By Heather Tassmer, Times Editor, htassmer@berksmontnews.com

The 2010 Boyertown Relay For Life committee helped prepare team captains and other participants for a new fundraising year during a kickoff meeting on Monday.

Relay For Life is an American Cancer Society event that raises money to fight cancer and raises awareness of cancer prevention and treatment, according to www.relayforlife.org.

The Boyertown relay’s 2009 totals are not official yet, but the amount reported this summer was about $133,000.

The kickoff meeting, which was held at the Boyertown Area Senior High School’s cafeteria, informed community members on how to register, fundraisers that would help benefit their teams and returning activities for the next relay.

Relay For Life will be held from 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 26, to 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 27.

Attendees of the kickoff could use paper forms or go online to register. Committee members said that although teams were registered on paper, it didn’t mean they were automatically registered on the Web site. Those who had registered on the paper forms had to set up their own team Web sites.

Relay For Life Chair Angela Scheetz encouraged attendees to use the Web site more this year.

“The Web site has been revamped and is better this year,” Scheetz said.

Relay participants can complete a variety of tasks online such as registering luminaries and survivors. The address is the same as last year’s www.relayforlife.org/paboyertown.

Fundraising Chair Roberta Yost told attendees about discount cards teams could sell.

The cards, much like the ones sold for football fundraisers, have participating businesses listed on the back. When card owners shop or are customers at the businesses, a percentage of the sale will benefit Relay For Life.

The cards will expire on June 30, 2010. For more information on the cards, e-mail Yost, secondchanceatlife@dejazzd.com.

An activity that was much enjoyed at the last relay that is returning is the Miss Relay pageant. Miss Relay is a competition in which men dress up as women. The competition was cut short at this year’s relay due to the bad weather.

Scheetz said as soon as all team members are registered, the contestants for Miss Relay 2010 can start raising money.

The next meeting for relay will be on Oct. 19. Committee members meet at 6 p.m. and team captains meet at 7 p.m. at Boyertown Borough Hall.

For more information on Relay For Life, all 610-367-1823; 610-367-5215 or 610-921-2329 (x3017). Web site information can be accessed at www.relayforlife.org/paboyertown.