A youth team at my local Relay wanted to do the purple flamingo fundraiser. You know, the one where flamingos land in neighborhood yards and in order for them to be removed the homeowner has to make a donation.

Well, it worked for this team.

The local newspaper did a story on it. 

There's a very special team at my local Relay. In about 13 years, they've raised over $100,000. Their team has consisted mainly of three folks and occasionally other friends and family members.

It's truly remarkable.

The local newspaper did a story following our Relay. 

Anymore, when I update the blog here, I always start by saying something like, "Well, it's been awhile since I last posted...."

And that's true again!

Last weekend (May 17-18) was the 15th annual Relay For Life of Moon Area (near the Pittsburgh airport). All the stressing over the past several months had finally met its match.

We had 22 teams. Had $30,000 going into the event. Had over 30 survivors.

And, oh yeah, we had rain. And lots and lots and lots of it. We could have built Noah's Ark, sold it to him and made soooooooooooooooo much money for Relay. lol.

(Note: It's rained for 14 of the 15 Relays.)

Guess who's back?

It's been since early December that I've blogged on RelayForLife.org and it's probably been just as long since I've been on the site!!!  I know, such a bad Relay person.

There are a lot of reasons (or excuses, I guess) as to why I've been MIA.

First... it was Christmas time, so with shopping and all that stuff to do, that didn't help much.  And at work, I was not only doing my job, but was also doing two other people's jobs -- all at the same time!!!

And then we get to my local Relay.  We hit some snags, didn't have that great of a Kick-Off.  I was really sad after the lackluster Kick-Off turnout.  Aside from our committee, we had four people show up.  And their two teams were already registered!!!!!!

My staff person is changing (again).  The one we've had was promoted (yay for her!!!!) but that means she isn't doing Relays (boo!).  Right now, we're in limbo since they haven't hired anyone for the position.  So it's sort of hit or miss right now.  That's OK, except for the fact that I really really really really like working with Laura.

It's no secret that people love cookbooks.

We don't always use every recipe in them, but many, many people buy them and use them -- especially around the holidays.

Friday night I was at a local town's light up night celebration and their Relay was selling cookbooks.

I bought one.  $12.

I wanted to see what it looked like and how it was made.

The woman selling them -- Valerie -- said the company they worked with was great and they're making a decent profit on them.  (She said but I forget.)

They were selling them wrapped in gift wrap for holiday purchases.  How neat.

So I'm browsing it now (while watching the Steelers game) and I'm really enjoying it.

I think Valerie said a team is selling them at her Relay.  I am going to suggest this to our teams or even see if the committee thinks it would be a good fundraiser.

The company is called Morris Press Cookbooks.  Check them out at www.morriscookbooks.com.  It says they'll send you a free kit to get started.  I'm going to send for one and see what it's all about.

There's a lot in life I'm thankful for: my health, my family, getting a job this year and then being promoted to full-time and working out of the office closest to my house, my friends, my animals, etc.

But I'm also thankful for the passion that Relayers everywhere share.  Here we stand, fighting this battle against an enemy that doesn't sleep.  We've all got lives, jobs, families, etc., that could use our "free time."  Instead, we're on the battle lines fighting cancer.

I'm thankful to research that's helped many of our friends and family live longer and not only fight, but win their battle with cancer.  We may not have won the war yet, but we are winning battles every single day.

I'm thankful for the survivors who stand up and proclaim their victories.  It's those folks who give me the passion to Relay.  I was younger when cancer took my grandmother away from me, but in every survivor I meet, I always think of my grandmother.  She lives in spirit through Relay. 

On Wednesday, my staff partner and I presented a Relay Rally/Kick-Off to the student body of one of our two high schools.

It. Was. Awesome!

I had my doubts, I must admit.  We didn't really have a plan for it (and for yinz that know me, you know I love a plan).  Laura (my SP) and I came up with a rough plan the night before and put it together in the morning before the event.

As the students entered, we had a youth video playing and we were handing out RFL goodies.  Their principal introduced us and briefly talked about the school's involvement.  Then she turned it over to us!

I'm not afraid of public speaking at all.  I am afraid of public speaking when I don't know what I'm saying.  Following the principal's words, we asked everyone to raise their hand(s) if (grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc.) has battled cancer.  Nearly everyone had their hand(s) raised -- almost 300 people.

Then Laura (the world's best SP) went into a little more about the event before we showed the college recruitment video.  It works for HS crowds because they can relate.

So I'm not getting along very well with Convio, the program that RFL event Web sites are designed on. Our online chair had some issues gaining access with her user name recently so our staff partner gave us another log in to try.

It's about 1:10 in the morning on Thanksgiving and I've been trying for two hours to change some stuff on the page.

Convio doesn't seem to be friendly to Firefox or Safari (I'm a Mac user ... you'd think they would have made it compatible with at least one Apple-friendly browser).

I've had some luck trying to update our event's Web page but it's very, very difficult. Once I clicked edit in the browser, some times it would let me edit things, other times it wouldn't. I tried using the HTML code but I know the very basic stuff with HTML so I didn't want to get too deep and not be able to fix it.

I've read the manuals online and tried using the help feature on the site builder with no luck.

So I'm not getting along very well with Convio, the program that RFL event Web sites are designed on. Our online chair had some issues gaining access with her user name recently so our staff partner gave us another log in to try.

It's about 1:10 in the morning on Thanksgiving and I've been trying for two hours to change some stuff on the page.

Convio doesn't seem to be friendly to Firefox or Safari (I'm a Mac user ... you'd think they would have made it compatible with at least one Apple-friendly browser).

I've had some luck trying to update our event's Web page but it's very, very difficult. Once I clicked edit in the browser, some times it would let me edit things, other times it wouldn't. I tried using the HTML code but I know the very basic stuff with HTML so I didn't want to get too deep and not be able to fix it.

I've read the manuals online and tried using the help feature on the site builder with no luck.