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The Oak Lawn will become a camping ground surrounded by a running track for one weekend next month.

UWA will become the first university in Australia to run a Relay for Life on its campus, to raise money for the Cancer Council.

Guild Managing Director Des Mitting said the Guild hoped to make it a permanent major fundraiser.

"It would be our second big fundraiser after Prosh and we hope that, with the two events, we will be able to give between $250,000 and $300,000 each year to charity," he said.

Relay for Life is a 24-hour team relay which can be walked, run, skipped, even completed in a pram or a wheelchair. Since it began in WA in 2001, it has raised more than $8 million for the State's Cancer Council. Participants keep going through the night, while their team mates take turns in resting in their tents.

The Guild is putting on two bands and a DJ to entertain the walkers and a free breakfast for all participants. The refectory will be open for the whole 24 hours. Organising the event is a team of student volunteers, most of them Law or Arts students. They are part of the Guild's Volunteer Hub, which was launched on O-Day this year.

The hub manager, Jenni Brown, said students already did a lot of volunteer work through the Guild but they wanted to formalise it, leading up to New Courses 2012, when all students will be encouraged to do community service.

"Some of our student volunteers go to Balga Senior High School every Tuesday morning to help teachers in the international language centre there," Jenni said.

"Others help senior citizens with computer training at Subiaco Library. And some have set up a tax help group, to help other students do their tax returns."

Students also help out at incidental events which this year included the Save the Children booksale in the Undercroft and the Pompeii exhibition.

"There are a lot of students who were involved in community work at high school and are not sure how to continue that," Jenni said. "We can help them through the Volunteer Hub."

The student organisers of the Relay for Life are confident of getting 50 teams of 10 to 15 people, who will pitch their tents on the Oak Lawn on the weekend of October 16 and 17. The track will be marked around the perimeter of the lawn.

They have already raised $40,000. For information on how to be part of the relay, please contact Jenni Brown at: [email protected] or visit the Relay for Life website at: https://wa.relayforlife.org.au

Published in UWA News , 20 September 2010