Fighting cancer and building community are one and the same for Relay for Life Snoqualmie Valley. The community party/cancer research fundraiser is now in its 15th year of walking, dancing, honoring cancer survivors and lighting up a summer night with hope, courage and luminaria.

“It’s amazing how this brings community together,” said Erin Mitchell, a five-year member of the Relay committee and this year’s chairperson for the luminaria event. “Now if we could just get the word out there, to get more people involved….”

That’s not to say there aren’t lots of people involved — the 2016 committee has more than 20 members and although the event is six months away, it already has 16 teams registered to walk for the 18-hour fundraiser. It’s just, with Relay, there’s always room for more; it’s one of the reasons that the event was selected as the 2015 North Bend Community Organization of the Year.

The group, led by chairperson Bev Jorgensen, was honored at the Feb. 2 North Bend City Council meeting.

Relay for Life Snoqualmie Valley started in the Valley in June, 2001. Neither Mitchell nor Jorgensen were part of that first event but, like most committee members, they were pulled into the organization by the simple momentum of celebrating every survivor, every win over the disease, and honoring the memory of everyone who fought it.

“It’s an honor just to be in the general scope of Relay,” said Mitchell, who joined the committee in 2010.

In its first year in the Valley, the Relay raised more than $30,000, Mitchell said and in her first year, it was more than $100,000. The funds raised over the years have exceeded $1 million.

But finances are only one measure of the Relay’s success. Community involvement is essential

“Come and be a  part of it,” is Mitchell’s message to community members, whether they’re on a team or as spectators, “because it is a huge sense of community and family and support, for people who have none.”

She speaks from experience.

“It gives you a sense of purpose again. I know when I lost my husband… you don’t feel like you have anybody. And this showed me how much support I have,” Mitchell said.

The Relay organization has battled its way back from its own losses, too. In 2011, the organization had shrunk.

“It was pretty much down to three of us who kind of held on,” Mitchell said. Now the committee has 20-plus members.

Another blow came in 2015, with the deaths of Sharon Larson and Sharon Posey.

“Those two Sharons were there the first year that it started. They decided to start team Dyn-o-Mites and they’d been dominant for a long time,” Mitchell said.

They each had battled their own cancer diagnosis, as well as creating much of the Relay’s momentum. They were remembered at last year’s opening ceremony with a moment of silence.

This year, in addition to the 16 teams signed up, the Relay has already raised about $3,500 and the committee has already begun its outreach, which is “huge,” Mitchell said. Committee members do individual visits with businesses, community organizations and people interested in forming teams.

“We’re going to paint the town purple now in June,” Mitchell added, referring to the awareness campaign launched several years ago to get people excited about the annual event. Shop windows, streetlights and people took on a purple theme for the event.

Learn more about the Relay for Life Snoqualmie Valley at www.snovalleyrelay.org, or find them on Facebook.

Erin Mitchell, left, hands out paper bags to North Bend staff members to decorate as luminaria, or paper lanterns in honor of someone who has battled or is battling cancer. The luminaria ceremony, part of every relay, is one of the best parts of the event, says Mitchell, who is chairperson for the luminaria committee.