Deployed Marine Stays Involved in Family Fundraising

By Marine Corps Cpl. Katherine Keleher 
American Forces Press Service

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, July 6, 2011 - After losing three family members to cancer, Marine Corps Capt. Elizabeth Hagner last year decided enough was enough. She committed to taking an active role in helping cancer research.

Capt. Elizabeth Hagner, shown here June, 28, 2011, is the officer in charge of the Female Engagement Team, Regional Command Southwest in Helmand province, Afghanistan. She volunteers her time to participate in the Relay for Life with her family every spring. This year, Hagner, of Freeland, Md., was deployed during her hometowns Relay for Life event. Hagner took it upon herself to help raise money for the cause, which donates funds to fight and research cancer, and to use video chat with her family over the computer during the event, June 17.

The Freeland, Md., native talked to her friends and family and decided the most effective way for them to all get involved in not only remembering their passed loved ones, but also helping to find a cure for cancer, was through Relay for Life, the American Cancer Society's signature annual fundraising event in which volunteers raise money based on the miles they walked.

"It's a great way to get the family together for a good cause," Hagner said. "It's an [exercise] event, it raises money for an excellent cause and we're helping to promote awareness."

The Hagner family got together in 2010 and raised over $700 for Relay for Life. Hagner, who then was based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., as one of fewer than a dozen female Cobra helicopter pilots in the Marine Corps, did as much as she could to help her family in Maryland raise money. When time came for the event itself, Hagner took leave to participate.

"It's kind of like a memorial for my family members who have died," she said. "Instead of just talking about it, we did something about it."

This year, Hagner transferred to II Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, and deployed to Helmand province, Afghanistan. She now works as the commander of the group's Female Engagement Team, overseeing a team of nearly 40 servicewomen tasked with interacting with Afghan women and children to assist in implementing community development programs.

In April, barely a month into her deployment, Hagner suffered another loss when her uncle died from stomach cancer. He was the fourth family member she had lost to cancer.

"That was rough," she said. "I lost my grandma on my dad's side to breast cancer, my grandma on my mom's side to lung cancer, my aunt to lung cancer and my uncle to stomach cancer," she explained.

After her uncle's passing, Hagner and her family made it a goal to raise over $1,000 for this year's Relay for Life event at Goucher College in Baltimore on June 17. There was just one problem: Hagner, serving in Afghanistan, could not be present.

Hagner's family and friends decided they still were going to participate, and their team raised $1,700 for cancer research.

Hagner even found a way to attend, if only in virtual form, by video chatting with her family over a computer for a few minutes in between one of their laps. Her cousins, aunts and uncles took turns hopping in front of the laptop, excited to catch a glimpse of their deployed Marine. As they walked, they even showed off a Marine Corps flag and a Team Hagner poster filled with pictures of her.

"It just wasn't the same without her, she's the life of the party," Hagner's parents, Ron and Elaine, said by e-mail.

"We couldn't be more proud," said Ron Hagner, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. "She just keeps doing things like Relay for Life that makes us even more proud. Liz has always been a thoughtful and caring person. She always looks for the best in people."

With Hagner's deployment ending in the early fall, she looks forward to seeing her family and participating in next year's Relay for Life.

"Next year, I should be able to take [vacation] again, so I can actually go participate with the rest of my family," she said.