Team Up! The Central Texas Relay For LIFE Blog

Round Rock 2.0

Relay For Life® of Round Rock, TX 2.0
Saturday, May 17, 2008
  Clay Madsen Park

Who: All Round Rock Relay for Life participants (Survivors, team captains, team members, friends, and family)

What: Relay 2.0

When: Saturday, May 17th from 4-9pm (setup from 2-4pm)

Where: Clay Madsen Park, 1600 Gattis School Road

Why: We still have some Relayin' to do!!

How: Gather your team members and bring your campsite decorations, your team t-shirts, your onsite fundraisers, your costumes, your Relay batons, your silent auction items, your luminarias, and your fundraising money, and be ready to Relay!!

This will not be a full-scale Relay, but it will be a chance for us to gather together, have some fun, and do some of the things we had hoped to do the first time around. We will be holding our silent auction, judging team campsites/t-shirts/batons/costumes, holding drawings for our raffle and Survivor door prizes, and collecting any remaining fundraising money that you and your teams have at that point. This event will also serve as our wrap-up party, which is when the committee presents their awards to outstanding teams, sponsors, and individual participants for their part in making this a successful Relay year for Round Rock. We will also be distributing certificates to team members that can be redeemed for prizes through our individual incentives program. We also have a special gift for each team captain, so you don't want to miss it!!

We will have use of the grounds behind the Clay Madesn center, including the walking trail and surrounding areas, the basketball courts, and the children's playground. There will be space for teams to set up their campsites for judging and to conduct onsite fundraisers. We will also be lining the walking trail with luminarias to be lit for our closing ceremony at 8:30.
All the same rules still apply. No pets, alcohol, tobacco, glass containers, etc.

Team captains, we need 3 things from you...
1. Please send us an email or give us a call to let us know if you and your team will be there on the 17th.
2. Please let us know if your team will be doing an onsite fundraiser that will involve food. (Grills are allowed.)
3. Encourage your teams to keep raising money!!

We will be sending out an event schedule and more details to all participants soon. In the meantime, please share this information with your fellow Relayers and let us know if you have any questions. Also, be sure to check out our Relay pics online at http://www.flickr.com/groups/relayforlife_roundrock/. If you have any Relay pics of your own that you would like to add, please feel free to upload them to the site as well.

Thanks again for all your hard work so far, and we hope to see you all on the 17th for Relay 2.0!!

Conversation Creates Awareness...
Awareness Will Spur Community Involvement

For more info contact: RoundRockRelay (at) Yahoo.com

Five Tips To Help Make Your Team Great

Here are five tips that will help make your Relay team world class:

1. Decide  that you are going to have fun leading this team. Attitude is everything and if you decide you and your team will have fun, that will shine through in your eyes and more importantly in your smile as you talk up your team. Then be sure you build in ways your team can have fun before, during, and after the event.
2. Recruit a co-captain to help share the load with you and who will take over as captain when you've served your time. Look for someone with passion, time, and who has the ability to get things done.
3. Set a team fund-raising goal. The recommendation is $100 per person. Be sure each person is aware of that goal. It's okay to have one person who can only raise $75 because there will be others who can raise hundreds and even thousands. But they won't raise the money if you don't keep it in the front of their minds.
4. Communicate frequently. Hold team meetings where you bring team members up to date on activities planned at the event and where you can ask them to do some of the tasks that will lighten your load. For example, who has a tent or tent? Who can bring food? Who can bring games? Who will sign up to participate in the activities? Who will come up with your camp site's theme and decorations? Share successful fund-raising letters, e-mails. Plan group fund-raisers.
5. Educate yourself and your team as to how the money they raise will fight cancer. This blog is a great place to start and you can also surf the American Cancer Society's Web site.

For more information go to relayforlife.org and click on Team Captain Toolkit.

Have fun!

It's A Lotta Fun & It's For A Worthy Cause

Are you having trouble recruiting members for your team? Did you send out an e-mail to your co-workers or family and no one responded?

Let's look at the DNA of a Relay For Life event. Two things come quickly to mind. First, it's for a good cause--fighting cancer. Second, it's fun.

There are other reasons such as it's a great way to bond with your co-workers or organization members and it brings a community together. You can remember those who lost their battle and honor survivors.

But focus on the first two. How many radio announcements have you heard where the DJ said, "C'mon down to (insert any fundraising event name here). It's a lotta fun and it's for a worthy cause."

Now, e-mails and letters are great, but there is no substitute for personal solicitation. First, decide that your team is going to have a lot of fun at the event. Don't plan on leaving early, stay the entire night.

Your attitude is key here. If you look at your team captain duties as a chore, it'll show through in your attitude and you'll be much less successful in recruiting members. But if you decide from the get go that you're team is going to have fun, then that's the attttude that will shine through your eyes when you talk about your team.

Make a list of the people you want to recruit. Some may be looking for fun, others may have had a personal experience with cancer and want to fight back. Or likely, both reasons will resonate.

Next, how's your elevator speech? Develop a short speech which could be given in 10-20 seconds if you meet someone on an elevator. "Hey Jane. I'm putting together a team to participate in our Relay For Life and we want you to be on it. We're going to have a lot of fun while we're there AND by doing so, we're going to be supporting the fight against cancer.

Oh, you haven't heard of Relay For Life? It's a combination county fair and slumber party held at ________ on Friday evening on (date). We're putting together a team of about 15 people, most of whom you know."

Add any other pertinent information you need, but be sure and end it by asking, "Will you join our team?"
In sales that's called "Closing the deal," and you need to close the deal with the people you ask.

As a team captain stay up to date on the games and other activities your event committee is planning so that you can pass the info along to your team members or prospective team members. Build excitement as you get closer to the event.

Bottom line: If you don't ask, you don't "get!"

Interview With A Polyp

 

Remember to post your videos at SharingHope.tv

Free Austin Skin Cancer Screening Clinic

This is a melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer. Most often caused by overexposure to the sun, it can be deadly if not caught early. But it's not the only type of skin cancer. There's also Basal and Squamous.

No matter how old you are, if you spend a lot of time outdoors or in tanning salons or if you've had a mole or wart change in some way, you need to have your skin checked. The American Cancer Society, Austin Dermatological Society, Schering, Seton Family of Hospitals, and Dermik are sponsoring what I believe to be the 21st Annual Skin Cancer Screening Clinic.

It's Saturday, May 3rd from 8:00AM to 2:00 PM at the University Medical Center at Brackenridge. (Formally known as Brackenridge Hospital.)601 E. 15th St. First  Floor Day Surgery. It is free of charge.

No appointment necessary. First come, first serve. Park in the garage and bring your parking pass to have it validated.

If you are a farmer, rancher, outdoors(wo)man, sun worshipper, or someone whose occupation keeps you out in the sun, come to the clinic.

For more information, call your American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345.

The funds you raise at Relay For Life helps to support this clinic.

Tell All Your Friends About CPS-3

The weekend of May 2-3 across the U.S there will be 13 Relays For Life with an extra special component. These relays will offer a chance for people to volunteer to participate in our third cancer prevention study. CPS-3 is looking for 500,000 volunteers between the ages of 30 and 65 who have never had cancer.  Here' s how our  Web site describes it:

The purpose of CPS-3 is to better understand the lifestyle, behavioral, environmental and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer and to ultimately eliminate cancer as a major health problem for this and future generations.

Study participants will be asked to give a blood sample and fill out a questionnaire. You'll then reserve a questionnaire about once a year asking us to update your lifestyle information.

This weekend CPS-3 enrollment will be at the following Relays:
Bakersfield, CA
Long Beach, CA (Cal State U)
San Gorgonio Pass Communities
Tracy, CA
Bertram, FL
Milton, FL
Bibb (Macon) GA
Henry (McDonough) GA
Curry County, NM
Manati, Puerto Rico
Brazos/College Station, TX
Buda/Kyle, TX
Lubbock, TX

Enrollments are only taken for an hour or more at each relay, so click here to find a list of all Relay events involved in CPS-3 enrollment. The specific times are listed.

In addition to the 13 relays happening this weekend, there are many others still to come. If there's not one near you this weekend, perhaps there's one coming to your community soon.

Here's a 5:13 video containing more information about CPS-3. Watch it, then tell all your friends, neighbors, and family members between the ages of 30 and 65 to come out and sign up. This is another way for them to get involved in finding ways to prevent cancer.

 

When You Need Assistance For A Patient...

One Saturday night last Fall I received a phone call from my dad who lives in Georgia. My mom had just been diagnosed with small cell lung cancer and he had lots of questions. I got as much information from him as I could, hung up the phone and called our National Cancer Information Center at 800-227-2345 (available 24/7). As I was waiting for the Cancer Information Specialist (CIS), I pointed my computer's browser to www.cancer.org. As I asked each question, the CIS directed me to the appropriate Web page, which I immediately bookmarked. The next day I called my dad back and was able to summarize the information I had received. I also provided the info to my sister and to other relatives.

Let's say you receive a similar call from a friend or relative in a distant city. In addition to treatment options, you can find information about clinical trials, help navigating the health care maze, and find what local resources are available in the community where the patient lives.

There are 3,141 counties and county equivalents in the US. The American Cancer Society maintains a database on the local resources available in each one. That means if you know someone who lives in Wyoming, Maine, or even Guam we'll be able to tell them what's available.

For example, in some counties we have a program called Road To Recovery where local volunteers drive ambulatory cancer patients to local treatment facilities. We also have a program called Reach To Recovery, a visitation program for those women in have breast cancer.

But we also try to keep track of resources available from other organizations in each county. So if your loved one lives far from you, calling us might save you from a lot of needless suffering.

These programs, and our National Cancer Information Center, are supported by the dollars you raise through Relay For Life and other events.

Thank you for your support.

Eight More Team Fundraising Ideas

First, If you have a company or church team, have you considered contacting the vendors who do business with your company or church? Don't do this without the proper permission, but if you can get it, then perhaps your accounting department can give you a list of vendors. But wait! Don't just fire off letters to those companies. Found out who, in your organization has the best relationship with each vendor. Get him or her to make the ask. You'll be more productive that way. And you might wind up recruiting those people to be on your team.

Second, as the weather warms up, and again with the proper permission, consider setting up a stand in your kitchen at 3PM to sell ice cream sundaes, smoothies, and snow cones. You can usually get the ingredients donated if you ask a local grocer.

Third, how about cooking lunch? You can go to Sam's or Costco and get a couple trays of lasagne or something similar, some bags of salad and salad dressing and then charge people to come.

Fourth, if you have teens on your team, how about washing cars? In this case they might contact their immediate neighbors they know well and offer to wash their cars for them. If one of the kids in my neighborhood asked me if they could do that, I'd have a hard time turning them down for any good cause. Or perhaps there are some other chores they could perform.

Fifth, do you have a Relay donation jar at your desk or in your reception area? These can be up year-round.

Sixth, What about a garage sale? Most of your co-workers may have items they'd like to get rid off. Small items could be brought to work and larger items could be dropped off at the location where the garage sale will take place. Goodwill can be recruited to pick up the left overs.

Seventh, speaking of car washes, how about an employee car wash? Anyone got a power washer?

Eighth, do you have employees who make jewelry or other items for sale? Ask them to donate an item. How about a silent auction? Be sure each item is labeled with the name of the person who created it so they can get some publicity.

This Is National Minority Cancer Awareness Week

Did you know that:

• African Americans have the highest death and shortest survival rates of any racial or ethnic group for most cancers in the United States;
• Cancer is the second leading cause of death for Hispanics in the United States;
• For all cancer sites combined, uninsured patients are 1.6 times as likely to die in five years as those with private insurance.

Being uninsured or underinsured increases these disparities. Racial and ethnic minorities face obstacles to receiving access to quality health care:

• The uninsured are less likely to receive recommended cancer screenings, more likely to be diagnosed with later stage cancer, and to have lower survival rates;
• A third of all Hispanics (33 percent) and 18 percent of African Americans are uninsured, compared to 12 percent of whites;
• Uninsured, black, Hispanic, and low-income patients are less likely than white, high-income, and insured patients to receive recommended care.

To address these disparities and to increase awareness of cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment among the segments of the populations that are at greater risk of developing cancer, in 1987 the US House of Representatives designated the third week in April as National Minority Cancer Awareness Week with the intention of raising awareness among and encouraging physicians, nurses, health care professionals, and researchers to focus on high-risk populations and develop creative approaches to battling cancer problems unique to these communities.

Not just this week, but throughout the year, the American Cancer Society and its sister advocacy organization ACS CAN are working to ensure that all Americans, including racial and ethnic minorities have access to quality cancer care:

Since 1999, the American Cancer Society has funded 76 studies totaling $62 million devoted to the poor and medically underserved. Nearly 70 percent of these studies focused on the cancer continuum from prevention to survivorship for African Americans and Hispanics.

ACS CAN works at the federal and state levels to enact laws that help reduce cancer disparities and improve access to quality cancer prevention, early detection and treatment services.

ACS CAN and the Society collaborate on health disparities issues, legislative initiatives and grassroots training with a number of diverse groups such as the Intercultural Cancer Council, the National Latina Health Network and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

The population in the United States continues to undergo a demographic shift in which the minority population is projected to become the majority by 2050. In fact, according to the US Census Bureau, about one in three people living in the United States today is a minority.

We cannot reach our goals of reducing cancer mortality  by 50%, incidence by 25%, and achieving a measurable increase in the quality of life of cancer patients if we don't seriously impact cancer in the African-American, Hispanic, and other minority communities.

Relay For Life is one way we can raise funds AND get the word out.

(Thanks to Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of The American Cancer Society for this information.)

Texas State-San Marcos Video On SharingHope.tv

If you're a Relayer and you've got some video, audio, or stills from your event, please post them at SharingHope.tv. The Web site is meant to be an inspiration to cancer patients and your content may cheer someone up.  Relay content can help tell the Relay story by showing others what it's all about.

Here's a video from Texas State-San Marcos. It was taken with a camera designed more for stills than for videos.

You don't need music, but if you'd like to add it, you can find it free on the Web site. (Note formatting issues are due to this blog platform, not the video.)