Now it was time to start writing letters. I had decided to write one to all the men on my list, and a separate one for all the women on my list. So I started with the guys, but didn't get anywhere. So then I tried starting with the women, and my pen flew! I was really excited about this letter, it had all the things the 3 day coach that held the get started meeting stated should be in it, and I thought my "why I am walking" paragraph would touch even people who didn't know anyone with breast cancer. After that the letter to the guys rolled right of my pen as well. I thought I had done a pretty good job. Not as creative as some that I had read, but I thought it would do what I needed it to do; raise most of my $3000. Shortly after writing this my teammate messaged me on fb to tell me that she wrote a note on facebook and tagged everyone she knew in it (which is an extremely time consuming enterprise, since you can only tag 30 people at a time) and she was already getting donations! I was so excited!!! Well I dropped everything and stayed up very late that night posting my letters and tagging everyone. I didn't get the same sort of response. I received only a few comments instead of donations. And so the roller coaster ride of emotions that comes with participating in the 3 day began it's first drop down...
But of course that mood was shortly replaced by excitement and anticipation again, as I received my first donation from an old school friend that I hadn't seen since we graduated! So I emailed, mailed, and facebooked EVERYONE I knew (including my doctor, dentist, and insurance guy), and started writing letters to businesses around town. I wrote these companies asking for a donation, and when it applied, for the opportunity to put a jar by their register to collect donations as well. Well in the next few months the only responses I received were the American Legion - $100 (woohoo! I was excited about that one), my insurance guy - $25, the VFW - $25, and Safeway was kind enough to give me a $10 gift card to their store. Not so profitable for about 50 letters and lots of money spent in stamps, but oh well. By this point I had received about $300 from friends and family also. I was now realizing that my letter wasn't going to work as well as I planned, and figured out that I needed alot more plans...
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