MOSES LAKE — So what prompted Thomas Hamby to wear a wig and colorful board shorts –

“The cause.”

And wear a coconut bra (without a shirt, of course) and a grass skirt –

“The cause.”

On a Friday night in mid-June when it looked like it was going to rain?

“The cause,” he said. That cause was the same one that prompted Karen Okerlund to spend her Friday night at the Moses Lake High School track. “We have to get rid of that darn cancer,” she said. “It takes too many lives.”

Saving lives, supporting cancer patients and survivors and their families, and raising money to get rid of cancer was the focus of the 28th annual Moses Lake Relay for Life. A lot of progress has been made, Shannon Poff told the crowd right before they started walking around the track. Poff was chair of the organizing committee.

When Relay for Life started 31 years ago, Poff said, people fighting cancer had a lot fewer options. “You may not have lived – six months. Now you’re living years.”

Money raised through Relay for Life is donated to the American Cancer Society and is used for research, both in Washington and nationally, and to support cancer patients in Grant County. The amount of money raised wasn’t available at press time, but the Moses Lake committee set a goal of $100,000, Poff said.

“We just need to find the cure,” Okerlund said. “Bring on the rain.”

Teams raise money, some all year long; on Relay night, somebody from the team is on the track all night long. Since it might get kind of boring just walking around the track, there’s always a theme, more or less, and activities all night long.

The Moses Lake relay didn’t have an official theme, but Poff told the participants to think luau. Hence grass skirts. “You’re not wearing a skirt,” one participant said to another as teams set up around the infield.

“I will at 4 in the morning when they do the toga lap,” the man replied.

Mikala Velazquez was on the final approach to her baby’s birth. “I’m two weeks from being due,” she said. She didn’t go walking, but she was on the organizing committee. “It’s such a good cause,” she said.

The Randalls make it a family affair, with 20 to 25 friends and relatives joining together. Employees at local businesses banded together to raise money and field teams. “There’s not a better cause,” said Brandon Pilot, on the team from Lakeside Care Center.

The American Cancer Society sponsors programs for cancer patients in Grant County, including “Look Good, Feel Better," housed in Grant County at Samaritan Healthcare. The program provides wigs, head coverings, makeup and style tips for women undergoing treatment. The organization also provides transportation for people to and from treatment appointments, and can provide accommodations for people who have to travel long distances for treatment.