‘Tis I, your Artful Mentor, wishing you a happy Saint Patrick’s Day, and hoping that plenty of green is coming into your fundraising coffers.
To Lexi and Leslie, once again congratulations to you both on a job – fundraising and training – well done. I know that you will have a fantastic time at your race. And since you have already gone past you fundraising minimum, reaching Rock Star status in Lexi’s case, you can just enjoy the event, kick-back, and not worry about fund-raising anymore. And that means that I will take you off my mentoring email list after this week. So no more will you be troubled with weekly email reminders from your Artful Mentor. No more will you be vexed thinking “What in the world is he talking about?” So glad you are that you signed up for the Shamrock event and not the Country Music Marathon, to have to endure six more weeks of my emails.
Seriously, I am really proud of both of you. You have done all that was necessary to be successful, and then some. So go reap the rewards of all your hard work with a great race and a fun Team in Training weekend at the beach! Well done!
Now, to my Nashville Teammates. Today, I heard from one of you the four most beautiful words in the TNT mentor’s dictionary, words that we dream of hearing from each of our participants. No, not “How do I fundraise?”, not those words! The words “I reached my minimum!” Those words! Music to my ears! I crossed that mentee off my worry list, feeling a bit like a mother hen fussing and worrying over her chicks. And that got me thinking – what else do we TNTer’s have in common with Gallus gallus, the domestic chicken?
Well, the first obvious thing is that we are up before dawn, with the first sound of “cock-a-doodle-doo”, getting out there for training in all kinds of weather. The crowing of a rooster should be our official animal call. Then there is the soft clucking of a hen, like a mother hen calling her chicks. This is the sound of your mentor – “Bruck, bruck, bruck – have you raised any money this week?” “Bruck, bruck – what is your fund raising plan for next week?” Yes, I know we mentors can get repetitive, just like an old hen, but it is only because we want to see you succeed at fund-raising, to at least hit your minimum, and not have to pay out of pocket. Don’t worry, though, unlike a mother hen, I am not going to feed you bugs and worms. Promise.How else are we like chickens? Well, we flock together during training. We strut our stuff during the race, showing off our colorful purple jerseys. We crow when we cross the finish line. We work tirelessly at our tasks. But in one important way, we are not like the domestic chicken: we don’t “chicken out” when faced with a difficult task. Like doing a marathon or half-marathon. Like raising thousands of dollars. Like helping in the war against cancer.
Where is this leading, you ask? Well for those of you not yet at your minimum, it leads back to completing the difficult task you started last fall – getting at least to your minimum dollar amount. We have only about 4 weeks until charge date and only about 8 more weeks until the final date for getting reimbursed back for any out-of-pocket funds you were charged to get you to your minimum on charge date. So if you are one of my mentees still trying to get there, let me know how you are doing. That time will go by so quickly, and you need a strategy, a plan for each of those weeks. So talk to me at training. If you are not going to be at training, shoot me an email or call me – let me know how you are doing. If I don’t hear from you then I don’t have a great sense of how you are doing or if your website reflects the total you have collected, or if you are sitting on checks. If you are holding checks, SEND THEM IN!!!! Keep fundraising, keep pressing ahead. I want to cross you off my “Mother Hen Worry List”. Soon! Real soon!
Remember, Nashvillers – cheer for your Shamrock teammates Sunday, and also, stay turned for information from the summer team coaches about training this weekend. Shamrockers – go have a blast, and bring back pictures and great memories.
GO TEAM!
Art
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