More than 900 members of the Providence College community raised an all-time high of more than $118,000 for the American Cancer Society at the 2009 PC Relay for Life held March 27 and 28.

The 12-hour walk-a-thon, which comprised 91 teams and represented nearly one-quarter of the undergraduate student population, was held from Friday evening through early Saturday morning at the track in the Peterson Recreation Center.

Relay for Life is the cancer society's signature activity, in which teams of people solicit donations and take turns walking or running around a track. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event, which can be up to 24 hours long.

The 900 participants, who included 12 cancer survivors, marked a record turnout for the PC Relay. The College has hosted the event for the last six years. The previous record raised at the event was $105,000 in 2006.

Event co-chair Jessica Harrison '10 of Franklin Square, N.Y., noted that the cancer society's goal this year was to see PC raise $80,000. To meet that goal, she said each participant was asked to raise at least $100 in donations.

"The response was more than we could have ever expected," said Harrison, who chaired the event with Ari Rilovich '11 of Watsonville, Calif. "The generosity of everyone involved was absolutely amazing and is the reason we reached that goal days before the actual event."

She credited the high turnout of participants to the diligence of the Relay for Life Committee at PC and the fact that the disease touches so many people.

"Relay for Life is a chance for students to fight back and get together for a great cause, and have a lot of fun doing it," Harrison said. "Nobody can say they haven't been affected by cancer. That alone makes people want to get involved."

She added, "Every person there that night made a difference. The event would not have been the same if everyone had not been so generous and enthusiastic."