cure she believed was on the horizon...this team is going to help find it.