Prior to the news about a “Take Steps, Be Heard” event happening in Lexington KY, I didn’t much involve myself with the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. This might have been due to my hesitation in accepting a life of Crohn’s disease or simply a loss for how to help. However, with a little pushing from my very supportive mother, a breast cancer survivor that has done her share of fundraising, I feel like I have truly been able to contribute to a wonderful cause.
My family has always been supportive of my illness, and I knew they were the first ones I would recruit for my team. Luckily, with a family of six plus all of their significant others, I had a team formed in no time. The next step was the most important, a good team name. The brainstorming was mostly done with my fiancé, who has become quite familiar of all the unfortunate (and embarrassing) symptoms of a digestive disease and knows how important humor is. We wanted something witty, but also something explanatory of Crohn’s and Colitis. Therefore some ideas were “The Combustibles”, “Crohn’s Is A Pain In My Butt”, and “Spontaneous Combustion”, but we finally settled on “Warning: Contents Under Pressure!” for a double meaning, 1). The obvious similarity this popular safety warning has with a symptom of digestive diseases, and 2). The feeling patients with Crohn’s and Colitis can have about the underrepresentation our diseases have in the medical community and society.
Once our team name was picked, I set a modest goal of $250, and started off the donations by putting up $25 myself. This way, when my team members registered for my team it gave them incentive to go ahead and start donating right away, plus not having a $0 amount next to their name was a good motivator. From there, I just started asking everybody I knew. Luckily, many of my coworkers and friends already know about my condition and were more than happy to do their part and within weeks my team had overshot their goal! Just in the last week or so, once this pool of people dried up, I had to start reaching out to acquaintances and even strangers! This part has actually been the hardest for me, but the responses have been great. I might not have gotten much monetary gains from these interactions, but I know at least explaining Crohn’s and Colitis to them will increase their chances of donating in a future event.
Now that the weather is finally acting like spring, I have some outdoor fundraising ideas I hope to put to good use. A lot of them center on setting up a table at some local events selling hotdogs, drinks, baked goods etc. Many of my friends have already offered to help and hopefully we can reach Lexington’s goal of $30,000!
-Cheryl Lindsay
Team Captain: Warning Contents Under Pressure!
The Partylite fundraiser is rather hassle free and offers great rewards. Partylite has created a product line that offers a variety of items for you to sell at a reasonable price. Your organization will receive 50% of all funds that are raised. If you qualify for tax exemption, the taxes on the products will not be charged. Shipping is also free. All orders ship directly to the seller which also make for a hassle free distribution of the product!!!! It can't get any better than this. So all you really have to do is sell sell sell!!!
