Fundraiser #1 for the 2011 walk: Walmart Day

Well the rain did not exactly stay away, but it didn't keep my daughter and I from doing my first fundraising day. Early on Sunday morning we looked at the weather report, and decided to give it a try.  So we packed up our table, sign, chairs, our trusty duct tape, a beach umbrella to attach to our table, our stuff to sell, and our pink collection jar and headed out.  It was only drizzly at the time...

We set up in front of Walmart, and within an hour it started to pour.  So after about 5 minutes of hiding under our umbrella, we decided that our "merchandise" was getting too wet, so I brought the car around and packed up our stuff.  Wouldn't you know it by the time we finished getting all our stuff in the car, it stopped!  So we debated a minute and decided not to totally set up our table again, but to keep our chairs, our sign, and our jar out and see if we could just collect donations for a little while longer before the next downpour.

Sideways... sorry...  my daughter manning the table

In the next 2 hours we smiled and chatted with the customers going in and out of Walmart, and had a good time despite the weather.  Many people stopped to read our sign, and drop a dollar or two in our collection jar.  There were people who thought walking 60 miles was amazing and donated, people who had cancer themselves and wanted to drop in a few dollars and thank us for our efforts, people who told us they were donating for friends or family with cancer, even 2 boys who looked like they were about my daughter's age who dropped in a couple of bucks each.  We were amazed at the generosity of the people out shopping, it was quite heartwarming in the chilly rain.  I continuously had to push down the money in our jar it was getting so full!

We didn't sell a single thing thanks to the rain, but it was a bigger success than I thought it would be.  My daughter and I arrived home with big smiles on our faces, and the rest of the family came to the door to see how it went.  They expected us to be disappointed, and to only have raised maybe $20.  We dumped our bucket out on the kitchen table to startled faces:  we raised $170 in just 3 hrs, all just from sheer generosity.  I truly underestimated the kindness of Christmas shoppers, and it touched my heart.  But it was also a little sad to go out and see just how many people's lives have been affected by cancer.

The 2nd day that we had planned to go back to Walmart for a couple of hours in the evening got cancelled, because on that evening it turned out that my family needed me at home more than I needed to raise money.  But I will definitely be sitting out there again, hopefully raising more money towards a cure!  I made my first donation to the SGK foundation for $150, and watched the little meter move up just a little closer towards my goal.  But I kept out $25, knowing that I will need to use that $ for change at different fundraising events, which I always forgot to do last time around...

If you build it...they will come...

Well now that I've finished with last years experiences, here goes the beginning of the 2011 3 day experiences...

To start with, I knew before I walked in my first 3 day this year that my 2 teammates were not participating in 2011 with me.  In fact, until a few weeks after the DC walk, I thought I was going to sign up to join the crew.  I knew that my husband wasn't thrilled with all the times he had to watch the little guys while I trained, all the nights I spent working on fundraising, and all the things around the house I didn't get done because of all the hours I was putting in fundraising and training.  So I was going to take the year off from walking.  It wasn't until my husband and I were talking and he said, "but you know you'd rather walk again, wouldn't you?"  That I even really considered it.  Wow!  I knew he had said that watching the closing ceremony had an impact on him, but I never expected him to say that!  I almost asked him to put it in writing...

So how to begin by myself?

I know there are plenty of people that raised their minimums and trained and participated in the walk all by themselves (my amazing tentmate being one of them!  You go girl!!!), but I can't deny it makes me a little nervous.  I think of the harder training walks we did close to the Oct. 3 day event and wonder if I could keep on going by myself.  But I know myself a little better than I did before I started this journey last February, and realize how much stronger I am than I thought I was, and I think I can do it.  But all the same...

I would still like to have a team. I went with the old and famous Field of Dreams quote, "If you build it, they will come."  So I registered for the 2011 DC walk as the team captain of Me and The Girls again.  I am hoping that after the holidays and a little soul searching a few wonderful women from work who have expressed a serious interest in joining will decide to sign up for my team.  But don't get me wrong, I'm glad they didn't agree to do it right away, I'm very glad they decided to check into it and do some serious thinking about whether or not they can commit to this.  Having them tell me before they sign up that it would be too much for them right now is way better than having them decide this after we started...

I even checked into making this a work sponsored team.  At first I was told it was fine, and all I have to do is rename the team with my employer's name in it.  Then they realized it was supporting Susan G. Komen and not the American Cancer Society, and was told I cannot have an official employee team, they don't support the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  Bummer!  Back to quietly getting the support of my co-workers...  At least the boss that checked into it for me told me she would donate when the time came!  I didn't expect that!

So whether or not it will be Me and The Girls or just Me and MY Girls remains to be seen...

Either way, I decided to start my fundraising as early as possible this year, in the hopes that I won't feel as pressured as the months go by.  Especially if I am doing this on my own!  So I signed up for 2 days of setting up a table in front of Walmart this month, in hopes that the numbers game will pay off.  I figure, what month out of the year do more people go to Walmart than any other?  December!  So I ordered more of the bracelets I mentioned in a previous blog, and used my new sewing machine to make fleece pink ribbon scarves and headbands to sell in front of Walmart tomorrow morning and next Friday evening.  Of course I have my trusty pink collection jar as well, and my daughter to use her cuteness to collect donations.  And I will be sporting my pink tutu...  Now they are calling for rain ALL day tomorrow though, so I guess I will just have to wait and see whether or not we go out tomorrow morning.  Everyone say a prayer that the rain halts to at least a mist for a few hours in the morning...

I'll let you know how it turns out!  

My slideshow: my 2010 3 day 60 mile absolutely amazing journey. Finally...

Finally, I finished my video of my 3 day 2010 walk.  It only took me 2 months!!!  I really had no idea it would be this much work;  I thought it would be simple. My bad!  I made the mistake of taking many long hours making it into a power point  presentation, then using downloaded software to convert it into a usable video format.  Now that took forever, because each conversion took like an hour and something was wrong with it each time!  This is the closest I could get to having it done right!  So I apologize that the sound of the first 2 songs is so quiet while the 3rd song is loud.  Tried my best to get it fixed...

Anyway, many people have asked me about the walk, and I've had no words that gave it justice.  I am hoping my video will explain better.  Enjoy!