Location: American Cancer Society Office
Date: Tuesday, July 08, 2014; 6:00-7:00
pm
I had said at last month’s meeting that I could potentially
request One Brick to help out with volunteers on the day of the event. As such I had been in touch with them and
Jesse to explore having some volunteers stationed at the ‘Children’s Tent’. But this
is not an activity that happens fast and so there was no resolution by this
month’s meeting. I arrived to see that
we had only a few members in attendance this month owing to many being out for
vacations. A couple of ladies were
handing out flyers for a 20’s style fund raiser to benefit the survivors. It looked interesting but since it was going
to be in the suburbs, it was unlikely that I would get to go.
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| Skin Cancer awareness ribbon |
We started the session with Carrie telling us about a gentleman
named Antoine, who was a male survivor – yes, there are males afflicted with
this disease – and who had written a song about his diagnosis and treatment. She said that he would be present at the
event and perform his song live. Katie
then gave us the “Mission Moment”,
where she talked about the risk of contracting skin cancer due to UV, which is
a problem during summer months. She
talked about the “ABCDE” of “Melanoma”, which is “A: Abnormal growth, B: Border of the mark,
C: Color, D: Diameter, E: Evolution of growth”. Next, Carrie gave us an update on the number
of teams, participants and the money raised; which was a 400% increase since
this time last year. It is safe to say
that with her leadership, I would attribute this success to Carrie.
She talked about the kickoff event on August 4th
and said that all of the committee members, including me, would be on
registration. She said that the speeches
were currently running at 48 minutes and she was trying to cut them down to 45. Following the speeches there would
be a networking event should people want to participate. For the day of the event we would start at 7
am and some students had been recruited as volunteers. Speaking of which Jesse, who was on the
phone, then gave an update on the volunteer situation saying that we both were trying to see if One
Brick could help out. She mentioned that
the committee chair for ‘Children’s
Activities’ had to step down and so Jesse was taking over that role. I asked how many kids had shown up last year
and it was approximately 200. I said
that One Brick could handle that and also come up with activities that do not
require any funds.
For ‘Promotions’,
Carrie said that there was a company which wanted to put 500-600 volunteers to
work on July 12. She was going to have
them put up pamphlets all over town, obviously only with businesses which would
let us do it. Next was an update on ‘Entertainment’ and once again, we
seemed to have lost the committee chair.
Jesse was stepping in for this as well and she said that they were still
looking at “Flash Mob” and “Zumba”.
They also wanted to do a “Costume
Contest” and “Scavenger Hunt”,
which I feel is always a popular activity because of the thrill of the adventure more than the prize
itself. The ‘Survivor and Caregiver’ committee was in the house –thankfully
someone who had not quit – and they said that they had secured donations of
gourmet tea, coffee and hot chocolate.
They had samples and from the packaging they looked gourmet
indeed. They said that they were also
looking to set up a “relaxation station”
which would provide hand and back massages, especially for the caregivers. The theme was “Let us take care of you today” and why not. It was a terrific idea.
We still needed food donations, at least enough for 300
people visiting the ‘Survivor’s Tent’,
200 for ‘Volunteer’s Tent’ and 100
for ‘VIP Tent’. Carrie said that she was going to approach ‘Mariano’s’ and ‘Jewel’ as well as take what we could get. My views on wasting food have been documented
through the postings on ‘Wells Street Café’
and I said that we should have a plan for donating leftover food. By plan I meant not opening all the boxes
that would be donated, since once opened we could not do anything but throw it
away if not used. Carrie said that for
their ‘Walk and Roll’ event earlier this
year, some of the public school teachers had taken leftover boxes for their
kids. Now that was something I could get
behind. Speaking of food, there would
also be Food Trucks at the scene and a percentage of proceeds would go to us.
For ‘Advocacy’ the
plan was still to have an exterior purse design and Carrie said that we could use
red, white and blue streamers, which were leftover from 'ACS' offices World Cup Soccer
party! There was an ‘ACS CAN’ fundraiser in ‘Blackfinn’
on July 22nd with a $40 entry charge for 2 hours of open bar and
appetizers. There was a debate on
whether you would be required to buy tickets up front or if you could purchase at the door, and I said that you almost have to let people buy it the day off since many decide
at the last minute if they have the time to attend. Our hour was up and before leaving Carrie
said that we should listen to Antoine’s song.
As we heard it, the lyrics were very hard-hitting, as he went through
the details of his treatment. It had
been another productive meeting and despite losing some team members, we are
well on track.
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