Our Fundraising Clinic

Tonight we had our team fundraising clinic. It was good, as always, but I was disappointed that so few of the team showed up – only about a half dozen or so not counting mentors from a team of over 40 people.

All of us on the team are training for an endurance event, and we really want to cross that finish line, be it for a full or half marathon, a century bike ride, or a triathlon. But the really important “finish line”, the one that sets us apart for just being endurance athletes, is the fundraising finish line. We are, after all, doing this to improve lives of cancer patients and to help find a cure. Every ten minutes that passes without a cure, one more American dies of a blood cancer.

I know we won’t find a cure this year or next or the year after for every kind of blood cancer. But what if in 5 years, instead of a death every 10 minutes, it is a death every 30 minutes? And what if in 10 more years, it is a death every 10 hours – how amazing would that be? And what if, by curing blood cancers, researchers find that lymphoma really is the "Rosetta Stone" of cancers, and many other cancers are cured along the way. By crossing that second finish line, the fundraising finish, each of us doing Team in Training can hopefully make cures a reality.

The clinic was run by Jen, our TNT coordinator. She is new to the job and is really good and enthusiastic, running her first clinic in such a fine way. She got good brainstorming and discussions from the mentors and participants. Amber was also there, with all of her experience, to help with ideas and her wonderful enthusiasm. Between the two of them and the participants and mentors, we got a lot of great synergy going, and I hope that this leads to successful fund-raising campaigns for everyone.

Speaking of fundraising, after nearly 2 months of "campaigning", I have raised nearly $2,500. So while I have a long way to go to reach my goal, I feel like I have gotten off to a really good start.