RFL’s Coraline Movie Night Raises $1,500 for Cancer Research

By Staff Writers Gaura Amarnani & Varun Madhavan

MSJ Relay for Life (RFL) hosted their annual Movie Night in collaboration with Leadership 2 (L2) on October 25th. The event, filled with activities, food, and speeches, aimed to bring MSJ students together and fundraise for cancer research.

MSJ RFL, one of the largest clubs on campus, is an extension of a national cancer charity walk organization, which gathers funding and brings awareness to support the American Cancer Society (ACS). Each year, RFL’s movie night kicks off a year of fundraisers, community service events, and bondings, where MSJ students compete in teams to acquire the most money to support ACS. 

Spearheaded by RFL Event Leadership Team (ELT) Leads Senior Sanaa Singh, Junior Samik Chaudhari, and Junior Aarit Patnaik, this movie night offered a showing of the 2009 animated dark fantasy movie Coraline. Before the event’s commencement, ELT decorated the amphitheater and set up tables, preparing for the night ahead. At the top of the grass, leading RFL teams, such as Slime Select and Step4Change, organized their own tables, where they would sell popular food items from Coca-Cola sodas to Wingstop chicken wings. To the sides, near the N-wing classrooms, L2 set up their popcorn machine and ELT set up a pumpkin painting station. Other attractions included pumpkin painting and speeches given by the ELT members. 

At 6 p.m., the event kicked off as MSJ students from all grades began arriving. ELT members Junior Aarav Vashisht and Junior Aryan Sudhir efficiently organized lines at the entrance, which was an issue in previous years. For the first hour, attendees were free to visit booths and socialize. 

As the sun set, leaders turned on the projector to play the animated horror film Coraline on the amphitheater’s stage wall. However, most attendees preferred to socialize near the horseshoe with only a few gravitating down towards the movie. “[A] big improvement would be making the audio system better, because … I can’t hear anything from the movie, so I don’t really want to watch it,” Attendee Sophomore Yash Bhutoria said. 

Finally, the ELT concluded with a speech given by Survivorship Committee ELT members Senior Shaina Arora, Junior Aditya Narula, and Junior Arav Bhise, establishing the RFL’s goal of supporting cancer survivors. 

Supported by the event’s high turnout, the event successfully shared RFL’s goals and raised over $1500 while creating an enjoyable event for students. “It’s really important to use our school and the people around us to be able to make change,” Step4Change Team Leader Aparajita Rai said.