HERNDON — A rain shower late Friday afternoon couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the hundreds of community members determined to walk through the night around the Line Mountain High School’s athletic field track.

The eighth annual Line Mountain Relay for Life, which started at 3 p.m. Friday and ends at 3 p.m. today, is the first of 10 scheduled 24-hour relays in the Valley designed to raise money for the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer.

Walkers at Line Mountain last year raised more than $101,000, chairwoman Joyce Howerter said.

The goal this year?

“$107,000,” she said.

Howerter, of Dornsife, is in her first year of directing the Line Mountain event.

“Most everyone here, even students at Line Mountain High School, are from families touched in some way by cancer,” she said. “This is a conscious-raising event. I truly believe that we are working towards a cure for cancer, and we’ll see it in our lifetime.”

Relay for Life celebrates cancer survivors as well as remembers those who have succumbed to the disease.

“I started volunteering a few years ago,” said assistant chairwoman Elaine Klock, of Coal Township. Her parents died from cancer, and her sister is a cancer survivor.

Amber Straub, of Herndon, was walking to honor her grandfather.

Robert and Shirly Lahr, also of Herndon, have had relatives with cancer.

“Some survived,” Shirley said. “Others didn’t. We’re not staying the entire night, but we’ll be back tomorrow.”

The beginnings

The relay’s guiding philosophy is that one person can make a difference in battling cancer.