Reno Relay for Life event features giant colon replica

For kids under about age 4, CoCo the Colossal Colon is a colorful 4-foot-high, 40-foot-long tunnel with holes in the top that taller kids could pop out of, and an odd assortment of vividly colored figures embedded in the inside walls.

For older people, Coco's purpose is deadly serious.

CoCo came to Northern Nevada for the annual Relay for Life Walk of the American Cancer Society, which raises money for cancer research. The overnight relay walk attracted 95 teams made up of people who walked around the track at Bishop Manogue Catholic High School on Saturday, through a rainy Saturday night and into a wet Sunday morning.

Sunday's portion of the relay raised about $10,000, said Michelle Hale, event chairwoman. Overall, this year's efforts have brought in about $120,000, she said, with fundraising to continue into August.

"Fifty percent of our teams are new this year," she said. "They have amazing enthusiasm; even with the rain they're still smiling."

Teams pitched tents overnight on the school football field or camped out in vehicles in the school parking lot. Members took turns walking, keeping up the relay all night.

"This is the first year for CoCo," Hale said.

The colossal colon was on tour in the area and made a stop in Reno for the walk, she said.

As the relay was winding down on Sunday, families were stopping to check out CoCo, which was on display from Saturday morning through Sunday noon. While the kids chased each other through the horseshoe-shaped plastic colon, adults took pictures, accepted literature about colon cancer and gave sidelong glances to the disturbing reproductions of colon diseases.

Inside, and in some cases outside, of CoCo visitors got a look at disease effects on the display's walls ranging from bulbous exterior hemorrhoids, the deep gashes of Crohn's disease, the holes of diverticulitis, the knobs of precancerous polyps and the red/black masses of colon cancer that also crept onto CoCo's outside walls.

"There's a lot of yucky stuff, like the color of blood," said Enzo Slater, 6, after examining CoCo.