Nine-year-old cousin walks the most laps at this year’s Relay for Life event at NHS

“Cancer never sleeps, so neither do we” is a signature tagline of the American Cancer Society.

Earlier this month, a tenacious pre-teen from Jacksonville, Florida spent at least 10 hours walking the track at this year’s Relay for Life, an overnight event held annually at Northport High School that celebrates cancers survivors, remembers those who have been lost to the disease, and offers up support to anyone in the community who has been affected by cancer.

Inspired by his cousin Isabelle Beisler, a Northport High School student and president-elect of its Relay for Life club, 9-year-old Rowan Wittenberg took a signature action of each Relay for Life event – 12 hours of team members walking the high school track – very seriously.  

This year at Relay, in order to make sure that each team always had someone walking, event organizers instituted a ‘passing of the baton,’ Karen Paquet, longtime event participant and team captain for Caleb’s Cowboys, said.

“Rowan made it such a fun night and kept our team going and refused to get off the track,” Beisler told the Journal. “Our team ended up only having five people and Rowan was determined to win once he heard it was a competition. I told him he wouldn’t be able to beat the boys cross country team and he proved me wrong.”

Team captains were tasked with choosing a baton, Paquet explained, and every four laps, a team member could take a rubber band to place on their baton. The team member would pass the baton to another member upon leaving the track. “I impressed upon our participants at the opening ceremony that evening that by walking, we keep those who are fighting first and foremost in our minds. We walk for them, we honor their fight by that sacrifice of walking all evening,” she said. 

As an extra incentive, the team who walked the most at the event would receive a $50 gift card to Mario’s Pizza.

Members of Beisler’s Florida family, in town to drop off a car, decided to join her for the June 7 event. Wittenberg barely left the track, Paquet said, even leading the final closing lap. 

“The only time he stopped walking was to watch the Minecraft movie and then was back at it,” Beisler confirmed. At one point Wittenberg asked his cousin for pizza; she brought it to him and he ate it, while still doing his laps. “The very first lap, he cut his finger on the baton and refused to get off so I had to drag him off to get a Bandaid so he wouldn’t get blood everywhere,” she recounted. “He loved talking to all the high schoolers about their mutual love for Twilight and kept asking them all sorts of questions. It was such a fun night and he keeps asking about next year and can’t wait to do it again.” 

“He was literally limping after the long night. No matter who asked him to rest, he would not,” Paquet said. “I loved his commitment to the patients in treatment, and in honoring our survivors and those we lost too soon. He was so incredibly proud – and his integrity was admirable.”

“I just kept walking. I hoped I would win – but really I just wanted to help people with cancer feel better,” Wittenberg said after the event. 

Approximately 35 teams and over 240 participants helped fundraise for the relay this year Nearly $85,000 was raised via the event, money that will help the American Cancer Society support cancer research and those currently impacted by the disease. Donations to the Northport team’s efforts are still being accepted here.