Every Langley Relay for Life has a theme. Last year’s event saw numerous teams dress up in capes and tights.
This year the theme is sports, said volunteer chair Lynne Robinson.
To go along with that, a few new events will be added, one of them featuring a pro women’s hockey player.
Tatiana Rafter, a UBC alum who spent the past season playing for the NWHL Buffalo Beauts, approached the Langley Relay for Life and asked if she could help out.
“I am going to be running a hockey booth,” Rafter said.
She’ll be talking about shooting accuracy, and will spend a lot of time interacting with the attendees.
Just off her first pro season, Rafter said she did some volunteer work in a women’s and children’s hospital in Buffalo.
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She helped out with a book cart and visited with kids on the oncology wards.
“I kind of got attached to helping out,” Rafter said.
Although she’s been fortunate not to have been touched by cancer in her immediate family, she wanted to keep doing something when she came back to Canada for the summer.
The former Team Canada member said she plans to take a few laps on the track herself between her time at the hockey station.
“I expect it to be a kind of emotional and touching experience,” Rafter said.
For those who want a more intense workout than laps on the track or some hockey practice, there will be a boot camp circuit.
Volunteers from the Lumbalastrong bootcamp of BC Lion Rolly Lumbala will put participants through an obstacle course that includes box jumps, ladders, kettle bells, and other activities.
“We’re hoping to do a tire toss as well, a tractor tire toss,” said Marg McGuire-Grout, the organizer of the boot camp station.
Lumbala himself will be in Lions training camp.
Volunteers will time the adults through the course.
“We’re going to see if that creates a little friendly competition,” McGuire-Grout said.
There will also be a kids course, with a BC Lions prize pack up for grabs for both kids and adults.