Like many others who walked laps around the Napa Valley College track for Relay for Life, Kathy Merritt said she wanted to raise awareness about cancer.

She also came to lend her support to her co-workers at the Napa County Office of Education who had formed a team, one of about 80 to sign up for the 24-hour event this year.

“I also wanted to do it for my best friend,” added Merritt, as she recalled Chula Mori, a teacher who died of brain cancer in 2002.

About 1,000 volunteers participated in this year’s Relay for Life this year. The event, which concludes this morning, has raised already more than $140,000 for the American Cancer Society, with more donations expected in the coming days.

This year’s goal is $225,000 — or $2,000 more than in 2007, organizers said.

“We’re hoping to make our goal,” event chairwoman Alisha Clark said.

Napa’s 12th annual Relay for Life began with about 100 cancer survivors and caregivers walking around the track. Among them were Patti Hector and Sandra Pena, both 62, and friends for half a century.

Brian Roberts of Napa was among the survivors who came to walk the first lap.

“It’s a deadly disease we’ve got to get control of,” said Roberts, 67, as he left the college. “There are a lot of people who are affected one way or another.”

Karlin Campbell of Napa, also came to walk the survivor lap.

“Cancer touches everybody,” she said.

First diagnosed with cancer in 1983, Campbell, 73, battled the disease on and off until 2005.

She comes to Relay for Life every year in part to show that one can survive cancer.

“I’m a real believer in women taking care of their bodies,” Campbell added, noting that masses can be detected by self-examinations.

Near the track, Leslye and Harold Axtell and their daughter Kim put up a “chain of hope” — dozens of small tags with the engraved names of cancer victims that they fixed to a mesh near their team’s tent.

The Axtells, both of whom are cancer survivors, started selling the tags to raise money for Relay for Life six years ago. Leslye survived breast cancer and Harold, lymphoma.

People stop by to read the names, said Harold Axtell, a retired Napa County road superintendent, as he hung tags to the mesh.

Cancer has hit relatives as well, he said.

His  wife’s father died from cancer, he said. So did his mother, Elizabeth Axtell, an award-winning quilter, who died on Easter Sunday. This weekend the Axtells raffled one of Elizabeth Axtell’s quilts in her memory to raise money for Relay for Life.

They both want to give back, Harold Axtell, 59, said.

“I think we’re both alive because somebody got involved,” he said.

Seana Wagner, a co-captain of the “Honu Keko” team, a Hawaiian-style team, noted that Relay for Life is an opportunity for parents to teach their children about the effects of cancer on people’s lives. It’s a good community project, she added as children members of the “Honu Keko” team sold lemonade for $2.

Carlos Avina, 22, a student at Napa Valley College who works in the front office at Clinic Ole, said he was scheduled to walk between 12 and 3 a.m.

To prepare for the event, he and co-workers have held fundraisers, including a lunch with donations from restaurants.

“Everyone gets into it,” Avina said.

Team continued to raise money by selling lemonade, cookies and cupcakes, offering massages, face painting or organizing games.

Cathy Vincent, an occupational therapist at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville, said she and her co-workers have fundraisers all year long.

On Saturday, the teammates sold the “Yountville Veterans Home Cookbook,” a collection of recipes from the staff, and bottles of homemade white vinegar donated by Vincent’s father, Hank Della Maggiore, a retired vegetable grower from San Jose. Della Maggiore survived a bout with prostate cancer eight years ago.

Nearby, her daughter, Lauren Vincent, 17, and a friend, Lanie Wielandt, 16, members of the Napa High Musicians and Friends United for a Cure team, decorated “Luminarias” — lunch-size bags sold to raise money for the event to honor cancer victims — with pictures of relatives.

 The bags, filled with sand and a candle, were to be set along the track. The candles were scheduled to be lit at a nighttime ceremony.

“I’m here for my uncle,” Lanie Wielandt said. “He was diagnosed with cancer a month ago.”

Napa’s Relay for Life has raised more than $2 million since 1996, according to event chair Clark. It is one of three events in Napa County.

American Canyon’s Relay for Life two weeks ago raised $75,000, Melisa Gabhart, an American Cancer Society representative, said Saturday. Calistoga’s event is Sept. 13-14.