I've got Relay on the brain - which is true most of the time actually. 

Team Mitchel had another good year, the softball tournament and fun run went well and we brought in a lot of money once again! Our team took top fundraising team at the Relay this year - our first time ever. I don't have a final $ amount, but I will get that and post it on here. I know it was over $4,000:)


My role with Relay this year will change a little, I am stepping out of the co-chair role and into the Publicity Chair role.  I sent a memo out to several Plymouth County newspapers/towns asking them to help us get the word out on Relay 2012.  I will also be working with the news stations for that advertising once we get closer to Relay.  I have a few ideas for how to get people more involved in Relay - first getting a float in the Christmas parades this year, also doing a "Paint the Town Purple" event in Remsen and possibly other communities some time in May.  The goal is to keep Relay on people's minds all year long.

Relay 2011

Plans for Relay 2011 are in full swing!!!  I am so excited for another fun year of Relay planning.  Our team has two fundraisers coming up.

May 14 - Softball Tournament
May 21 - Fun Run

This May is going to be soooo busy!  Not only do we have the fundraisers, Jake and Kim graduate too.  But we'll get through it, it's kinda fun to be busy sometimes!

If you ever have any questions about Relay or our fundraisers, please call me!  I'm on my cell all the time pretty much except at work but number is 548-7666.

Tell all your friends, relatives, co-workers about our Relay, and our fundraisers!  If we are excited, they will be too!

Revamp the blog!!!

I can't believe how long it has been since I updated this blog!  What a slacker!!! :)

Planning for Relay For Life 2011 is underway as you know, and I will be co-chair for the event again this year which is a lot of fun and a lot of work, but it's so worth it!  And I enjoy it!

I will gather up some info and get this blog up to date - thanks for playing your part for Team Mitchel.

~Shelly

We had another great year of fundraising and our fundraising total this year is $4,400.50! The Relay was a fun event and thanks to everyone who came out. Below are some pictures from the event:

We're only days away from the Relay....it has really snuck up on me with the planning for everything else going on. We are planning to have the "Rockin' for a Cure" campsite theme so the guitar hero setup will be at the campsite, should be pretty sweet! If you would like to buy a luminaria bag, they are $7 this year and I have several so let me know how many you need and I'll get them to you. The Relay starts at 6 with the opening ceremony and laps for survivors/caregivers, then the fun laps are 7:15 - 11:30 with the relay wrapping up at midnight. The fun laps this year are: Balloon walk, cookie lap, hat lap, send cancer packing lap (wear backpacks), Relay Idol (sounds fun!), Hot Potato lap and Power of Purple Lap.

The fun run is this weekend (Saturday) and we are really looking forward to that. We're starting in Le Mars then to Alton, then to Germantown, then to Paullina, then to Marcus and the finish line is in Remsen at Charlie's. The forecast for Saturday sounds great so thank the Lord for that!

We have raised over $2,500 thusfar from the rummage sale and softball tournament so we are doing great with fundraising. Let me know if you have any questions, hope to see everyone Saturday at the Fun Run!!! and next Friday at the track!!!

P.S. Below are pictures from the tournament...there are more pictures on my Facebook page if you are my friend or add me to see them!

This is the trophy Jake made in shop, he did an awesome job!!! (sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate the picture!)

The picture below is of the winning team, Team Colling, they recently lost a family member to cancer so it was touching to see them win and they were so proud!

We had a great team meeting the other night and here is an outline of the plans we discussed:

Fundraising for 2009 Relay for Life:

• Can Drive – starting immediately
• Team members pick up can bags and collect

• Bake Sale at Advance Brands – March?
• Jeff checking on this

• Rummage sale at Carly's house or Maurice community center
• April sometime
• Maybe sell baked goods at rummage?
• Ask team members for donations, check with family/friends for donations

• Softball Tournament
• May 9 in Remsen at diamonds by derby track
• 10 teams max
• Ask around for food stand and raffle donations
• Andy to handle advertising – Jeff's mom works at sentinel
• Need to call City of Remsen to reserve the fields
• One day only
• $200/team entry fee
• trophy prize, winning team to receive entry fee back???
• Co-ed
• Umpire ideas?
• Jeff to check on slushie machine/ice cream machine
• Sell luminaria bags at tournament
• Make ribbon cookies to sell at food stand
• Purple ribbon tattoos – sell or give to teams to wear?
• Free will donation bucket at food stand
• Balloons and banner
• Advertise Relay for June 5 at tourney with explanation of events
• Distribute flyers for tourney in Remsen week before
• Free glowsticks after dark?
• Food stand: taverns/coneys/hot dogs, buns, nachos w/ cheese, pop, water, candy, etc. - need to get napkins, plates, etc. donated
  
• Poker Run
• May 30 starting ??? ending in Remsen at bar
• Checking on Budweiser sponsorship and/or signage

AT THE RELAY...

• Lap beads
• At Relay will have lap beads again, use remaining necklaces and beads
  
• Glow Sticks
• Sell for $1 each after dark

• Rock Band campsite theme
• Set up tvs and rock band
• $1/person/song“Rockin' for a Cure!”

If there are any questions and/or suggestions for this year and these events, please let me know. This is going to be another great and successful year!!!

Thanks everyone!
Shelly

2009 Relay plans are underway...

I had my first meeting tonight for the 09 relay, they highlighted some of the changes for our relay this year, including ending events at the track at midnight and holding a candlelight vigil at the hospital, I guess they just light a bunch of candles and you can go there to pray and honor your loved ones affected by cancer. The reason they want to do that is to hopefully keep people at the track longer and to attract more people. They'll just do the overnight "fun walks" in the evening hours rather than the overnight hours. I think it will be a good thing for Plymouth County.

I got lots of handouts and everyone's team member packets. I was wondering if we could all get together as a team some weeknight soon and discuss fundraising for this year, to hopefully include a softball tournament and other ideas. I want everyone's input on our fundraising so if we could plan to get together for a pizza supper somewhere, that would be great. And then we could go through the team member packets together and answer any questions anyone has. I just think it would be great to get together for a fun time to get some planning underway. Let me know if there is a best night of the week for you and we'll get something planned.

Austin won a door prize, he went with us and got a Relay duffle bag, so that was fun. I have lots of fun stuff to share with everyone, hope to hear from EVERYONE soon!!!

Later,
Shelly

http://www.lemarssentinel.com/story/1495521.html

The above link will lead you to an article that was recently in the Le Mars newspaper about a group being formed to help those going thru cancer. Very nice article and local events coming up if anyone cares to take part.

Relay for Life 2008 was a great time, we had beautiful weather and our team walked 80 miles (320 laps!!!). We turned in $3121.50 and I have $21 more to turn in, so our total for 2008 will be $3142.50. The Le Mars Sentinel had an article in today's paper about the Relay, here's the link to that article:

http://www.lemarssentinel.com/story/1435384.html

Here are some pictures from the Relay:

Thanks to everyone for their part in making our second year a great success!!!

Bank night went well last night, turned in $2,931.00!!! They were impressed! They give one shirt per hundred dollars raised, so we qualified for 29 shirts, but I only took one for each walker on our team so ended up with 15 shirts and will get those to you at the Relay Friday.

I've still got a few loose ends to tie up for the Relay, need to make some posters and get a few other things lined up. I'm really excited for the Relay, it's gonna be a lot of fun!!!

See you there!
Shelly

The Softball tournament was a ball of fun for everyone, thanks to everyone who helped out and/or played on the team! Here's a picture of the team:





Our team will benefit to the tune of $1,600 and so far the team subtotal including team member registration fees, can drive money and individual fundraising is $2,375 so we've already passed last year's total of $2,270. Great job Team!!!!!

Planning to do an on-site fundraiser this year, but not a bake sale. Ran across this idea when researching on the Relay website last night. It's called lap beads and here's the jist of how it works:

People buy a string from us for $3 with one of those small pony beads on it, and every time they make a lap they stop at our table to pick up a bead (beads free after purchasing string/first bead), and every fourth bead is a different color so people can easily track how many miles they've walked (the string hangs on them like a necklace and they just simply take the necklace off each lap to put on another bead). Only supplies we'd need would be string and beads. Sounds like the team that does it (from another state) has had great success with it.

I'll be hunting for string and beads and this on-site fundraising will take place of our bake sale. Any comments on this?? Let me know.

Our theme for the campsite this year is "Making laps for a cure" so this lap bead fundraiser will tie along nicely into that. I have been hunting for a checkered flag table cover and some checkered penants, found some on e-bay that will look really nice around our campsite to show off our racing theme.

3 weeks til Relay....hope your fundraising is going well and see you all soon.
Reminder: Bank night is May 30, please have any fundraising you've collected to me by then so we can get our t-shirts that night.

Thanks to everyone!!!

CONCESSION STAND SCHEDULE

This is the final concession stand schedule.


Friday, May 2, 2008:

6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Carmel Church Volunteers

7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Mindy Scheitler & Cari Roorda

9 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Jeannie Scheitler & Shelly Clay

Saturday, May 3, 2008:

8 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Jeannie Scheitler & Shelly Clay

9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. Wendi Kats & Kristi Segar

11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Carmel Church Volunteers

2:30 p.m. - 5 p.m. Jen Kuhlman & Jeannie Scheitler

5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Carmel Church Volunteers

7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Cari Roorda & Jill Johnson

8:30 p.m. - 10 p.m. Shelly Clay & Betty Scheitler


Again, please let me know if you have a conflict with your assigned time, otherwise will see you then! If you would like to work the concession stand and have not been assigned a time, please call or e-mail me asap!

Thank you!!!

I've been working on some ideas for the Dodgeball fundraiser, found some temporary tattoos on ebay for cheap, here's a picture of them:

Thought the tattoos would be a fun idea and if they go over well maybe will get more for the actual relay ($10.00 for 100 tats).

Also, was thinking of ideas of what we can sell at the bake sale cause I'm thinking there will be at least one other team there with a bake sale. So, I am going to buy lots of suckers in asst. flavors/colors cause they are easy to sell and require little handling. A good way to keep the bake sale simple would be to only sell items by the baggie (trail mix, candy mix, puppy chow, chex mix, etc.) I plan to man the bake sale table, would be great if someone else could man it with me or take over at some point so I can watch/participate in the activities of the day....let me know if that would work for you. The tournament is March 29 so it's just a little over a month away, please be thinking of what you'd like to bring.

I haven't had any updates from the relay people, hoping to get the newsletter soon so I'll have an update for you all.

For now,

Shelly

The Relay Team Kick-Off meeting was tonight and I receive the Team Captain packet along with the 15 Team Member packets...will get those distributed asap. Wanted to pass along the information I learned tonight...

Plymouth County RFL is hosting their 2nd annual Dodgeball tournament on March 29 at the Le Mars High School. Time TBD. Teams consist of 6-10 people and are of all age groups. I'd like to have a "team mitchel" team, so please contact me if you care to participate. During the tournament, there will also be a "fundraising fair" where teams can have a bake/craft sale, or whatever we want to sell. I'm thinking this would a great opportunity for us to do our bake sale because it's indoor (sun won't be melting our baked goods) and it will free us up during the relay to enjoy other activities. Please plan on this bake sale fundraiser to be held on March 29 --- will be in contact to see how many of you will be able to participate and bake some goodies.

Team Mitchel 2008 Fundraisers are:

1. Can/Bottle Drive
2. Dodge Ball Tournament bake sale
3. Co-Ed softball game in Maurice (some time in May, details unknown at this point)
4. Individual Fundraising
5. Glow Sticks at Relay (hope to make this an annual fundraiser for us)

Other news includes the Relay date, which is June 6 @ 6 p.m., ending June 7 @ 7 a.m. The Relay will be at the high school track this year which will be a much better location! The theme for 2008 is "Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back." The board said they are planning many new, exciting events for the relay and I will pass those details along as I get them.

I'll be having Team Captain meetings regularly now and will update everyone on any news. For now, that's all I know. Hope everyone is having fun collecting cans and bottles!

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Ready...Set...Go!!!

Most everyone should have their can drive packets now. Please let me know if you need anything else - more bags, flyers or anything else that might come up. I hope I wrote on everyone's form that the drive dates are from January 15 thru March 31. That doesn't mean you have to start immediately or end on March 31, just wanted to give some dates for everyone's reference so there aren't too many question marks. Will advertise our can drive when we prepare for the softball game this spring, try to have a trailer for people to bring their cans to eliminate any confusion.

Hope everyone is doing well and let the fundraising begin!

Things are coming along with the can drive. I have a packet w/ bags for each of you, just need to arrange how everyone is going to get theirs. As I'm thinking it will be hard to arrange to meet everyone at a certain time/place, I am planning to mail the packets with instructions for your own use and handling. I tried to explain everything carefully so questions will be minimal, but please let me know if anything isn't clear.

Happy fundraising!!!

More info on can drive

I have printed an info sheet on the can/bottle drive to give people who are asked to donate, will get that to you when I hand out bags. I picked up 50 bags yesterday and will get those out to everyone asap. I don't see a need to wait until March to begin that fundraiser, can start any time on that so will arrange with everyone, either by mail or in person, how I'll get the supplies to you. E-mail me if you have questions, otherwise will be in contact soon.

Hello Team and friends,
Hope your holidays were enjoyable and your new year has started off on the right foot.

I've done lots of contemplating on how to exceed last year's fundraising total for Team Mitchel of $2,270.00. Given the amount of time we had last year to fundraise and how great we did, I'd say we'll be able to far exceed that amount in '08.

I look at our Best Campsite trophy every day and it inspires me to think creatively on how to reach for the stars in 2008. I would like to organize the following events for 2008, the first of which will happen in March, then one in April or May since Relay is in June.
1) March: Can/Bottle Drive-we'll ask family, friends, co-workers and other contacts to donate their cans and bottles to our team for us to cash out and donate to ACS. We provide the large plastic bags to people we ask to donate ($.25 each at Le Mars can farm) to make it easier for them to donate. Could arrange to pick up bags from donees or if all of you are willing, have each of you take it upon yourselves to collect the full bags, cash them out then send the moneys to me to get a grand total on this fundraiser. There are details to this I need to sort out yet and I will keep you all posted as things develop and are finalized.
2) April/May: Softball game. We'll charge teams to join, will need to ask around to form teams. Will be held in Maurice across from Jed/Jeannie's house. Will also sell concessions and have a donation can. If you know of anyone that would be interested in participating and enjoys softball, man or woman, see if they'd be interested in forming a team. Would be nice to have 4-5 teams so we can do a tournament-style event. I plan to ask my co-workers, one of which used to coach softball and the other who has a very athletic family. Will need to determine how much teams will be charged yet, I'm thinking so much per team member, but these details will need to be hammered out yet.

These are my fundraising ideas. They are just in my head right now, but I hope to move forward with both ideas soon. If anyone has any ideas on fundraising opportunities, please share.

In researching Relay for Life and ACS, I have learned so much about the purpose of why we fundraise. We are raising the money to remember those we've lost, to honor and save those who fight cancer in their lives and to make cancer a disease of the past. The cause is close to our team's heart because of our loss in Mitchel, making it worth every effort we put forth to raise funds. I am so thankful for each of you on our team, thankful for your time and confidence in me.

I will be mapping out these fundraisers this weekend and will keep updating the blog so everyone can keep informed. I hope to see you all soon.

Shelly, Team Captain

Saturday's festivities in Maurice were really nice, great weather and great turnout for the families. Channel 9 was there and had a story on the 10 o'clock news. Here's a link to that on-line story:
http://kcautv.com
It's for the Kids is the headline and it'll play the 3 minute story just like you're watching the news. Pretty cool!

Have a good week!

I received a nice thank you note in the mail Tuesday from the Relay chairpeople saying thanks for participating and that it was a huge success "because of you", meaning our team!!! That was a mood booster for me so wanted to pass it along.

Jeannie and I talked and we're going to sell popcorn at the Maurice ballfield sometime in August when Jed's slow pitch team has tournaments. I'll keep everyone posted on that cause all proceeds will be donated to the Cancer Society (we were able to get the popcorn donated).

Hope to see some red shirts Saturday in Maurice!!!

Shelly