By Isaiah Thomas, News Correspondent

Hundreds of students packed Matthews Arena last Friday night to raise awareness and money for cancer research through the university’s fourth annual Relay for Life.

The American Cancer Society organizes Relay for Life, in which teams of people walk in honor of those who have fought and are still fighting the disease. The Northeastern event lasted 12 hours — from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

For many participants, their presence at the fundraiser was a continuation of a tradition started in high school.

“I did Relay for Life in my hometown, and it was so much fun, and it’s such a good cause, so when I saw it at Northeastern, I knew I wanted to do it,” Emily Ashbolt, a freshman biomedical physics major, said.

The dull roar of participants from Northeastern and Greater Boston could be heard as far away as the entrances to Matthews on Friday. The theme for the relay was superheroes, so many people wore capes or colorful spandex and the Resident Student Association set up a table for decorating capes.

Student groups maintained a noticeable presence at the event, with members joining to form teams for the relay.

“I joined Delta Phi Epsilon, and we’re very involved in service. … I’m glad I had the opportunity,” Lorraine Ruiz, a middler mechanical engineering major, said.

The relay commenced with an opening ceremony that included a pep band performance of the National Anthem. The event’s three co-chairs, Erin Archibald, a senior speech pathology major; Brittany Miller, a graduated senior graphic design major; and Gabe Colon, a junior business major, addressed the crowd.

“It’s guaranteed to be the biggest and best relay yet — it already is,” Miller said, noting that the event had already surpassed the organizer’s goals of 2,000 participants and $160,000 in donations.

By the end of the night, more than 2,200 people participated and raised $208,000.

Pat Spain of National Geographic Channel’s “Beast Hunter” spoke to the crowd during the opening ceremony, describing his struggles with cancer and showing a poignant slideshow with images of his journey.

Over the course of the night, staff and volunteers organized events and activities to keep people energized and entertained during breaks from laps. There was Zumba, 3 a.m. yoga, a cardio class, a pie-eating contest, a swing-dance class and two very competitive rounds of musical chairs. Many of Northeastern’s performance groups — including NU Breakers, Kinematics, the Nor’easters, the UniSons, the DownBeats and NUDANCO — performed.

At midnight, the lights dimmed as the Luminaria Ceremony, the culmination of Relay for Life, began. While everyone sat huddled in the center of the darkened arena, students on stage told stories of loved ones lost to cancer. Behind them, photographs of cancer victims scrolled past in a slideshow.

Everyone received a glow stick and a speaker soon began to read off descriptions, asking everyone to stand and snap their glow stick when something she said applied to them.

Survivors of cancer stood first. They were joined by more students who were walking in honor of their parents. Those who relayed for grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and so on were asked to stand, until almost everyone in the arena was on their feet. The list ended with those who were lucky enough to not have been affected by cancer but walked anyways.

Together, everyone took a solemn lap of remembrance, a single body of people in a sea of glow sticks. Glowing luminaria bags, decorated with messages of hope, lined the track and lit the way. On the upper level of Matthews, Luminaria bags had been arranged to spell “HOPE.”

As students made their way around the track, the Nor’easters performed songs, including a somber rendition of Rihanna’s “Diamonds.”

During the Fight Back Ceremony at 2 a.m., student survivors spoke about their struggles with and eventual victories over cancer. When asked how it felt, as a survivor, to be at an event like Relay for Life, Laura Williamson, one of the speakers and a junior sociology major at Simmons College, described the experience as “awesome [and] empowering.”

The event concluded around dawn with a round of applause from relayers.

Participants shuffled out of Matthews Arena, bleary-eyed but feeling accomplished, under the scoreboards that read, as they had all night, “Huskies: 13, Cancer: 0.”