MAHANOY CITY - On Saturday morning, 2-year-old Isaiah Kressler-Wood was running across the track at Mahanoy Area's Alumni Field, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words "I am hope."
"He was diagnosed with cancer the day he was born," said his mother, Nicole Kressler, Mahanoy City. "The doctors told me he was going to die. He started chemo when he was 3 weeks old, and I prayed."
Now, the boy with dark brown curls has been cancer-free for more than a year.
"He's a healthy 2-year-old," Kressler said at the 2013 Relay For Life of Northern Schuylkill County, a 24-hour event that began at noon Saturday.
He and his family are part of "Isaiah and the Gang," one of the 15 teams raising money for the American Cancer Society at the event, which will wrap up at noon today.
"We're hoping to raise $30,000 by Aug. 31. That's our goal," Leslie Wagner, income development representative for the American Cancer Society Schuylkill County, Frackville, said Saturday.
"So far, we've raised about $21,000," Tracy Dudash, event chairwoman, said at noon Saturday.
This is the ninth consecutive year the event has been held, said Dudash, who is also a sixth-grade teacher at Mahanoy Area Middle School.
At the 2012 event, the group had a goal of $53,000, Wagner said.
"It was a high goal but we only raised approximately $28,000," Wagner said.
Wagner said she set this year's goal with the troubled economy in mind.
"I think the goals need to be more practical, so I based the goal this year on last year's actual rather than some numbers in the sky," Wagner said.
Last year, the event had 13 teams, Dudash said. On Saturday, there were 15 running stands, selling items from baked goods to lemonade to raise money for the cause.
"We are on the rise," Dudash said.
The cost to participate was $10 per person.
"There were some people who came here this morning and said, 'We don't have $10 but we want to walk,' and we let them in," Wagner said.
All the money collected at the event will support cancer patient services, life-saving research, prevention education and advocacy efforts, Wagner said.
"Most of the money goes to support research but it also supports patient services in our county," Wagner said.
At the opening ceremony at noon Saturday, Doves of White, Mahanoy City, released a single dove in memory of Audrianna Bartol, a 6-year-old who died from a form of pediatric cancer Feb. 15.
Katheryn McCarthy, who will be an eighth-grade student at Mahanoy Area Middle School in September, sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Others who participated included Joseph H. Murton V, pastor and police chief of the City of Pottsville.
At the official start of the relay, Doves of White allowed child volunteers to open baskets filled with doves. Those children included Kaleb Herder, 12, of Mahanoy City, brother of Isaiah Kressler-Wood.
"One hundred years ago, cancer was a death sentence. The word cancer was not spoken and we'd lost almost all patients to the disease. Today, there are nearly 14 million cancer survivors in the United States. The American Cancer Society celebrated a special birthday this past May. It turned 100 years old, and this 100th birthday is not a time to rest. It's a time to get loud by taking action. It's a time to embark on our most ambitious crusade yet, by leading the way and amplifying the efforts of millions of researchers, volunteers and donors," Dudash said at the opening ceremony.
At 10 p.m. Saturday, the volunteers held a luminary ceremony, during which participants lit candles in remembrance of those who have died and in honor of cancer survivors