Father Ryan to Receive National Award from American Cancer Society

Father Ryan Relay for Life

Gary Reedy, the CEO of the American Cancer Society, will be at Father Ryan High School on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, to present a national award to the school and its students for its distinctive and successful Relay For Life.

Mr. Reedy will present the award at a special school assembly, beginning at 7:45am and running until 8:15am in the Catignani-Drennan Fieldhouse on the campus of Father Ryan at 700 Norwood Drive. Dr. Bill Cance, the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society, will also be present and will speak to science classes afterward.

Father Ryan has staged the largest, per capita, student-led Relay For Life in the nation, raising more than $214,000 this year and $1.2 million since their first Relay For Life was staged in 2009.

The students’ success and the unique activities they have developed earned Father Ryan the inaugural Pat Flynn Spirit of Relay Award from the national office of the American Cancer Society (ACS). The new nomination-based award is given in memory of Pat Flynn, known as the “Mother of Relay” who inspired Relay participants around the world. This award honors an event or individual that embodies the same spirit of Relay as Pat Flynn.

Father Ryan’s Relay For Life was a regional nominee from among 441 Relays in the North Central region and 2,200 nationwide last year. Relay For Life was founded by Dr. Gordy Klatt in Tacoma, Washington, in 1985. Relay For Life events around the world have raised nearly $6.5 billion to help the American Cancer Society attack cancer.