The rain held off, despite the threatening clouds Friday night as the 2011 Peabody Relay for Life got underway on the high school track.

The event, which is one of the main fundraisers for the American Cancer Society conducted all across the nation, lasted from Friday afternoon through until Saturday morning.

Before cancer survivors lapped the track to officially start the relay, city and school officials welcomed everyone to the event and urged both survivors and those currently battling cancer, as well as their supporters, to keep on fighting. Mayor Michael Bonfanti, Superintendent of Schools Milton Burnett and Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Principal all spoke, in addition to guest speaker Dorrie Kimkaran, a past chairperson of the event.

Cancer survivor Myde Stocker lit one of the survivor candles and Erin Buckley, the wife of PVMHS Assistant Principal Eric Buckley, was called to light the other in honor of her husband. Sapienza then noted that he was walking a lap in support of his assistant principal, who was undergoing cancer treatment last week.

Sapienza added that he was not alone in his support of the Buckleys: several hundred high school students then marched through the open doors of the high school gymnasium, lining the track to cheer on the cancer survivors.