REI excursion

During the event we will be camping each night. Tents will be provided but we have to provide everything else. When I did the walk before, I used a cheap sleeping bag. This ended up being a bad decision because it was really cold at night and my sleeping bag did little to keep me warm. Plus my cheap sleeping bag was big and bulky and you want your sleeping bag to be as compact and light as possible since you have to lug it with the rest of your overnight gear from the truck to your camp site each night and back to the truck each morning. So I headed to REI to do a little research on sleeping bags and pads. And since REI is only 2.5 miles away and I needed to do a training walk about 5 miles long, I walked there and back. I decided it was time to start using my lumbar pack to carry my water and supplies. The lumbar pack is a must have for the event to carry you water bottles, sunscreen, chap stick, poncho, phone, ID, money, etc. It's important that you train with your pack because you need to get use to the feel and weight of it. Don't underestimate the weight of all that stuff and 2 full water bottles. It was a beautiful evening so I set off to do my research at REI, get a little dinner and then head back home. It was a quick walk to REI. The terrain was mainly flat and I had sidewalks most of the way there. REI had a lot of wonderful gear but it was a little expensive to buy for infrequent use. I decided rentals might be the way to go. REI has an excellent rental deal which gets me a compact sleeping bag and pad for 5 days for only $26. Since I figured out my gear situation, I headed next door for a break and sustenance. On the way back I took a different route which included a little hill work and no sidewalks part of the way. While I was working my way up a hill thinking about all of the different terrains and landmarks you experience while training, I looked over to see this gorgeous field and horse. You just never know what you will come across when you walk. It ended up being a good research and training evening.

April Review

It has been an incredibly busy April for me. I was on vacation at the start of April, madly trying to catch up when I returned and then organizing several fundraisers.

It was a big fundraising month. We started off the month with our Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament. We ended up with 24 players and the net proceeds totaled $1,100. I will be splitting the net proceeds with my sister. And you can still buy our Saving Sisters handmade 100% soy wax candles until the end of the month. It looks like the candles will bring in another $150-$200 in net proceeds for me. Wow that brings my fundraising total to almost $1,500. While these fundraisers were successful, my Paws for a Cause afternoon of games had to be postponed due to lack of sign ups. Bummer, the good news is that several people expressed interest but had scheduling conflicts. As April closes, I'm looking ahead and anticipating that the summer will be huge for Paws for a Cause events. The memory stones will be back for the Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day weekend boarders. The afternoon of games will be rescheduled for this summer and I anticipate an awesome event with great prizes and participation. And I'm toying with the idea of a dog wash. Stay tuned for more details on all of the Paws for a Cause events.

Unfortunately, my training suffered during April. While I always walk each week because of dog walks, these walks are shorter and slower than what I need to be doing to be fully prepared for the 60 miles over the 3 days come October. So in May I will be focusing on starting and committing to a training schedule that includes longer and faster walks sans the dogs a couple of times each week.

And finally, we had an awesome opportunity to raise awareness for the cause and event when the Shenandoah Valley Journal ran an article about my sister and I and our poker tournament.

Candles, Necklaces, Bracelets and Paws - Oh My!

When I participated in the walk back in 2002, my friends and family generously supported me by pulling out their checkbooks and writing checks to Susan G. Komen. I raised over $2,000 this way. I have already received close to $200 in traditional donations this year and I hope this continues to grow. And while traditional donations will always be a part of my fundraising plan, I wanted to find other creative ways to raise money. So I'm excited to tell you more about some unique ways to support me.

Saving Sisters Candles

These 100% soy wax candles are handmade in the Shenandoah Valley by Forgotten Creek Candles. The scents available are:

Linen Fresh

Very Vanilla

Cinnamon Stick

Hot Baked Apple Pie

Fresh Peach

Spring Lilac

The candles cost $14 in Texas (it's a long journey) and $12 in Virginia. We will be taking orders through April. Payment is due when you make your order. The candles will be delivered to you at the end of May. The net proceeds will be donated to the cause. I hope you love these candles as much as I do. Contact either me or Christa (my sister) to order.

Necklace and Bracelet

About a minute after I officially signed up for the walk, I decided to contact Kim to see if she was up for designing a necklace and bracelet to benefit the cause. She agreed and designed two adorable pieces.

The necklace cost $50 and the bracelet cost $35. Kim will donate $7 to the cause for each item sold. If you are interested, contact me.

Paws for a Cause

While memory stones are on hiatus until Memorial Day weekend, that doesn't mean you and your dog have to wait to support the cause. Come on out to DogBoy's and join us for an afternoon of fun on April 24th at 1:00. We will play games, run a mini Rally course and have a dog trick contest. Prizes include a $50 Tomlinson's giftcard, $20 Alamo Drafthouse giftcard, Go Local Austin card & more. The cost is just $20 a dog and will be entirely donated to the cause. Call 251-7600 to register.

Why I Walk

You may be wondering why I walk. There really are so many reasons, but here are a couple that I want to share. I guess it has been over 40 years ago that my mother moved away from home to attend nursing school. At nursing school she became very good friends with another student named Barbara. Even after my mom completed school and moved back home, she stayed in touch with Barbara. I have many fond childhood memories of our family visiting Barbara's family over the years. Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was in my teens. She bravely battled the cancer for years. The most vivid memory that I have of Barbara is an image of her in a hospital bed in her living room during the last few days of her life. I feel blessed to have known Barbara for the short time that I did. During my early 20s I was fortunate to meet and make a very good friend at college. This friendship has continued for 15 years now. Over the years this friend has found lumps in her breast which have been tested and in some cases removed. Fortunately she has never been diagnosed with breast cancer. After I graduated from college and moved to the Washington D.C. area, I started participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K walk each summer. This event became a tradition for the 10 years that I lived in the area. I would meet up with two close friends each year at the crack of dawn and we would head down to the national mall for the event. It was a wonderful community of walkers and an opportunity to support the cause in a small way each year. Then in 2001 I saw a commercial for the Avon 3-Day Breast Cancer event. This event included a challenging walk distance of 60 miles in 3 days and $1,900 in fundraising. I was immediately convinced I needed to accept this challenge. I had never walked this far and certainly never tried to raise this much money. I signed up and participated in this event with my sister and 2 other friends in May 2002. I walked each an every mile and raised over $1,900. After this event, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her cancer was discovered early and treatment was effective. She has been cancer free for years. It's long overdue that I participate again. So here goes another 60 miles and $2,300 for the cause. I do it in memory of Barbara and in honor of my friend and grandmother. Please perform your breast self examinations, get your annual mammogram when the time comes and support the cause in any way you can. Because you just never know when breast cancer will impact you, family or friends.

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.