Amid the island’s many fund-raising efforts against breast cancer comes a quiet campaign that benefits the fight against all forms of the disease.

The first-ever Relay for Life of Bainbridge Island 2006 is raising money for cancer research, education, community services and advocacy.

“This is the non-pink cancer,” said co-chair Dawna Kramer. “People get confused (with breast cancer events). This is for the American Cancer Society.”

The germ for Relay for Life began in 1985 in Tacoma, when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon, raised money for the society by running and walking the track at Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound for 24 hours.

Family, friends and patients paid $25 to run or walk 30 minutes with him and cheer him on. After he finished 83 miles, he had $27,000 for the society and the idea for a 24-hour team relay event that could raise even more funds to fight cancer.

A few months later, he and a small committee planned the City of Destiny Classic 24-Hour Run Against Cancer. In 1986, 19 teams took to the track and raised $33,000.

Although 4,400 relays have been held nationally and take place in 22 other countries, Bainbridge is participating for the first time. What’s amazing, organizers say, is the number of teams that have signed up for the event, which will take place from 4 p.m. July 29 to 10 a.m. July 30 at the Bainbridge High School track.

Each team will keep at least one member on the track during the full 16 hours – walking, running, wheelchairing or sitting in a lawn chair on the track – during the overnight event, because cancer never sleeps.

“It’s unheard of to have 16 teams for a first-year event,” said Karin Emery, community relationship manager for the American Cancer Socety’s Tacoma division.

“Most first-year events have five to seven teams, so Bainbridge has really stepped up,” she said. “Our company has been trying to put a relay on Bainbridge for five years. They’re amazed and happy.”

The event

That the event is coming together with just three committee members – Kramer, Mary Clipsham and Terri Segadelli – who only got started in mid-March is even more astounding, Emery said. Plus, they attended their first relay last week in Poulsbo.

A combination of factors led Kramer to spearhead the event: she saw an ad for relay volunteers three or four times in the Bainbridge Island Review, she was approaching her one-year anniversary of colon cancer, and fellow islander Susan Wing died of breast cancer last spring.

Kramer, a radiologist, is one of the first people women deal with when they’re diagnosed with cancer. Because “there’s a big batch of people on the island with cancer,” she said, she has either biopsied them or seen them at work.

The American Cancer Society reports that Washington State has, in general, a high cancer rate.

In 2005, the number of new cases diagnosed was 27,350, with Kitsap County being higher percentage-wise than other counties in the state. By comparison, Oregon reported 17,720 new cases for that year and Arizona, which boasts a larger population, had 23,880 new cases diagnosed.

Kramer and crew, including husbands and other family members, have worked nonstop to get the relay going.

This is not a pledge walk, she said. Teams raise most of the money through events held prior to the relay. They pay $100 each to register; each participant then is expected to raise at least $100 in personal sponsorship donations. As a special incentive, the Bainbridge team that raises the most money will receive a suite at the August 27 Mariners game, with all the trimmings.

Kramer is pleased with the number of teams she signed up. With 10 to 24 members, they represent a cross section of the community. Kramer’s 9-year-old daughter, Geneva, raised a team of third-graders. Various co-workers are walking together, as are church members. Some participants are cancer survivors; others are walking in memory of friends and relations who died of the disease.

Although teams may no longer sign up, people are encouraged to come to the event and contribute.

To keep the mood festive and the feet moving, there will be live music and theme laps, the brainchild of Segadelli. The massage and library tents will provide soothing respites, while the activities tent and author George Shannon engage the children.

Raffles will be held and people are welcome to bring coolers, CD players, games and hula hoops. A knitting circle would be great, too, Kramer said.

The relay features two particularly poignant laps: the opening and the nighttime luminarias.

Kramer is expecting 30 islanders to walk with the teams during the first lap, which honors survivors. Dr. Judy Rail, a family doctor in the Virginia Mason Winslow clinic whose family is rife with cancer, will join them.

At 10 p.m., 1,000 candles set in sand-filled bags will be lit around the track and all the lights will be turned off. Walkers will circle the track in silence in memory of the deceased.

“If people can only come for one hour, tell them to come for the luminarias and the opening lap for survivors,” Emery said. “Those are the two points (where) people decide they want to come back the next year.”