July 02, 2007
Relay for Life
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The Relay for life was Saturday night - I raised 300 dollars and my team raised 2000. The even raised over $100,000 with one team pulling in 18,000!. I headed over first in the morning just after it started, to check in and turn in my cash donations. I wondered around and bought a hand knitted cap, and did the 2 luminaries for Mom and Sharon. I left and tried to have an easy day. I headed back around 8 and was there in time for the lighting of the luminaries and the ceremony. It was really beautiful, and ended around 10 which was my time to walk - and I did. My friend Christina, started out walking with me on the idea that when another mom returned to the booth she would join her and leave me too it, but she didn't come until midnight so I had company for my whole scheduled walk. I did just over 5 miles in the 2 hours. Tami, my replacement arrived then and took over while I sat and chatted with the mom's at our tent site. It nagged at me that I could have done 6 miles, so I got up in a little while and walked with Tami until I hit the 6 mile mark, and then I headed home - by then it was after 1. I headed home and tried to sleep, but my midnight snack and my aching legs kept me awake. Jack got up and walked for the group from 4 to 6 when we had a hole in our volunteers, and then Megan and the dogs woke us all up at 8. The luminaries were beautiful and it was really night to walk with them and see Mom's name and Sharon's name each time I went around - it really highlighted why I was doing it. We headed back in the morning for the closing ceremonies at 10 and to watch our final walker finish up. It was nice to walk once around with Megan at the end too, though she didn't understand why Jack and I wanted to walk around a track. I was a little put off by the closing ceremonies, the whole pat on the back gift giving moment. I'd rather the money spent on gifts be used for cancer research. I don't know a single person who does an event like this for the silly clock, or crystal dish etc. Even the certificates seemed wasteful to me. I'd do the event again though as I had a night where I felt connected to my mom, and that made it all worth it. |
Congrats! I understand completely how you feel about the thank you gifts. Mom and I shared those same thoughts often in her work with OCNA. However, I have since worked on many fundraisers and have found that many corporate sponsors prefer to donate the thank you items (future free advertising)than money for the cause. Since something is better than nothing, those gift donations are accepted gratefully. I don't know that Relay for Life recieved these in kind gifts but chances are none of the money raised had to go towards paying for them. Rest assured that the hard work of your team really did go to this worthy and necessary cause.
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