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NSBNEWS.net photo by Henry Frederick.
Tootsie McDonald wears a festive hat during the overnight Friday Relay For Life "Rock the Cure" sleepover at Rivside Park in New Smyrna Beach. McDonald, the first chair of the cancer fundraiser a decade ago, lost a baby to the dreaded disease many years before that.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Tootsie McDonald is a strong woman at 73, who became widowed a year ago, and many years ago, lost a baby to cancer.
So it's easy to understand why she'd get all choked up watching 200 cancer survivors walk laps on a winding path at Riverside Park guided by lit candles along the way.
"What really touches me is standing here and watching them walk -- they've survived," McDonald said, fighting back tears Friday night. "There's so much passion here."
With several thousand people on hand for the Relay for Life cancer fundraiser that started Friday morning and concluded Saturday morning, McDonald had reason to smile.
She had family on hand, too, with son, Joseph Visconti, his wife, Betsy, and granddaughter, Mallory, up from nearby Titusville.
With so many people in such a confined place, you'd think things would be a little disorganized, but that was not the case here as McDonald attested to.
"There's some great people working here," she said. "It's the passion of so many of these committee members."
From talent contests, to food sales, live entertainment and collection of money -- everything went smoothly.
The theme of this year's fundraiser was "Rock the Cure," which was suggested by New Smyrna Beach High School students, which McDonald got a kick out of when a half dozen middle-aged women in poodle skirts and a fake oxygen tank and mask danced to Bill Haley's "Rock Arounf the Clock."
There was something for everyone of all ages -- young and old alike.
For McDonald, organizing the first-ever New Smyrna Beach Relay for Life 10 years ago seems like yesterday.
Back then $32,000 was raised. This year's relay is expected to raise $170,000.
For more than 40 years, McDonald carried on after the loss of her daughter, Maryann, who died in 1959 at 15 months old from a type of blood cancer.
So chairing the very first relay was a way for her to deal with the emotional pain she had pent up. And she's been a part of every one since.
"It feels so good to help others with cancer," she said.