Mrs. NJ Attends Relay For Life Fundraiser

While the Tuesday night, About Town partied with the Hoboken Relay for Life folks during their silent auction fundraiser at the Chandelier Room.We were mostly excited because reigning Mrs. New Jersey Claire Pavlinec was the host of the evening.

Mrs. New Jersey lent some star power to the party, which aimed to raise money for the upcoming relay on May 21. On that Saturday, teams of hundreds of participants, including several cancer survivors, will walk laps around Pier A Park from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. to raise awareness about cancer, raise funds towards finding a cure and otherwise celebrate life. The relay in Hoboken is one of over 6,000 Relay for Life sponsored events staged nationwide throughout the year.

According to Tina Smithers, a Hoboken Relay committee member, the local fund, which feeds into the American Cancer Society, has so far raised over $80,000, and Smithers is optimistic this year's take will beat last year's total of $150,000.

“We're doing better this year than we were at this point last year,” she said. “The fact that we're already at $80,000 is amazing.”

The silent auction saw items donated by the , , , , , and .

About Town chatted with Mrs. New Jersey, who drove almost two hours to Hoboken to host the event.

Pavlinec said that the cause of raising money to cure cancer is dear to her because she has lost numerous relatives to the disease.

“I was willing right away,” she said about being asked to host. “I immediately wanted to do it.”

Later Mrs. New Jersey also happened to help About Town. She made an announcement to thank everyone for attending. She also alerted everyone to our presence as a journalist, at a moment while we happened to be standing surrounded by several attractive young women. With that prompt we immediately joked out loud, “I'm going to talk to all of you before the night is out. Some of you more than once.” All of the women laughed. Thank you for helping us look witty and charming, Mrs. NJ.

We spoke with one cancer survivor, Chrissy Kreisel. Kreisel co-owns a local events company, Smash Events, which helped promote the silent auction by inviting hundreds of contacts.

Kreisel had been diagnosed with skin cancer in 2008 at the age of 26. She had surgery to remove the tumor, but due to the nature of the melanoma she won't ever be cleared as cancer free. Doctors have warned her that if the cancer ever returns they might not be able to save her a second time.

“I worry about it every day,” Kriesel said.

Kreisel said she plans to keep helping. “Getting closer to a cure is the most important thing for me,” she said. She is also going to walk in the opening survivor's lap during the relay.

The relay is open to everyone, cancer survivor or otherwise. Teams of walkers can register now or at the day of the event. Smithers advises that participants bring both sandals and sneakers, so they have comfortable shoes for walking and shoes to relax in during breaks. She also suggested that participants bring board games and other activities, and that there will be plenty of concession stands and other fun booths.

For more information, visit the Hoboken Relay for Life website.

Alan Skontra was a big dork who never went anywhere. Then he started writing the About Town column for Patch, and now he's everywhere. Have a hot tip on an event in Hoboken? Send an invitation, questions and comments too, to alanskontra@hotmail.com. And if he gets enough followers he might actually post his first tweet @ twitter.com/alanskontra.