We’ve got our first group fund raising (is it fund raising, or fundraising?) event set for April. Now, I hope some of the group can assist me that day, or it’ll be me and Catherine collecting all of the cash for my own account. If you’ve got money to raise, give your local grocery store a call - most will allow to stand out front and solicit donations if you can prove you’re collecting for a real charity. We’ve got a whole system - I’ve got a card table, chairs, and a pink table cloth I bring. We’ve got a poster that briefly explains who we are and what we’re doing, and we’ve got big industrial sized mayo containers (plastic) with handles to collect the cash. We’ve been using the same supplies for 3 years and it makes getting ready for these events super easy.
When I got dressed for work yesterday, I pulled out the pearl necklace and earrings Jim gave to me a few years back, and was reminded of a Ralphie May joke I had heard on Sirius the day before. In the bit, Ralphie said that he had recently returned from a U.S.O. trip to the Middle East, and had so much sand in “places” on his body, he fully expected to be able to produce a pearl someday. It cracked me up to think of Ralphie producing pearls like the ones on my necklace!
In my neck of the woods, we don’t go after Gulf oysters for pearls, we go after them for the oyster inside! Oysters are on the menu at most restaurants in my area, especially the little hole in the wall seafood joints. What if oysters could produce something other than pearls? What if we could stick pennies into an oyster…and years later, dollar bills would pop out? Or one hundred dollar bills? It sure would make fundraising for my walk a lot easier!
Until the day we can figure out how to get something other than a delicious meat and a pearl out of oysters, be sure if you’re eating them, to be safe. Raw oysters are cool, provided you DON’T have liver disease, diabetes, or a weak immune system. BeOysterAware.com has much more information on the subject, and how to safely enjoy them!
For the past 2 1/2 years, I’ve been very involved with raising money for breast cancer charities. In 2006, I participated in the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in Philadelphia, walking 60 miles over the course of 3 days around the city of Brotherly Love. In 2007, I repeated the walk, this time in the Tampa Bay area. And this year, I’m walking for 2 days in New York City for the Avon Foundation.
These walks are a huge commitment for someone like me - I have a husband, three children, two dogs, a full time job, and I attend college. I not only spend a single weekend in the fall walking for 2 or 3 days, but I spend countless days in the time leading up to the events, fundraising, helping my team members, and training for the miles ahead. Next month alone I’ve got a charity yard sale to organize and two days in front of the grocery store for fundraising to schedule. I need to draft press releases to send to the newspaper. I need to train and motivate my team, and help them to raise money, as many who are walking with me are doing this for the first time. For the past two years, I have raised over $2000 for each of my events, which has been pooled with the money of the other walkers to make a huge contribution to breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment.
This blog has been a huge vehicle in my fundraising efforts. I began it in early 2006 as a way for my Philadelphia team to connect and share experiences, since we were so spread out (Florida, Michigan, and Maryland), but I kept blogging even after the 2006 walk. Last year, readers of my blog not only helped me to meet MY fundraising goal of $2200, they assisted my sister as well. It was right about the time when her mother had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and my sister devoted all of her time to her mom. She was unable to fundraise for herself, so I took it upon myself to use this blog to raise over $700 for her account, and she was able to walk in 2007 thanks to your donations. It still blows my mind to think of all of YOU donating over $1200 to our breast cancer walks last year, because of this blog - THANK YOU!
It would be easy to say I’m too busy for something like this. And I am busy - with school, little league for my son, the parties and camps my daughters attend, the blogging I’ve committed to doing…but that would also be an excuse. As a healthy 31 year old woman, with two healthy breasts, I feel that it’s my duty to do this, and it’s a duty I happily accept. Maybe I feel a bit closer to the cause, because breast cancer has affected my family (which is the reason I began getting mammograms last year!) but breast cancer also affects women (and men!) who NO family history of cancer. If I had breast cancer, who would walk for me? Would you? I hope that you would!
When a women gets breast cancer, it affects everyone around her. Her husband is left wondering if he will find himself without a partner if his wife’s cancer can’t be cured. Her children wonder if their mom will be alright, or when Mommy will feel better. Her friends and coworkers resolve to do their monthly breast exams, and get mammograms on a regular basis. And of course, the patient herself makes a huge commitment to her healing. She gets sick from chemo, her hair falls out, and she may even lose her breasts.
That’s what I think about when I’m walking, and it’s hot, and humid, and my feet hurt, and my shin splints are aching. I think about that woman, scared, and nervous, and fighting for her life to stop this disease. She keeps fighting…and so I keep walking. We have a saying on the walk, that nothing is as tough as cancer. It’s easy to feel down and out when you’ve walked 17 miles that day, and you feel as though you can’t take another single step. But when I think of that woman fighting cancer…I know that I can take as many steps as are needed to STOP BREAST CANCER. I want to FIND A CURE, and walking is my way of doing so.
Why do I walk? I walk for those who can not. I walk for survivors, I walk for those who have lost their battles with breast cancer. I walk so that when my daughters are older, breast cancer has been cured. I walk so that the hundreds of thousands of people affected by breast cancer can have hope. I walk so that we won’t lose another mother, sister, aunt, or daughter from this disease.
It all starts by tying on your shoes and taking a single step.
The date for my 2008 charity garage sale has been set, and it’s less than a month away!
Last year, I did the whole thing on my own, at my house. This year, I’m teaming up with a friend and fellow walker to share the work. She’s got a garage full of stuff to price and sell from a recent move, so I’m hoping that our efforts allow her to really give her fundraising a boost.
The sale will be on Saturday, March 15th, so I’ve got only a short amount of time to draft the press releases and get the ad copy for the classifieds. Since all of our profits are donated to charity, getting this into the newspaper as news or a community event shouldn’t be a problem. I simply need to write up all of the details and email it to the appropriate people - doing it got us a ton of traffic last year!
If you’re in the Tampa area and would like to donate clean, workable items to our sale, let me know! We also happily accept cash - and you can donate online!
Fundraising has been slow going for the Avon walk this October. I’ve had so much going on (work, school, the kids, sports) that there hasn’t been much time to plan anything. I’m making headway on a date for the charity garage sale I’m holding, and then will plan my days at the grocery store once that date is set.
In the meantime, I’m participating in a different charity walk next month. You may recall that last year I did a walk with my sisters, my kids, and my nieces for a pancreatic cancer charity. My sister’s mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, and she passed away this week. The walk is in Tampa next month on Davis Island, and my sisters asked friends and family to contribute to the charity instead of sending flowers to the memorial service. You can donate too! Just click here to visit our team page - we’re called Lynda’s Hope - and make a donation to my sister, or to me.
