Location: Parkway Ballroom
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2015; 11:00 am-3:00 pm
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| Another year, another "Kickoff" |
Unlike breakfast from the previous years, this time we
had 2 "Kickoff’s" one in the city at ‘Hard
Rock Café’ and another one on the “Southside”. I had missed the first one since I was
travelling, but I volunteered for this one.
I took an ‘Uber’ and arrived
to see that signs had been posted to lead us upstairs. The space itself was quite nice and very
artistic. The place was buzzing and I
saw that at the "check-in" table some ladies were putting together some bags for
team leads. I went inside to see that
the staff members, Allyson, Katherine, Carrie and Jessie, were directing
traffic. The ballroom was really good
and various stations were lined up all along the sides, including a “Photobooth”, “Registration”, 'ACS CAN' and “Luminaria”, which was being
manned by a a mom and her son. He was excited
and running about the room, taking it in.
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| The "Birthday Cake" |
There was a “Styrofoam
Cake” with a pink glow stick in it.
The idea was to get survivors to put in more glow sticks and make it
like a birthday cake since ‘ACS’
motto has always been “sponsor of more
birthdays”. Katherine said that I
would be at “Check-in” and the job
was quite simple. When people came in,
check their name against the list. If
their name was in “Red”, they were a “Team Captain” and we were to give them
the bag. If it was in “Green”, they were a “Pace Setter” and got a sticker. If the name wasn’t on the list, we were to
get them to fill out a form. Then we
were to give them a name tag and a form for “Scavenger
Hunt”. The idea was to get them to
go to every station and get the person there to initial the form. At the end they were to submit the forma and
there would be a drawing where the prize was a “care package”. Finally, we
were to also give them a card to fill out for the “Hope Wall” where they write their name on it. Besides me, there would be 2 others posted
here. As I looked at the list, I saw that
my name was mentioned as a “Team Captain”
as well!
Although the event was at noon, people had started coming in
before 11:30 am. I started by greeting
them and following the protocol as outlined.
The inside room wasn’t yet set-up and so we had to ask them to wait for
a bit, but they were able to go inside soon. The elevator wasn’t working and it was a shame
since some ladies were walking with a cane and were struggling to come up the
stairs. But they were in good spirits
and smiling. Many of the ladies wanted
the bag that we had for the “Team Captain”
and we had to politely decline. People
were coming in and the 3 of us were very busy.
Plus, many weren’t on the list and we were requesting them to fill out
the form, which took some time.
Carrie came and gave us 4 names, who were the speakers today
and upon their arrival, we were to ask them to go meet Carrie. Also, one of the ladies had 2 boxes to pick
up while the other was an ‘ABC’
anchor. The 4 ladies arrived and the one
with the 2 boxes said that she would pick them up later. The TV anchor had come with her daughter, who
was just one of the many with kids present – which was our intention with this
event. People seemed to be interested in
the “Scavenger Hunt” and many came
back to return the filled form. We had
to tell them that they had to give it at the “Luminaria” table inside.
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| We had a great turnout |
It was noon and Carrie said that we could come and see the
program if we wanted. The speeches began
and the ‘ABC’ anchor spoke about her
association with “Making Strides” for
14 years. She was really good at getting
the crowd going and the energy inside the room was quite high. I looked around and many had put up their
cards on the “Hope Wall”. The “Photo
Booth” was going well and ‘ACS CAN’
was signing up a lot of people as well. I
was going out periodically to sign up some of the late comers. However, I did manage to listen to one of the
“Survivor” stories and it was
heartfelt and funny. The program was
over soon and many came over to get the bags saying they were “Team Captains”. The lady with the 2 boxes asked if she could
get some help carrying the boxes to the car and of course it was me doing
that. I came back up and Allyson asked
for my help in cleanup. I put some of
the things in boxes and then it was time to leave. The "kickoff" had been a big success with
almost 150 attendees. Now it was on to
the actual walk.
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