nothing like a little following of the yellow (purple) brick road to get you inspired for the 2008 relay for life season...it was a gathering of 1400ish relayers (event chairs, team development chairs, and top fundraisers), advocates from the american cancer society cancer action network, and peeps from the cancer resource network from a 12 state area.
it was so much fun to celebrate the 124% increase over last year with the team from tacoma...nearly $199K raised online, and first in the division...and 7th in the nation!
in 2003, i met karen (the chair of the issaquah relay). over the years, she came to tacoma's relay, we met up and reconnected each year at summit...and when she found me this year, these were her words: "shelley, you and i were both standing when they recognized the $50k+ teams! when i heard you speak last year about your team's $50,000 that you raised, i said 'we can do that too!' your team was our inspiration this year!" and they raised $56,000. that flipping rocks. both of our teams are on track to be recognized next year as top nationwide teams for 2007.
after the hard work that we (the division's training task force and i helped chair) put in on this track - it was so much fun to see it come to fruition. on friday, i had the honor of leading the 4-hour breakout for the $150,000+ events and their chairs with steve howell (from the gwinnett relay) and working with lewis settle (from the bend, oregon relays). (see our self-portrait below.) two amazing relayers, and a blast to present with.
from the camano/stanwood relay, the parents of these twin sisters were both diagnosed with cancer within months of each other. their mom, doreen, has a super fabulous blog that's worth checking out: life is good. bookmark it.
we had a 'yellow brick road' filled with names of those we love who have had cancer. my bricks held the names of mama g, jonathan's mom, monica lyons, and jonathan's hawaiian family's mom.
patricia carrigan, phd from mayo clinic in arizona shared about her acs-funded developments in pancreatic cancer. not only is she brilliant, but she managed to use the phrase "jello shots" (after a challenge from brian marlow) in her presentation. :) truly a gifted scientist, she inspired us with the developments she's making with her team in the field of biomarkers for pre-malignant and early malignancies of the pancreas. she believes that in her lifetime, there will be a 'pregnancy-test-like" test to diagnose cancer. debbie and i loved meeting her after the summit was over (in the pool, no less) and getting to know her.
on saturday, i had the privilege of presenting again with steve, judy poulson (on the training task force with me), and misha huffman, who chairs the national rfl leadership team. having so many top fundraisers (from tacoma) in our breakouts made it that much more fun. nothing like inspiring you to get going for next year!
one of the best quotes from the weekend from one of the event chairs?
"shelley, when i met you thursday night at the welcome reception, i thought you'd had a little too much to drink. after sitting in your workshops for two days, now i realize you're just like that all the time!"
speaking of steve...here's a cool national relay video that he's in...you might even recognize a few tacoma photos in there!
...with the world's best co-captain.
Good work!!! I'm glad your back though, both Viper and Maggie missed you lots. You forgot to tell of all the fantastic relay goodies you brought back for me.
I am so glad that you are out there fighting for all of those who have cancer and those of us that are affected by it! I love you!