Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Marathon and Fundraising Info



79 Days 7 Hours and 21 Minutes

Yes, in about 77 days members of Team Believe will begin to make their way to Memphis. Others will make their way to Memphis in 78 days. We hit the streets of downtown Memphis to begin the event in 79 days!!! I wish you could feel just a tiny bit of the excitement that I feel just thinking about this! This is ALMOST as good as Christmas. When I stop to think about it, it's BETTER than Christmas for many many families who depend on St Jude to save their child's life. Just to think about what a wonderful gift this team of people and all of those of you who donate to this team are able to give. Not just any old Christmas gift but the GIFT OF A CHANCE TO LIVE TO BE AN ADULT! I consider that the best gift I can EVER give to anyone other than the gift of dedicating and giving myself to God.

Plans are coming together. I have talked to many of the team members from all over and many fundraising ideas and events are beginning to come together. Our Arkansas Chapter (Brenda & Lenzy) are preparing for their second annual Beauty Pageant. Last year was very successful and they are looking forward to an even bigger event this year. Be in prayer for their hard work to be a huge success.

Our Southern Mississippi Chapter (Ariel & Amber) are working on their County Wide Capture The Flag fundraising event. Their mom and dad are preparing for a Chicken Plate Dinner sale. Prayers for their success are requested also.

Our Northern Mississippi Chapter ( Hope and Beth) are working on some things through their businesses... top secret cant share yet :) Please keep them and their efforts in your prayers.

Our Louisiana Chapter (Patricia, Chance, Jordan and their family) are working on several different things. They have a Jordan Day Fall Festival and a Dinner (2 separate events) in the works so far, with more things in the works. They are really getting so excited about all of this. They call about every other day with questions and excitement for everything going on.

Our Houston Chapter (Allison & Susan) will be working in combination with our North Mississippi Chapter to do a fundraiser with Willow House (Hope's business). They will be hosting a home Willow House party and catalog sales with all of the profit going to St Jude.

Our Memphis Chapter has alot going on. We have 3 Give Back Nights at our Wolfchase Chili's with 10% of the profit on those nights coming to our team. We will be selling Spaghetti plates and Smoked Chicken plates during two different evenings at the concessions for a double header baseball game. All proceeds to St Jude (Team Believe).

These are the ones that I am aware of at this time. If you have any ideas or have anything going on that I am missing here, please let me know so I can share with others.

Lot's of great things going on to help our team and exceed our goal. Thank you to everyone for all your doing. I can not wait to give our gift of $20,000.00 + to St Jude this year!!!

Also, I will have our artwork for our team shirt ready to post hopefully in the next day or so. I have been playing phone tag with the guy from the t-shirt print shop today. He has it all, I just need for him to email it to me so I can post it and we can begin taking orders. This year, as in the past, we will offer our "official" team shirt to anyone who wants to have one. It's an awesome way for each one of you, team member or not, to bring awareness to Childhood Cancer and to St Jude. So please, order yours and wear it proudly to promote this very worthy cause and hospital. In purchasing a shirt, you are also supporting our team. All of the profit from the shirts go to our team donation to St Jude. This year in addition to our t-shirt, we plan to offer a team logo hoodie and sweats and a baseball style cap.

IF ANYONE OUT THERE HAS ANY ITEM (NEW) THAT YOU ARE WILLING TO DONATE TO OUR TEAM FOR OUR SILENT AUCTION TO BE HELD THE NIGHT OF OUR TEAM DINNER (12-3-10) PLEASE CONTACT ME BY EMAIL. We had a great success with our Silent Auction last year and it added some fun and excitement to our evening. I'll list some examples of some of our items: handmade quilt, several really nice "goodie" baskets ( A pamper basket filled with a luxury robe, bubble bath, bath salts, lotions, etc.) A Gentlemans St Jude themed basket with a Man's St Jude logo watch, tie, pen/pencil set and more. A Ladie's themed basket. A St Jude Bubble Gum Machine, gift certificates and lot's more. It does not have to be St Jude logo. Any item you can get to Memphis is welcome. This year, I hope to have more items and some really nice items that anyone would be proud to be taking home. All proceeds from the donated items for the silent auction go to St Jude.

Our team dinner will be at the same place again, we will be serving up a night of Pasta! Be making your plans to attend the dinner. As it gets closer to time, I will begin to ask for RSVP's so I can plan for the proper amount of food. YES, we will have our coveted Team Cake with the raspberry filling too.

Wanted to remind you of a few very important things. One, when making your travel plans, make sure you allow time to go to pick up your race packet. This is held at the Cook Convention Center downtown, so you will need to allow time to go get it before our dinner starts at 6:30. This year they WILL NOT BE DOING MORNING OF RUN PICK UP. This is always a great time to shop for items that are normally carried in the St Jude Gift Shop. They do have booths set up at the Packet Pick Up.

Also, if you have not already confirmed your room at our "Official" team hotel, please get this done as soon as possible. I want to make sure I have blocked enough rooms for everyone. Our special price (half price) is 89.00 per night.
Here is a copy of a past post regarding hotel info:

Our block of rooms are set up and they are ready to begin taking your calls to confirm your room accommodations for the Marathon Weekend. The hotel is the same as last year, Holiday Inn & Suites * 2751 New Brunswick Rd. * Memphis, TN 38133. When you call to confirm your room on your credit card, you must ask to speak with Sybil Sides or Gina Porter. These are the only ladies who can make sure you are getting in the right block of rooms and getting our very special team rate. Tell them you are a member of Team Believe for the St Jude Marathon. Call them diectly at 901-266-1952. I have a limited number of rooms that I can block at this time, so there again, I would not wait on this. When you call in to confirm your room, you will give them your credit card information, but you will not be billed until after your stay the weekend of the marathon. They will be forwarding me a list of the team members who have reserved a room, so I will keep an eye on it and do the best I can to make sure everyone gets a room.

One last thing for now... If anyone is interested in a private team tour of St Jude, please let me know by email. I will set this up again this year if there is enough interest. We have done this on Friday early afternoon in the past. No one under the age of 16 is allowed to participate in the tours. St Jude rule.

Rock On.... Keep praying and keep believing. It's going to be a wonderful year!!! Looking so forward to Reagan's family being with us again. I love to sit and talk to Barbara, she keeps us all in stitches laughing so hard!!! Natalie and Nicole and their family will be with us again. Of course, Jordan and his family will be here! You just never know who is gonna show up....

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS~

Mardecia
rebelmom528@aol.com

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