We have always wrapped up our opening ceremony with a Team Parade, where we introduced every team, said why they Relayed, took their photo, and let them walk their first lap (this is after the Survivor Lap, of course).
This year, for the first time, we reached 100 teams! We're afraid that this opening team parade will go on and on... so I'm wondering what other events do. Do you have a team parade? If not, do you have some other way of recognizing your teams? If you do have a team parade, how do you handle organizing so many teams?
I'm not complaining - 100 teams is a good problem to have! - but I want to make sure that we don't end up with a big logistical mess.
Did I mention that this year is our event's 20th anniversary? And Dr. Klatt is our keynote speaker!! Woo hoo!!!
We have been trying to do a Team Parade, and organize Team pictures immediately after, but logistically it would take up too much time at our Relay, it is large and we have some teams with a lot of participants. This year we hope we have it figured out. Immediately after the Survivor Lap, we have the Team Parade scheduled. We are going to ask the teams to gather around the track (like always) for the survivor lap in front of their team's luminaria (we group the bags together by team so they are easily found). At that location, we have posterboard signs already made with each team's name on them. Following the survivor lap, we are asking the teams to begin the next lap as a group with their teammates. As they finish the lap and pass by the DJ/Emcee, they will hold up their sign to be announced as they cross the finish line. This way each team is recognized, and the audience will see them as they finish their lap.
Wow, what a wonderful problem to have! We don't have that many teams, but we do have a Team Banner Lap. We have all the teams take turns coming up to the "starting line", where the Survivor Lap had begun and have their picture taken with their banner. We don't have them share why they Relay at that time. We always have a few teams who wait to have their picture taken because they want to get the whole team together, and they aren't all there at the beginning. And inevitably, they don't end up getting their picture taken, at all. So we really want to do the banner lap in the morning. Even though it may take some time, it's worth it.
Joined: 2007-01-08