Take a deep breath and consider the words of Todd Price of Parkdale:
    “Cancer is going to be defeated, but it will require the determination of our entire generation,” Price said in the 52 Faces feature by Adam Lapierre in this edition. Price is planning to mount his bicycle for “Big Ride Across America” to raise money for the American Lung Association.

“For me, at this point in my life, joining this ride is the very best I can do to fight for the cause,” Price said.

One would be hard-pressed to find a more fitting statement about the fight against cancer, yet that fight remains a battle shared by generations, and Price deserves the respect and support of the community for his venture for wellness.

Not all of us can ride across the country to work for a cure, but how about walking a few miles?

Price’s large endeavor points to the small steps each of us can take in the collective effort: Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society, July 17-18 at Hood River County Fairgrounds.

It’s a new location, and if you’ve never walked the relay, the new location lends itself to a new — and highly worthwhile — experience.

(Teams are forming for the annual Relay for Life or you can join an existing team; the next team captain party will be June 8, 6:30 p.m. at Valley Christian Church, 975 Indian Creek Road. For details call team development chair Veronica Moline, 541-490-1722, or go to www.RelayForLife.org/columbiagorgeor)

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Todd Price, 24, has kept up a five-year battle against cancer. The disease recurs among families, and certainly across generations, bringing pain, expense, and sorrow to new families as well as those who have been through it before.

The work of teams in events such as the Relay or Big Ride Across America help greatly to pay for research as well.

Short strides like the Relay, and long journeys such as Big Ride are what it takes to further the causes of research, outreach and education, as well as financial, medical and emotional support for those who are dealing with cancer, and their families.

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Author Molly Gloss dealt with the cross-generational strain of mortality in her book “The Hearts of Horses,” which was the title in the Hood River Library’s “Hood River County Reads” program this spring. In the story, one character, a young boy whose mother died, “learned about death at an early point in his life.

“He frequently worried about his father dying, or his grandfather, and sometimes late at night he was visited by the knowledge that he, too, would someday die. He particularly worried about certain illnesses and accidents, the kind that occurred frequently among their neighbors … and he wondered if cancer, which he had imagined to be exclusively to his grandmother, was something he should now add to his list of things to worry about.”

As a community, we can gather “the determination of our entire generation” and find a way to not only relieve the worries that children and families feel for their loved ones, but also, as the Relay for Life 2010 motto says, “Celebrate More Birthdays.”