Friends and family members have gathered at the Wareham High School track every year for the past 10 years to share the night under dark skies brightened by their purpose.

Some of them have lost a family member, others have a friend who survived, but all of them want to help those suffering from cancer.

This year, approximately 325 members of 35 teams will participate in the Wareham Relay for Life, an all-night walking relay taking place from 6 p.m. on June 22 to 11 a.m. on June 23. The event raises funds for the American Cancer Society.

"People walk the track the whole night in honor of those who have had cancer and survived it or in honor of those who have passed away through cancer," said Wareham Relay for Life Event Co-Chairman Suzy Wood.

The relay symbolizes the ordeal that cancer patients have to go through as they battle the disease, Wood said.

"Cancer never sleeps and neither do we," said Wood.

The relay will start with an opening ceremony featuring Wareham High School's Teddy Mathews singing the national anthem.

At 9 p.m., there will be the "Luminaria Ceremony," where candles will be lit inside white bags the names of people who have suffered from cancer.

Relay for Life participants, along with a bagpiper, will make a silent lap around the track in memory of those who have lost their lives to or survived the disease.

Saturday morning, there will be a "fight back" ceremony, where relay members will march around the track with flags and plant them all in a specific place in the field, Wood said.

There will also be a special dinner for the survivors of cancer, a raffle with proceeds going to the fundraiser, and a dance performance by Bell's Angels, a dance team formed in honor of Jayne Bell, a dance instructor who passed away from cancer.

Bell's story is just one of the many that Friday night's participants will be honoring during the relay.

Mike Ponte, the owner of Pontiac Tree, a tree removal service, lost his sister Linda DuPont to liver cancer four years ago, he said.

"My sister was like the mother to all my [family], she was really important to our lives," Ponte said.

Ponte began participating in Relay for Life soon after his sister's death. Now, he has a close-knit, 18-member team of family and friends in the relay.

"We have a good team," said Ponte. "We've been doing it together for a long time now. You get to know all of the people in the community, it makes you a little bit closer with them."

Ponte, who also lost his brother Charlie Ponte to cancer only 6 weeks ago, raises funds for the Relay for Life through "Stumping for a Cure."

Ponte spends a couple of weeks before the relay asking customers to write a check to the American Cancer Society in lieu of paying him for his tree stump removal service.

Ponte said that the good cause helps motivate people to use his service.

"You've got a stump sitting in your yard, but if you're [paying to remove] it for a cause, maybe you'll get rid of it," Ponte said.

Ponte averages around $2,500 in donations every year, but is shooting for $5,000 this year.

Ponte also brings a bit of creativity to the relay, one that might win him the Relay for Life competition for "best decorated" site.

Going along with the "Colors of Hope" theme for this year's relay, Ponte is decorating his team's site in a "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" theme from the Wizard of Oz, complete with a yellow brick road and an emerald castle.

"We go all out," said Ponte.

The "Colors of Hope" theme acknowledges the different types of cancer affecting patients, Wood explained.

"It's to make people aware of the different types of cancers, that there is help out there, and that we're trying to fight and hopefully find a cure for it," said Wood.

"There are a lot of resources for cancer patients that people don't realize," said Wood, adding that wigs given by the American Cancer Society to patients who have lost hair from cancer treatment is one example.

The relay has raised more than $37,000 so far. People who want to participate can join the relay on Friday without having registered beforehand.

To find out more about the relay, visit www.relayforlife.org/warehamma, or call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345.