LAWRENCE COUNTY Like mother, like son: Relaying against cancer

Raising money for cancer research runs in the family.
By LAURA MILOSER
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A team of enthusiastic Salamanders is among the fund-raisers at this weekend's Relay for Life in Lawrence County.
The 11th annual Lawrence County Cancer Society Relay For Life ends at 10 a.m. today. A total of 128 teams with 15 to 25 members each are participating in this year's relay.
Last year, 12-year-old Sam Herb, a sixth-grader at Shenango Elementary School, formed a team with 14 classmates. They call themselves the Salamanders.
"We all enjoyed it so we are doing it again," Sam said.
Last year the group held a hit-a-thon fund-raiser in honor of Shenango Township police officer Nick Ventura who was suffering from cancer. Ventura died in December. This year the group once again held the hit-a-thon during the relay festivities in memory of Ventura.
Each participant between the ages of 7 and 12 pays a $10 registration fee and get a chance to hit 10 balls. The first place in each age group is awarded a plaque and the second and third places receive medals.
Family interest
Sam said he got interested in the relay after seeing his mom's enthusiasm for it.
Kim Herb is a medical lab technician for Medical Center Clinic, an oncology clinic with offices in New Castle.
She got involved with relay six years ago. "I felt personally obligated to my cancer patients," she said. "Working in the office was not enough."
Her daughters, Amanda, 10, and Sarah, 7, also participate on her son's team.
Kim Herb said a lot of the parents of Sam's teammates are involved with the fund raising, which includes selling "Relay and Live Strong" bracelets, and a relay yard sale that raised more than $250.
Sam said he had fun with the pink flamingo fund-raiser. The group places a plastic pink flamingo in someone's yard and the homeowner was charged $5 if they placed it in another person's yard or $10 if they removed it.
He is already planning fund-raisers for next year's relay. His first will be a flag football game at Hitters Hackers and Hoops, a new sports complex on Route 422 in Shenango Township.
"I know we will continue on," Kim Herb said. "We always have such high expectations to do more."