Relay for Life: A good reason to dress in drag, beg for cash

By: Jay Balagna

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 12:56 AM

Jay Balagna

The American Cancer Society is still accepting donations at packrelay.com.

By now, I’m sure a few photos of me running around campus in a skirt have surfaced on the Internet. Despite what you may be thinking, this isn’t an everyday occurrence. In fact, aside from that one time in my high school drama class, this may be the first time I’ve been seen in public dressed as a woman. And come on, that was just drama class.

Why was I all dressed up in a coworker’s skirt and lace top? To fight cancer, of course. We here at The Nevada Sagebrush had a team for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life held Friday night at Mackay Stadium. The organizer of our team, News Editor Jessica Fryman, signed myself and Editor in Chief Nick Coltrain up for the Mr. Relay contest. Fryman really didn’t have much of a choice, actually. Nobody on staff has nicer legs than Nick and me. For those of you that don’t know, the contest involves male members of each team dressing in drag, soliciting donations and ending with a talent competition.

Dressed up as our copy chief, I made it my mission to raise more money for cancer than any of my cross-dressing peers. We only had about 45 minutes to accomplish this, so we split up. As Nick headed for Lawlor Events Center and the southern end of campus, I went straight for the Joe Crowley Student Union, followed by a few female “escorts,”one of whom was our photo editor. Unfortunately, she followed along, camera in hand.

As soon as I walked in the door, I realized I made the right choice. The building was full of high school students on campus for the Reno Jazz Festival. I quickly found the best way to get money was to corner a group of students, get a girl to give me a few dollars, then watch the cash flow in from her young admirers. Except for the group that demanded I pose for pictures with them before they would give money, this didn’t seem bad at all.

After I’d bled those schoolchildren inside The Joe dry, we started to wander along the streets. This is where the skirt and lacy tank top really started to lose its novelty. Not only was it getting dark and windy, but the lovely Reno sky decided to snow on me. We decided to hit one more place before heading back to Mackay. Unfortunately, I let the girls pick the place.

Jay Balagna of The Nevada Sagebrush dressed in women’s clothes to raise money for the Mr. Relay competition. Balagna raised about $130 and was runner-up along with Editor in Chief Nick Coltrain.

“Let’s go to The Wal,” our design editor, and my now least-favorite person, said.

The others quickly agreed. Up until now, I hadn’t thought the whole experience had been that bad. Make a few high school kids laugh, get some money for cancer research: great time. Going into a bar dressed like a woman: different story. However, I was outvoted, so off we went to Red’s Little Waldorf Saloon.

Luckily, my bar humiliation didn’t last long. Not long after we walked in the door, the bartender yelled at me for “soliciting” his customers. More than a few prostitution jokes came to mind as I walked back into the cold.

All in all, Nick and I managed to earn about $130, which when paired with our professional ballroom dancing to a Pussycat Dolls song for the talent competition, earned us first runner-ups in the competition.

Shivering, I was glad to get out of the skirt and warm up a little. The Sagebrush team spent the rest of the night divided between huddling in a tent playing board games, barbecuing and walking laps around the track.

It was a fine, if cold, night. The comfort in knowing that my legs alone raised more money than most of our team, though, kept my mind off the cold.

Jay Balagna can be reached at jbalagna@nevadasagebrush.com.