It takes a strong second wind to make it through an all-nighter.

Any good college student learns that lesson early on during their first freshman semester. You procrastinate in the name of the social life, forcing yourself to stay up into the wee hours to cram for mid-terms, finals and the everyday quizzes.

Just before midway in the night you’ll crash. Your bed calls your name no matter how far away it is. Your eyes droop. Your brain stops absorbing the scientific equation you desperately need it to know.

Gradually at first, then suddenly, a second wind arrives.

Most of the faces I met around 11:30 p.m. Friday night were in the droopy stage.

I’ll trust that their second wind came sometime after I went to bed.

I’m not as strong as the small group of faithfuls who stayed through the night at the annual Relay for Life.

Elementary school children rounded the track, cancer patients stayed active and retirees danced to the tunes as I was calling it a night. I suspect their fun lasted at least a little while longer.

But my fun was done.

As a first-year Relay team the small group of Democrat employees made quite a showing for ourselves, if I do say so myself. Less than 10 of us manned the tent for most of the night, but the newsroom staff wasn’t much help when it came to selling slushies, necklaces and T-shirts.

We were hiding behind a sheet.

Our grand plan of putting out the newspaper from a laptop and one other computer at the Relay site came off practically without a hitch.

We projected our work onto a white bed sheet, and passersby got the chance to see a blank newspaper page turn into the next day’s news.

And sometimes things work out too perfectly.

In our business, big headlines grab eyes and draw in readers. Thanks to Circuit Clerk Binkey Vines and one highly questionable judge’s opinion, we had big news to publish.

Our front page became more than just interesting; it was shocking.

I peered around the sheet a few times to watch mouths drop, eyebrows furrow and a few naughty words fly and locals read the news that Vines admitted guilt only to walk free and be allowed to run again.

We made our nightly front page deadline of 10:45 that night and drove back to the office to pass our work on to the press crew. An hour or so later we delivered a few free copies of the paper to the groggy faces at Relay.

Relay was a first for us. Next year, there will be a second.

We were a fairly disorganized crew with very little manpower, but we nearly doubled our fundraising goal and raised just under $1,000.

And we learned a lot from the experts. The power teams like the Markets and First Baptist Church raised $19,000 and $16,000 respectively. Their teams have years of experience and lots of know-how.

Relay pulls these large organizations together for a worthy cause.

But, take it from us, you don’t have to be large to make a difference.

The event takes a team effort from everyone and no organization is too small.

The Democrat team has more time to plan for next year. We’ll come back bigger and better, and we hope to see you there.

No team is too small, no group unimportant. So think about those around you and start forming your team.

And maybe next year, I’ll stick around for the second wind.

Julie Finley is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or Julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com.