Team Bodig

 MMAC Committee’s note: As we mark the 10th anniversary of the Marianas March Against Cancer, the 2012 MMAC committee would like to honor and recognize the efforts of our teams for their untiring support in the fight against cancer.

While Team Bodig has been actively participating in the annual Marianas March Against Cancer since its inception in 2003, it was actually created in 1999 back when the event was still under the American Cancer Society.

Led by team captain Jocelyn Deleon Guerrero and co-captain Bridgette M. Camacho, Team Bodig was named after and inspired by the matriarch of the family who was diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and succumbed to her battle in 2004.

“It was our mother’s persistence and determination that we all got together as a family to join this great cause,” said the team, referring to Gramma Bodig whom they described as “a very strong woman in every sense of the word.”

The team maintained that Gramma Bodig “knew the importance that family played in a cancer patient’s life,” thus reaching out to their extended families for support, and also for Bodig’s daughter who fortunately survived cancer.
“Just by reaching out, our team has grown and keeps on growing,” said Team Bodig as they acknowledged the “overwhelming support” of families and friends, who gave them the motivation, courage, and strength to join the fight against the deadly disease.

According to the team, their favorite segments of MMAC are the “solemn” luminary ceremony and the survivors’ walk.

For this year, Team Bodig plans to sell food and drinks at their tent. They also held several fundraising activities, including “Thirsty Thursday” held at Naked Fish Bar & Grill last April 12 and a coin drive by the Microl Toyota intersection on April 20.

Although Team Bodig noted that forming a team “is no easy task” as it requires “commitment, dedication, support and most of all, cooperation and understanding,” they also emphasized that having more teams take part in MMAC will aid in raising more funds for a “great and worthy cause.”

“We should come together as one community this time of year, to remember our loved ones who lost their battle as we light a candle in their memory. We should also come to honor our survivors and to instill in their hearts that there is always hope, and that we must continue to have faith,” they added.