One of every two men and one of every three women will develop cancer during their lifetimes.

Stop. Take a minute. Think about your friends and family. Look at the people sitting near you. Reread that sentence.

One of every two men and one of every three women will develop cancer during their lifetimes.

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The statistic, which comes from the American Cancer Society, is too dramatic to ignore and for many of us, too personal to forget.

Every year, the ACS sponsors the Relay for Life, a national effort to rally cancer survivors and fund research efforts – efforts that are needed with increasing urgency. In 2008, the ACS reported more than 1.4 million new cases of cancer and 565,650 deaths because of the disease.

Every year, the Daily Egyptian covers the Jackson County Carbondale event.

Generally, journalists do not participate in events they cover in the interest of fairness and impartial reporting.

But this cause is too important.

Daily Egyptian staffers decided Monday to form a team for the event, which takes place April 25. We’ll cover the Relay from a new angle as I blog about our team’s experience, from fundraising efforts all the way through the event itself. We hope it will help encourage others to get involved by shedding light on the process and drawing attention to the cause.

And now for the wacky hijinks:

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The first lesson from this journey: Bake sales are harder than they look.

Remember how the DE decided to form a team Monday? Well, things move fast in journalism. Almost immediately after deciding to form a team, we were planning a bake sale for Tuesday.

With visions of green cupcakes and (somewhat foolish) impulsivity, we received permission from School of Journalism Director Bill Freivogel and set to work.

Was it wise to plan a bake sale for the next day? Probably not. Was it smart to assume there would not be campus regulations beyond a faculty member’s verbal consent? No. Did we bake a lot of stuff? Yes.

This morning, we were faced with several dozen cupcakes, roughly 100 cookies, four plates of chocolate muffins, enough brownies to satisfy a small army, and one unpleasant reality: We had not even begun to understand the regulations involved in on-campus bake sales.

Special thanks to a few journalism faculty members who heard about our predicament and saved the day by donating as much as we would have made. Without their tremendous generosity, we would have been out of luck (ironically, on a day when shamrocks are everywhere).

It’s our own fault. We should have looked into the topic further. If we had, we would have discovered:

Except in special cases, only Registered Student Organizations can sell food (or anything else) on campus.

In order to do this, the RSO must designate a scheduling officer.

The scheduling officer typically attends a training program to learn the proper protocol for these types of sales.

Then, the RSO must apply for and receive a permit from the Student Development office. The group’s table must display this permit at all times

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You can learn more about how to properly hold a bake sale on campus by checking out the RSO Handbook (page 24) or calling Student Development at 453-5714.

Of course, we certainly didn’t mean to take away from the rights of student groups, many of which are already raising money for their own Relay teams. And we understand why the university has these rules; if left unregulated, people could lurk about campus soliciting money like vultures.

One way or another, though, we’ll find a way to sell some cookies. And we’ll be sure to give you a heads up when we do.