Relay Friday

Catchy name huh? Relay Friday - I like it.

And so I've coined my Friday blogs for the next 7 weeks!

I'll document our progress (or lack thereof) for the week and hopefully it will help me stay motivated and see how far we've come.

This week we had our first 'committee meeting'. Austin, William and I met with the representative from ACS...that was the meeting :) it was great though! We got more information on what we can do as volunteers, what needs to be done by August, and we got some fundraising tools.

Lindsey told us our site had not yet been approved but sitting across the restaurant was the fire chief and he had assured Lindsey he would push for it at their meeting Thursday. And I guess he did because Lindsey emailed us today saying we officially have a location! So she is working on getting posters and other marketing tools ready with the information so we can publicize the event.

She gave me some email addresses of people who had given their information and showed interest in helping so I have emailed them and hopefully we can get some more volunteers.

What we really need, though, are teams, sponsors, and funds. I have a list of local businesses that I am hoping we can go talk to over the coming weeks. Seaside isn't a very big area and there aren't many businesses but I'm hoping between car dealerships and a few local restaurants we can get some support. I know Target is a national sponsor and Lindsey said they generally are open to sponsoring a team from their local stores.

Lindsey also gave us some door hangars to take around neighborhoods, some luminaria bags to try to sell, and some scratch off lottery type games. They are cards with scratch off spots ranging from $1 to $25. The idea is to ask people to scratch off one or more circles and agree to pay whatever their circle reveals. Once one card is completed it will have raised $250! I think that's a good fundraising tool for someone who doesn't want to just come out and ask for money. I'm hoping they work well.

The luminaria bags are maybe my favorite part of the relay and I might buy quite a few! They generally sell for $10 each but anyone who has given a donation can decorate one in honor or memory of a loved one. They line the track all day then after sunset they are lit with either candles or glow sticks. I am very excited for this part!

So The goal between now and the next Friday update Is to have distributed marketing tools and hopefully talked with at least one potential sponsor. Keep us in your prayers!

And, just in case I've motivated you to want to join our cause, here's the site again. Sorry for shoving it down your throats, but I'll likely plug it every week. Only one way to raise money and that's to ask!
www.relayforlife.org/seasideca



- manda