March Madness

It has been an exciting month. I started training and raised a bunch of money. I'll be finishing up my first major fundraiser this Friday. The memory stones were a huge hit and raised $500 for the cause in two weeks. It was so successful that the memory stones will be back and available to DogBoy's customers for most major holidays from now until the walk in October. I've done 50 memory stones so far and my goals is to do 100 by October. I also received donations from two friends. Thank you Trish and Jack. This brings my fundraising total to $575 so far. I'm a quarter of the way to my goal.

Now that the memory stone spring break offering is wrapping up, I can start to focus on other upcoming fundraising projects. The Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament is coming up on April 10th back in my hometown area. We are hoping to get 60 players. Saving Sisters candles will be on sale the last two weeks of April for $14 each in Texas and $12 each in Virginia. These candles are handmade by a lady in the Shenandoah Valley. The scents available are very vanilla, hot baked apple pie, cinnamon stick, fresh peach, fresh linen and spring lilac. I'm also planning a Paws for a Cause event. The event will be on April 24th at 1:00 at DogBoy's. This is a wonderful opportunity for owners to come have fun with their dog, contribute to a worthy cause and have a chance to win some awesome prizes. The cost is $20 per dog with all proceeds going to the cause. More to come on this event.

Unfortunately with all of this fundraising, my training has suffered. There really hasn't been any time to walk. And with a trip back home to visit family and friends next week, the training will have to wait until April. Although I hope to sneak in at least one training walk with my sister who will be walking with me in October.

And if you have been wondering why I'm walking in this event, stay tuned for my next blog.

Memory Stones

The memory stones are a huge hit. This special spring break offer for the boarding and daycare dogs at the kennel I work at started this past Friday and is available for 2 weeks. I have already made 22 stones and have orders for 15 more so far. I was hopeful that our customers would be as excited about this special offer as me, but never anticipated this many sign-ups already. We still have lots of dogs to arrive the next couple of days plus all of our daycare dogs returning next week and that means lots of opportunities for more customers to sign-up.

I love handmade crafts and when you combine this with my love of dogs, it means I'm having a blast making the stones. You can really tell a lot about a dog from just the paw imprint you get on the stone. Some of the paw imprints are off center and those are the spirited dogs, some are compact and those dogs are tense and some are splayed out and those dogs are relaxed.

Thanks to the owners of DogBoy's for allowing me this opportunity to raise money for my charity walk, to the office staff for their marketing and support efforts, to my kennel peeps for pulling dogs for me and working around me and finally to whoever happened to be walking by when I needed a creative consultation or help wrangling a dog for paw prints.

And the fundraising kicks into high gear

When I signed up for the walk, I committed to raising at least $2,300 for the cause. Eight years ago when I did the walk for the first time, I was fortunate to raise the required $1,900 by just asking friends and family to donate. While I hope that friends and family continue to support the cause this year, I'm hopeful that the special events and offers highlighted below will help raise more for the cause and awareness with people outside of my circle of friends and family. Here's what is planned for March and April so far. Stay tuned because there are more special events and offers in the works.

Traditional Donations

You can make a donation by clicking on the donate button on my blog or you can call 800-996-3DAY to donate over the phone.

Texas Hold 'Em Tournament

My dad has always loved playing poker. So when my sister (she is walking too) asked him to help us raise money, he immediately suggested a charity poker tournament.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Doors open at 1:00

Game starts at 2:00 (no later)

River Road Automotive

211 Dry River Road, Bridgewater, VA

$50 buy-in (includes food, BYOB)

1 re-buy ($25) & 1 add-on ($25)

1st prize - $500

2nd prize - $300

3rd prize - $150

4th prize - $50

Thank you Dwight Layman for providing the space, supplies and guidance for the tournament.

Handmade Dog Memory Stones

As you all know dogs are a huge part of my life. I adopted my first dog (Lucy) almost 4 years ago. Since then I started working part-time at a dog kennel, decided to work towards obtaining the certified pet dog trainer designation and adopted another dog (Pip). So naturally I was excited to find a way to raise money for the cause as well as providing a special opportunity to our kennel customers at the same time. When I approached the owners of DogBoy's Dog Ranch where I have been working for the last 2 1/2 years with this idea they immediately agreed to support me. So I'm offering our spring break customers (3/12-3/20) the opportunity to purchase a memory stone which includes their dogs paw imprint, name, year and decorative multi-colored glass gems for $10 + tax. The stones will be made during their dogs stay and available at pick-up. DogBoy's will be donating the net proceeds to the cause.

Thank you DogBoy's for marketing and supporting this special offer.

Forgotten Creek Candles

A few years ago my parents gave me a Forgotten Creek Candle for Christmas. Forgotten Creek Candles are made by a lady in Timberville, VA. I fell in love with these candles and always make a point of stopping by my parents local hardware store (Randy Do It Best) to stock up each time I visit. My sister and I will be taking orders for these candles in April. You can choose from cinnamon stick, fresh peach, hot baked apple pie, linen fresh, spring lilac and very vanilla. The candles cost $12 each. You can read more about Forgotten Creek Candles at http://www.forgottencreekcandles.com. The net proceeds will be donated to the cause.

Thank you Patricia for this opportunity.

2 Little Birdies

Last fall I reconnected with some old childhood friends and discovered that one of them makes the most gorgeous handmade jewelry. Kim has agreed to design a special bracelet and necklace for us. Pictures to follow once she has completed the bracelet and necklace. A portion of the sale of these special items will be donated to the cause. Check out her jewelry at http://www.etsy.com/shop/2littlebirdies.

Thank you Kim for your creativity and flexibility.

Resolve

If you register for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure between February 24 - March 9 with the discount code RESOLVE and you will receive a $25 discount off the registration fee.

Like I...

RESOLVE to help find a cure

RESOLVE to lead a healthier lifestyle

RESOLVE to spend a weekend making a difference

RESOLVE to help annihilate breast cancer before my niece is old enough to get a mammogram

RESOLVE to live in the moment

RESOLVE to spend quality time with good friends and family

RESOLVE to change my life

RESOLVE to increase awareness

So sign up today. I promise you won't regret it.

Training Starts

I officially started training for the walk today. Many of my training walks during the week will be done in my neighborhood. So I set out for a short walk with a training partner. Lucy has been a walking partner for almost 4 years now. She never fails to keep me entertained on walks. She is either chasing leafs blowing around or relentlessly searching for anything that resembles food. So naturally she joined me for this first training walk. We headed out to find a chilly cloudy morning. This was a good reminder that I need to be prepared for whatever mother nature brings for the actual event. Eight years ago when I did the walk for the first time I was unaware that the weather was suppose to be unseasonably cold. Needless to say

I was unprepared and practically frozen after the first night of camping. Luckily I was better prepared for my chilly walk this morning. Our pace was pretty slow because we had to make a number of pit stops for potty breaks and sniffing. This was almost like the real walk because there are pit stops every couple of miles with porta-potties, food and water. I headed back to the house for a partner switch. Lucy and I finished up 2.2 miles in 50 minutes. I switched Lucy out for Pip. Pip and I took off and I was confident that we would make better time. He tends to sniff and explore less than Lucy. But not so today. He had to sniff everything. We were lucky to have a few fans cheering us on along the way (barking dogs running fence lines and scarecrows). Only in Texas do the scarecrows wear sports logo gear. Too funny. These fans energized us and we kept moving. Fans at cheering stations during the event weekend are so important in helping us feel motivated. So VA/DC peeps please come out and cheer us on during the event. We finished up our walk with another 2 miles in 50 more minutes. Glad to have my first training walk under my belt. Good start at 4.2 miles. Many more to come.

I did it, I signed up again

I signed up for the 2010 Susan G. Komen Washington D.C. 3 day for the cure breast cancer walk today. The walk is 6o miles over 3 days. This will be my second time participating. My first time was back in 2002. I signed up back in 2002 by myself and by the time the event rolled around I walked with a team of 20 women. The team was made up mostly of women I never met before I started training for the event plus my sister and two college friends. My team members became friends that I spent almost every weekend training with for months before the big weekend. Again today I signed up by myself. I'm excited to see who will join in this time. While it's a little daunting to be training so far away from Washington DC and the training support system in that area, I'm looking forward to exploring the Austin area during training. Such great memories. Here is my old gear and some picture.


To learn more about the event click the following link http://www.the3day.org/site/PageServer?PageServer?pagename=homepage