LEWISBURG -- Today and Saturday, community members are invited to drive to the Lewisburg Area Middle School's Pawling Sports Complex and "Cruise for a Cure."

During Lewisburg's sixth annual Relay for Life, members of 25 teams are hoping to raise $86,000.

The event will be held from 6 p.m. today to 6 p.m. Saturday on the track. The survivor lap is at 6:30 tonight with the luminary ceremony at 9.

"We certainly would like to reach our monetary goal, but another priority is to increase the number of survivors attending our relay," said third-year chairwoman Marguerite Santorine. "More survivors truly shows the monies raised in the five area relays (Lewisburg, Midd-West, Mifflinburg, Milton and Selinsgrove) have allowed the American Cancer Society to provide programs for our community, research, education and advocacy."

The Santorine family became involved with the Relay for Life when it moved to Lewisburg. "We lost our 3-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, in January 2000 after a year's battle with juvenile chronic myleoi leukemia," Santorine said. "Relay for Life can help provide the funding, through ACS, for research to find a cure."

She relays in hope no other family will have to walk in her family's shoes. "We walk the track at Lewisburg's Relay for Life, and throughout the year, as we fight cancer as a family."

According to Santorine, Lewisburg's relay chooses not to have an honorary chairperson, but rather honor all survivors and caretakers who have valiantly fought the fight and who are in the midst of their fight. "Lewisburg honors the community, as Lewisburg believes there is no off season in the fight against cancer," she said.

Co-chairwoman Jodi Batman started to relay six years ago because she could. "I had the time and wanted to put my energy into something positive," she said.

Now Batman relays because cancer hit closer to home than she ever wanted. "My mother was diagnosed a few months ago," she said. "Suddenly, all those services I have been raising money for are being used by my family."

Corporate sponsorship chairwoman Amy Gronlund invests in finding a cure for cancer because she can see the progress made since her brother died from the disease 10 years ago. "There are more survivors, kinder chemotherapies and more services and information available to patients and caregivers," she said. "My life has been enriched by relay thanks to the many amazing people I have met and worked with along the way."

Society staff partner Casey Fenton believes the Lewisburg community always has been a passionate partner in the fight against cancer. "Their energy and enthusiasm re-energize me," he said. "I know this event is going to be a huge success and something the entire community should come to enjoy."

Major sponsors include Evangelical Community Hospital, Eye Center of Central Pennsylvania, Pepsi Cola Bottling Group, Sunbury Broadcasting Corp., Swineford National Bank, Weis Markets, Wood-Mode Industries, Radiology Associates of Lewisburg, Playworld Systems, Central Penn Gastroenterology, Lewisburg Plastic Surgery and Laser Center, SUN Orthopedic Group Inc., Family Practice Center and Midd-Penn Urologic.

n Deb Brubaker lives in Selinsgrove. E-mail comments to humming@ptd.net.