So much to do! So little time to do it...

I guess we have all wished for more than 24 hrs in a day before when we were busy and had a lot to get done and not enough time to do it in.  That's what I'm feeling like.  I remember feeling this way last year as I started fundraising as well.  But kinda different in that I feel the busy and urgency to get stuff done, without the stress of wondering if I can do this or not.  Sigh.  I guess that's how I'm meant to feel every year as 3 Day fundraising season really begins...  But would I really want it any other way??

Well during one of my insane up till 1 am-on-the-computer-even-though-I-will-have-to-be-up- in-5-hrs "inspiration marathons" as I call them I decided I really wanted to sell T-shirts this year.  The problem is that you have to put out quite a lot of money of your own up front, and you have no idea if you will even get that money back, let alone sell enough shirts to raise any money.  So I went to Cafepress.com and set up a shop there.  I figured I didn't have to put any money out to start, so if no one but me and my family bought anything I wasn't out of my own money at least!  So I've started with some cool but basic designs for now and am looking online for a free image creator of some kind to get my ideas going...  I guess we'll see how it works out!  To visit our store, click on the link on the left top of my page!  And one of my wonderful team mates may have figured out a way that we can make them ourselves...  Work in progress here more to come as I learn more about her ingenius idea...

As we approach the start of my pink hair challenge, I have great news!  I have decided to go through with the twist on last year's challenge, I've decided that if I raise enough to reach my first $1000 milestone with this challenge, I WILL put permanent streaks in my hair!  I have a salon - Aura's Spa and Salon - that has generously donated permanent pink highlights, should I need them.  Thank you to Casey Moore for helping me to set this up, and for volunteering her time to do the highlights!  Which of course means that I will need to wear a wig to work, which I must say I am really nervous about after my mother has told me how much she detested the headaches her wigs gave her.  And as it turns out my Mom still had a short hair blond wig from when she went through chemo that she hadn't donated.  It saddens me that the reason she kept one was "you never know, just in case I needed it again," but then that just fuels my fire to find a cure, so that she doesn't need this wig EVER AGAIN!  So I'm really excited about the official start of the challenge on 3/3/11.  I actually have had 3 people already donate and buy 3 pink streaks, before it's even begun!  And they only need to donate $280 more to get me to my first $1000... 

On another note, I have begun the attempt to get auction donation items.  Sadly, Caesar's Atlantic City will not donate a package this year, and that's one of the big ones I hoped I could count on again this year.  So I've started writing to other Atlantic City casino's, hotel getaways in MD,  and whitewater rafting places in WV.  I have so many places to email and mail letters to, and only so much time in the day to work on it.  My husband will hopefully start helping me with this shortly, and I am praying my team mates will help as well.  This auction is where I raised the most $ last year, and unlike last year I will have to split the $ raised with this auction with my team mates.  Which means that I really have to be able to get a lot more donated items than I had last year.  I think this is the only thing so far in my fundraising that is making me feel actually stressed out.  Well back to work on that...

As far as training goes, I am happy to announce that I have logged over 60 miles training so far this year!  Yay!  I've vowed this year to keep better track of my miles than I did last year.  I was really disappointed that when the miles really started adding up I forgot to log them, so I don't really know how many I walked last year training for the 3 day.  This year I've started using Daily Mile, and it's really quick and easy to keep track of and it even displays on my blog or posts to facebook.  Hopefully this year I will have a grand total of miles logged for finding a cure!

Next on my list is my treadmill fundraiser in the mall in our town.  I have a date set for April, and a team mate to help me walk, sell bracelets (yes Linda Craik I will be needing your beautiful bracelets again, I already have a few requests for them!), and collect donations.  I hope this fundraiser will be a fun evening with my team mate and a wonderful success, and luckily not too much more prep work for this one!  :)  And the mall is also going to donate the money collected in the water fountain in July/August and donate it on our behalf to the 3 Day.  That was an added bonus that just goes to show you that sometimes all you have to do is ask!

And lastly is our Joe Corbi pizza fundraiser, which is slated to begin on 3/9.  I have a great feeling about this one, because I've never met anyone who didn't love these pizza kits.  Besides, I just may have to break my diet to eat one myself!  So cross your fingers for us that this one goes really well!

So that's where I am this year at the end of February.  Even though I am beginning to have the stress just start to creep up on me, I realize that at this time last year I barely had $50 raised, and not much of a clue how I was going to get the rest.  It is also quite a comfort to have the feeling, "I will do this somehow, don't worry" as opposed to "how in the world am I going to do this?"  I guess that's the wonderful thing about being a 3 Day Alumni!

My Great Pink Hair Challenge of 2011...

Well, I thought I had this all worked out, and I was going to work it exactly like last year's challenge.  But now there's an unexpected twist at the last minute...

Me and my beautiful pink streaks from last year

What to do?

Let me start by telling you the original plan; how I worked it last year.  Last year I decided to put pink highlights or streaks in my hair as a fundraiser.  I (luckily, it turns out) thought to ask my employer if it was alright to wear my hair pink at work for a few months, and was told it was against the dress code.  Bummer!  Then I had an idea...  If I found wash out pink dye, I could just do it any and every time I wasn't as work.  So I looked in stores, and only found pink spiking gel.  Then I looked online, and found a company called "Streekers," which had temporary hot pink dye made just for streaking hair; just what I was looking for!!!  I decided to write a letter to the company explaining what I wanted to do and why, and ask if they would be willing to donate the hair dye.  They answered yes!!!  Woohoo!  So now I had the dye...

Next I wrote a letter to email and post on facebook announcing my challenge:  For 3 weeks I would be running a "pink hair challenge," where for every donation in that period of $35 or more I would have add 1 pink streak in my hair, and I would wear the streaks for 3 months everywhere I went, everyday, except to work.  It started out slow, but in the end I had 7 pink streaks and had raised over $500!!!  It was a wonderful success!   So I proudly wore my pink streaks till the middle of summer.  I was a little sad when my 3 months were up, I kinda liked the look.

This year, after I'd already emailed out my challenge letters and was about to post it on facebook,  I decided to go to my employer, and once again ask if it would be ok to do permanent pink streaks for my challenge.  I asked one of my bosses who last year told me it was ok with her if I did this, if I could use her name when talking with the human resource dept about it.  She said yes.  I then went to the woman who was above her on the chain of command, and asked the same thing.  She told me that the answer would not change this year, it would still be a no.  But she gave me an idea... She told me that if I wore a wig OVER my pink streaked hair to work, no one could tell me I couldn't do THAT.  What an idea!  So now I've got the wheels turning in my head...

Would I be willing to look like this for $1000?

So after I've already gotten "Streekers" to once again generously donate their hair dye that I fell in love with last year, and after I 've sent out the emails regarding the challenge, I've got a new twist.  But I know that pink highlights put in at a salon cost between $15-$20 per streak, which I just can't afford out of my own pocket.  And I definitely could not afford a real wig, from what I've heard they are extremely expensive.  So I've put the word out to a couple of people about finding a way to get the highlights donated by a salon, and if that comes through I may ask my mom, who is a breast cancer survivor, if she still has her wig from when she went though chemo, or ask around and see if anyone else has one I could use for a few months.  But if I am going to do it with permanent streaks, and have to wear a wig for months at work everyday, I think I will make the stakes higher, like I will make them permanent streaks if the challenge gets me over the $1000 donation milestone.  And then I think what if people are willing to donate enough that I make $1000 just from the challenge this year, and get me to over $1,300, so that I only have another $1000 to raise... Would I be willing to dye ALL my hair pink for that?  Would my husband still speak to me if I did?

Questions to be answered....
Answers to follow...

Me? The leader?

Well I was able to get all of my email and facebook letters out to my family and friends, I just have all the ones I need to put in the mail, along with all of the letters to various people in the community (doctors, insurance guy, dentist, etc.)  I put so much of myself into the letters that it makes me feel extremely vulnerable.  I think that  makes my letters more personal, but I also believe that it has some drawbacks as well; I equate the effectiveness of my letters with my self esteem, even though rationally I know that one has nothing to do with the other.  I guess as I do more letter writing, I will hopefully stop reacting this way.  But anyway they, and with them a little piece of me, are out there.

I've also heard a good response from my daughter's school.  The principal called me to tell me that they were not interested in doing a penny war, they've already done something similar this year for another cause.  But he IS interested in having the special project coordinator talk with my daughter about a fundraiser that he would do.  So yesterday afternoon my husband showed her a website that has fundraising ideas on it, some of which would be completely perfect (and not an overwhelming amount of work for me) for a middle school.  Hopefully, armed with some ideas my daughter and the coordinator will come up with a  brilliant plan that is satisfactory for all involved!  

I will also be delivering my letter today to the town mall to see if they are agreeable to my treadmill fundraiser idea (or tomorrow, with 4 kids sometimes you have to flexible and willing to change plans at the last minute!). I think this would be a successful and fun fundraiser, without a whole lot of prep work. And that is a  wonderful thing, seeing that some of my fundraisers require a lot of work ahead of time and you never know if the amount of money you raise will have made it worth all the effort.

On another note, I feel pretty good about starting training early this year, since this year I can walk indoors on the treadmill.  I signed up to be a training walk leader this year as well, so I thought it would be helpful if I was in decent shape a little ahead of schedule, so when I invite others to join my team on a training walk it will be slightly easier and I won't look like I'm struggling.  I guess only time will tell if this was adding a little too much responsibility or not.  I am really hoping for a few more people to join my team (fingers crossed here) and that someone will want to help me plan at least a few of the training walks for our team, and that we can use some of the walks we did last year again.  Then it will only be a matter of planning a few extra of the nicer team walks to invite others to join us on.  At least that is how it works in my head...

And the thing I'm most excited about right now is finally being able to have our first team meeting.  I have so many ideas and things to discuss to get us all started on the same page.  It seems some 1/2 of the team and perspective new team mates have researched the 3 day and read my blog and are mentally prepared for a challenge, while the other 1/2 haven't done much in this regard and I'm not sure they understand what they have signed up for (not that any of us REALLY did the first time!).  So I guess catching that 1/2 of the team is first, then starting to plan training walks and fundraisers next.  It's hard for me because last year even though I was the designated captain, I felt more like we were all equal.  This year since my team is all new and I've been there, done that, I feel like I'm supposed to have all the answers and be a leader.  As much as I wanted others to do it with me, I don't feel like much of a "leader."  I hope that as we grow as a team that I feel the part a little more... This part is as new to me as the 3 day experience is to them!