Keeping the Spirit of Relay for Life Alive in Johnston County

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, we have representatives from Johnston County Relay for Life.

If you ever wondered what is Relay for Life? Is Relay for Life still active after COVID? When is Johnston County Relay for Life and how you can get involved to help raise critical funds for the American Cancer Society? We answer all those questions on this podcast, so listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have Relay for Life for Johnston [00:01:00] County here with us, and we’re gonna talk to them a little bit about what Relay for Life is. How you can get involved and when it will be in 2026. But before we get to that, we’d like to ask you to like, follow,, subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it.

Whether be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, X, Instagram, or any of the other social media channels of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for over two years. We’re well over a hundred episodes now, so go back and list some of our other episodes we’ve done.

We’ve interviewed a lot of great people from Johnston County. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you. Welcome Samantha and Joy, right? Samantha McCoy, Joy Barbour. All right. And I’ve met Joy Barbour before. It’s the first time I met Samantha McCoy. I appreciate y’all coming to be on.

We’ll start with Samantha. What’s your name? What do you do,

Samantha McCoy: Samantha McCoy. I am a managing broker for Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, cool. And Joy, what do you do?

Joy Barbour: I am a retired educator. [00:02:00] I do substitute once in a while, but enjoying retirement.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So the first question I guess I have is, and I remember when you were a teacher too, back in the days. So anyway what is Relay for Life?

Samantha McCoy: So, Relay For Life is the major fundraiser for American Cancer Society.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. And when did it get started? I mean, it’s been going on for a long time.

Joy Barbour: Absolutely. It actually started in Washington state in 1985 and people in Johnston County, one to mention Pat Penny originally was the lead person for Johnston County, and it came in 1994

Jonathan Breeden: to Johnston County

Joy Barbour: to Johnston County. Actually, let’s correct that and say 1995.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s great. That’s great. Yeah, and I came to Johnston County in 2000 and was involved in it early on with the Clayton Jaycees which sort of dissolved probably by 2001. But one of the first [00:03:00] things that I did was we did a little, we didn’t do a lot.

We were a small group, but we tried to do something and then I ended up getting with the Garner Jaycees and we did a ton with Relay for Life and Garner, and I walked around the track all night several times. And we would have a push cart of coffee and we called it JC Java, and we would sell coffee to the walkers who were there 2, 3, 4 o’clock in the morning.

I was shocked how many people were walking at three o’clock in the morning.

Joy Barbour: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: Me and the former mayor of Garner walked for about three miles one time. Just Sam bur Sam, I forget his last name, but we had the best time, so ton of fun. Me pushing his cart, trying to sell coffee. So anyway, but a good time.

Had all, that’s, that’s when I really was involved in it. Unfortunately, I’ve not been as involved in it as I was when I was with the Garner Jaycees 20 years ago. Get married, have kids, all that good stuff. But I really enjoyed my time when I was doing it every year. And then it used to be there for a while.

It was at Johnston Community College and we walked around the [00:04:00] lake and had the luminaries and all that.

Joy Barbour: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And I know it’s moved to Triple S high school since then. So, talk about sort of how it’s evolved. I think it’s sort of, has continues to outgrow different locations.

Joy Barbour: Well. As you mentioned, it started out at JCC and then construction on campus kind of forced us to make a decision and Triple S was our choice. It’s a safe contained area, more so than around the lake at Johnston community. It has changed from the overnight walking, like you experienced early on to more of a festival type of atmosphere that Johnston County moved to last year. Originally, you would get teams from churches, businesses, friends, family.

Like you said, even like two people could form a team, and we just realized that our population really went down during COVID. And we needed to [00:05:00] restart jumpstart relay in a different light. So we went more toward a vendor fair food truck along with the walks for the survivors, theme walks for the people that were there at the event so that people could go and come or stay as long as they wanted to.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So let’s talk about what it is now and when it’s going to be. And, and what people can expect.

Samantha McCoy: So it’s gonna be at Triple S High School. Saturday, April the 16th. 16th, right?

Joy Barbour: 18th, 18th.

Jonathan Breeden: April 18th.

Samantha McCoy: April 18.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. 2026

Samantha McCoy: from 1:00 PM in the afternoon till nine. So we will still have the different themes relapse. We’ll have our opening ceremonies. We will recognize our survivors. And celebrate them. And then we will have different activities throughout the day. So there’ll be food truck rodeo, there’ll be different vendors, different performance, and so forth.

So the hi day is to share what we offer, or different service that we offer. We’ll share those throughout the day. It’s [00:06:00] an opportunity for folks to get together and network. And celebrate the survivors. And then also remember those that we have lost.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So it’s not overnight anymore, just like you said. Which is fine with me. I, I thought it was interesting ’cause you know, you used to get, if you, you could get people to donate for how many laps you want.

Joy Barbour: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You could get for how many, how long you could stand up. I mean, you could come up all different kinds of ways. So, so. They still do the survivor walk.

That’s always the most powerful thing, at least when I have been to Relay for Life.

Joy Barbour: Yes. And the evening ends with the luminary ceremony. The lights are turned out there. The bags, torches, lanterns are lit around the track. There is a silent walk for that particular part of the ceremony. And then the evening is over around 9:00 PM.

And those bags, torches, lanterns, are returned to the team captains. And then I know personally the team I’m [00:07:00] involved with, we give those items back to the purchaser so that they can give ’em to the family of the loved ones that they had lost.

Jonathan Breeden: So one way teams can raise money is to sell the luminary

Joy Barbour: absolutely

Jonathan Breeden: bags. Right. I’ve, I’ve bought many of those over the years, even though I’ve not been to one lately, but I have bought my share of bags. So, I think that’s great. So let’s just talk a little bit about if you’re somebody listening to this podcast, you’ve never heard of Relay for Life, what do they need to know?

What are sort of the basics and how would they go about getting involved?

Samantha McCoy: So they’ll go to RelayForLife.org that’s the first place they wanna go pick a location. There’s several throughout the area that they can choose from at different times. Register themselves. So they can start a team or they can join a team if they choose to or just join the event in general.

From there they will get the communication of what’s happening. We have meetings throughout the year to help them prep for it leading up to the event.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. And what does a team [00:08:00] do?

Joy Barbour: They fundraise all year long. Many people have dinners. Gospel sings raffles, which are what’s the better word for?

Samantha McCoy: Chance drawings.

Joy Barbour: Chance drawings. You know, people offer quilts to raffle off, you know, to raise funds. At the event some teams will provide food. And along with our food trucks, and that’s a way of making money bingos certain churches have bingo nights and donate the proceeds. So, our vendors and our food trucks are asked to pay a certain fee if they would like to be at our event.

And then we ask if they feel led, if they want to donate some of their profits from the evening back to relay, but every dime possible raise goes directly to the American Cancer Society. And in turn, [00:09:00] the American Cancer Society funds for medical institutions in North Carolina. So I believe those four places are Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, and East Carolina all receive grant money for research from the American Cancer Society.

And that’s four areas right here within drivable distance of Johnston County. So we even have a cancer center in Fayetteville that have patients go down there and they have become involved with our Relay for life.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I mean, that’s great. That’s great. And you know, if you go back a few weeks, we had two podcast with with Tommy Williams, who’s the head of UNC Health. And you know, the oncology services that they’re able to provide right here in Johnston County rival any oncology services anywhere in the United States. [00:10:00] These doctors are all working collaborative with Duke and UNC, and while I know Duke and UNC like to play basketball against each other, all these doctors are sharing all of the best practices with each other. And the, the treatments you can get right here at UNC Health and Johnston County without having to leave Johnston County is the same or better in some ways than the treatment you can get from going to Raleigh or Durham and stuff like that. And part of that is the amount of money the American Cancer Society raises, they can put for, for these grants. I mean, we’re very fortunate North Carolina to have the medical schools. You’re talking about East Carolina. Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, these are all excellent medical schools and they’re all doing cutting edge research on cancer anybody. So does American Cancer Society pick one cancer or is it all cancers?

Joy Barbour: That is our signature. We raise money for research for all cancers. You know, you have local fundraising organizations that [00:11:00] center on one particular cancer, but the American Cancer Society funds all cancer research.

Jonathan Breeden: And that’s what I thought the answer was, which I asked the question. And you know everybody’s very familiar with the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Joy Barbour: Yes, yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Which is breast cancer research.

Joy Barbour: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And they do walks and stuff usually. May, early June, I guess.

Joy Barbour: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Is about when that’s gonna be. And you know, I know that’s important too. They do great work there, of course at the Jimmy V Foundation, everybody knows Jim Valvano and all the cancer research.

I think they do kind of all cancers too similar to American Cancer Society, which is great. So is there a minimum that any individual or team has to raise to be a part of Relay for Life Johnston County?

Samantha McCoy: There are no minimums. But we just, you know, ask everybody to at least participate in helping to raise funds ’cause for every dollar that we raise, 85 cents goes back right into research. So we do have different levels where they can attain and be recognized at different levels. The first one is hooked up with a hundred [00:12:00] dollars.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Samantha McCoy: So our, goal is that everybody does, you know, strive to raise a hundred dollars.

Jonathan Breeden: All right, I got you. And some teams raise like $50,000, right?

Joy Barbour: Lots of money.

Jonathan Breeden: Right? Lots and lots of money. How much money did Relay for Life Johnston County raise last year? Do y’all know?

Joy Barbour: We were right at the 97,000.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome

Joy Barbour: figure our goal was a hundred thousand.

Samantha McCoy: A hundred thousand. Yeah.

Joy Barbour: But, and, and this year we have upped our goal to 120,000 for Johnston County, but we felt that $97,000 was a very good showing for a showing the county that relay is not dead, right? Relay is, has always been here. Yes, there are competing charities out there for dollars, but cancer has touched me in a way. I lost both parents within 18 months of each other to cancer. So that’s my driving force.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, there’s no, there’s there. There’s nobody that [00:13:00] cancer has not touched that I know.

Joy Barbour: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, it’s affected my life. It’s affected yours.

Joy Barbour: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: And I am really hopeful that with AI and the research that’s being done that maybe in the next five to 10 years, we really will have a cure for some of these cancers or maybe all of the cancers. I’m hopeful. I don’t know if that’s that’s gonna happen, but, but I’m believed that this AI may be able to solve this just because of the amount of information that these supercomputers can process and put together to see if they can figure out what’s going on.

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Jonathan Breeden: How many teams were involved last year?

Joy Barbour: I think [00:14:00] we had about 30 teams last year. In years past we had nearly a hundred.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s great.

Joy Barbour: But again pandemic. Mm-hmm. And the fact that there are other competing charities for monies and, and that very core beginning. Idea of, of Relay for Life in Johnston County.

It had waned a little bit, you know, for the newer generations that like this festival approach, it’s not the all night thing and Relay does not mean that you have to have someone on the track 24/7. It is relay because that’s how it started, but it’s more of showing up. Earning some money while you’re out there to contribute to relay for Life and just celebrating what we have already done to raise money for the months and the year leading up to that April 18th.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. it [00:15:00] is a celebration and, and I sort of like your ideal of the festival now because I mean, it, it, it should be a celebration especially for the survivors that are there, that have fought this battle and won the battle and are there and for their families.

What support systems does Relay for Life help support in Johnston County that can help people that are either going through it or dealing with grief because they lost somebody to cancer? Tell me a little bit about that.

Joy Barbour: Well, we have a phone line, the cancer helpline that is a 24 hour service. And Lynette might, we have another lead team person with us today in the background, and she might have the telephone number, but it’s a 1800 number that you call 24/7 if you have questions about anything regarding cancer or doctors or services, those people manning that phone line, which relay dollars help to fund to get those people on that 24 hour [00:16:00] service.

There’s road to recovery in some communities. That means there are volunteers that will drive people to their appointments their treatment centers. Those volunteers are there to help that cancer patient. There’s also Hope Lodge in Greenville, North Carolina that the American Cancer Society helps to fund.

That is very much like the Ronald McDonald House where families can stay there while a person is being treated at the medical center there in Greenville. Any other things that come to mind?

Samantha McCoy: That’s our biggest one, and the biggest one that we are looking for more volunteers for is our Road to Recovery.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Samantha McCoy: So there’s, you know, no one should have to miss an appointment because they don’t have a ride. Or have someone to take them or something. So we’re looking for volunteers all the time locally here in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Samantha McCoy: So we can help them get to that treatment or get to that appointment and so forth. So.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Have y’all worked with JCATS and, and to help people get to their appointments and stuff?

Samantha McCoy: That is,

Jonathan Breeden: A few weeks ago we had the director of JCATS [00:17:00] on our podcast, and he’s doing amazing work and they’re getting more and more vans and, and it’s, it’s really great.

He, he did a really nice job and, and we’re lucky to have him. He, he’s done a great job in the couple of years he’s been here in Johnston County.

Joy Barbour: I think the medical center here in Johnston County is really more in charge of coordinating between the cancer center and the hospital, you know what those individuals need at this particular time.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, if somebody wanted to volunteer to help take people to medical appointments and stuff, how, how would they get in touch with y’all so they could get on y’all’s list?

Joy Barbour: I think ashleywickline@cancer.org would be a terrific way to get in. She’s our staff person with the American Cancer Society so that would be a beginning

Samantha McCoy: or just go to cancer.org and they wanna volunteer and it will direct ’em and then it will, that information will be sent back to her.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Great. cancer.org and then relayforlife.org.

Samantha McCoy: Dot org [00:18:00] is they wanna find an event close to them,

Jonathan Breeden: event close to them, including the one in Johnston County.

Samantha McCoy: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Now, wake County used to have three or four.

Joy Barbour: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Do they still have three or four? They may have more than that.

Joy Barbour: I know they have at least three because our staff partner is also their director as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Joy Barbour: Garner is a very big one.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s the one I used to do. It’s, it was huge.

Joy Barbour: And Cary has their version and then kind of north and northeast Raleigh.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So anybody can get involved.

Samantha McCoy: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: There are no minimums. You can, a team can be two people, right? You ask. They raise a hundred dollars and come out and just participate even if you’re not on a team. You can go to the festival.

Joy Barbour: Oh yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Eat some of the food. Watch the survivor walk, which will move anybody. You cannot watch that and not cry.

I know. I never have. I mean, what time is that at? Is it at a, y’all know what time it is?

Joy Barbour: Opening ceremony is 1:00 PM Okay. And shortly after the introduction, we have that survivor walk, [00:19:00] and then we have the caretaker walk right after that. Then entertainment starts as soon as that is over. And so we are recruiting local entertainment as, as we talk right now.

And they’re there to just

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Joy Barbour: Make things festive. Right. You know, for those that attend.

Jonathan Breeden: Why did you choose to get involved with Relay for Life?

Samantha McCoy: So ironically enough I was vice president for our women’s club back in California and we had someone that just came in and presented and they always say, when you leave the room or if you ask too many questions, you’re voluntold. And that’s what happened.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Samantha McCoy: Not involved. Team captain and online chair. That chair and that. Stay, volunteer. So I’ve been doing this for almost 18 years.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. How did you get involved? I know you’ve been doing for life of Johnston County since I’ve been here and I’ve been doing 2000.

So Joy, I mean you are Relay for Life, Johnston County as far as I’m concerned, but how did you initially get involved?

Joy Barbour: Well, as I mentioned both [00:20:00] my parents 1999 and 2001, I lost both my parents to cancer and it was a huge event, a celebration for my dad to get up first and then my mom to say I am a survivor at the events at Johnston Community and kinda like Samantha, you hang around and you listen to things and then somebody looks at you and said, you can do this. And so I got involved with my church in Smithfield, First Presbyterian, and I was team captain. And then somebody said, can you help me with luminaries?

So I became luminary chair and then someone looked at me and said, we need a leader. I said, I’ll be glad to help. And that’s why we have three ladies in charge of our relay event. So it we have a T-shirt that says [00:21:00] it takes a village.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Joy Barbour: And it actually does and and Relay is for all of Johnston County. It’s not just because it’s in Smithfield.

Samantha McCoy: Right.

Joy Barbour: That’s the chosen location that said, yes, you can come here and have your event but Johnston County is, well relay’s in every part of Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, it is and teams come from all over the county.

Joy Barbour: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, you have teams from all over the county or at least you did the, the last one I went to, which I think was just a few years ago.

So, yeah. I mean, so right and in Smithfield, centrally located which is good, easy to get to Triple S High School. It’s right there in in Smithfield and there’s tons of facilities and the park’s there. If you got kids, there’s, there’s a park right next to it. You got Smithfield Community Park so

Joy Barbour: absolutely

Jonathan Breeden: there’s so much to do for so many involved. We’re gonna hope there are no more thunderstorms. I know y’all had a. Y’all had a mess of some severe thunderstorms a couple years ago, right in the middle of your event. So we’re gonna hope that April the 18th, 2026, there are no thunderstorms in [00:22:00] Johnston County, or at least in Smithfield that day. So anyway, what would be the last thing you would want to say to anybody thinking about getting involved with Relay or starting a team or whatever? What would, what would you say to them?

Samantha McCoy: I would say just jump on the website right now. Don’t think anymore about it. Everybody’s been touched by cancer some way or another, right?

So come on out, have fun with us and help us raise some money and raise awareness.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well that’s great. And the last question I ask everybody on this podcast, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Samantha McCoy: So I’ve been here about seven years and I just love the people.

Jonathan Breeden: Most people say the people. What would you say, how, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Joy Barbour: Well, I’m a native of Johnston County and I think rural, meeting the urban, you get a little bit of countryside, you get a little bit of that, those amenities that a big city will give you, like, like Clayton. And so it’s, it’s just. It’s just a good feel.

Jonathan Breeden: It is. It is. It is. Well, anyway, and it’s Relayforlife.org, right? And we’ll definitely have that in the show notes as [00:23:00] well. Alright. We’d like to thank Samantha and Joy for coming and being on our guest as being our guest on today’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. If you are interested in getting involved, like we said, relayforlife.org, reach out. This is a great group of people that do a great job. I guarantee you’ll be touched by the people you meet. You will have a lot of fun doing it, so definitely try to get involved. As we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, subscribe, this podcast wherever you’re seeing it. So be aware, made aware of future episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. [00:24:00] com.