Relay For Life of Lake Travis

2011 Relay For Life Was a Success

2011-04-17T16:28:00.002-05:00

The 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis was held on Friday, April 15 at the Hill Country Galleria Mall. As always and because of the new location there were some glitches, but nobody aside from the Planning Committee seemed to notice.

After having the survivors and their families and caregivers start the first lap the Lake Travis Jazz Ensemble kicked off the entertainment. A good crowd gathered in the Amphitheater to watch and listen. Then other Relay For Life participants started walking the make-shift track.

I don't have final numbers and will probably not for a while, but my guess is that we had around a dozen cancer survivors, 25 or so teams, over 200 participants and we probably raised around $30,000.

As always, the Luminaria Ceremony was excellent. The Lake Travis High School students who planned that part of Relay did a great job reading various parts of the ceremony including transforming Hope to Cure.

Want to see more event photos? Visit my 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis photos page.

Coldwell Cares Relay For Life Fundraising Event

2011-03-29T16:52:00.000-05:00

The team from Coldwell Banker Lake Travis office has a 2011 Relay For Life team that has already raised loads of money for Relay For Life and they're at it again.

On April 7, Coldwell Cares will supply guest bartenders at Johnny Fins floating restaurant and bar in Lakeway from 4 PM until 8 PM. The bar tending agents will donate all tips to the 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. Johnny Fins will serve food and drinks and it sounds like a lot of fun. Johnny Fins is located at 16405 Clara Van on Lake Travis. Click the previous link for a map.

At 7 PM there will also be a team captain meeting at Johnny Fins. This is a time that team captains can drop by for registration material, have questions answered or drop off funds their teams have raised.

Students and Relay For Life

2011-03-29T15:25:00.000-05:00

The 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis is right around the corner and the planning committee has been doing a great job prepping for the event. Many people have participated in many events, but not many understand what happens behind the scenes.

Relay For Life, which is the signature event for the American Cancer Society is planned and carried out by one staff partner from the American Cancer Society and a group of area volunteers. I have been event Chair several times and on the planning committee since 2002. One of the most significant things I have done is coach Lake Travis High School students on the planning committee. Students from the LTHS Interact Club, which I have been advisor for, have been on the planning committee as long as I can remember.

So just what are the students doing this year and who are they? Logistics is being handled by an LTHS sophomore and a freshman. These guys are responsible for mapping the amphitheater and roads around it at the Hill Country Galleria Mall, where Relay For Life will take place. The night of the event, they will direct people to their camp sites and making sure they park in the designated garage. They have also put together a rain plan and have mapped a track in a parking garage in case of rain.

Aside from planning Relay For Life in general, the Luminaria Ceremony is probably the largest task to plan and carry out. An LTHS senior and a are taking this on. This ceremony takes place just after dark and requires around a minimum of dozen people to sell and decorate luminaria bags, place them around the amphitheater, conduct the ceremony and then clean up later at night. These kids have also come up with a rain plan.

Cancer Education and Awareness are being handled by two freshman. As part of the goal of Relay For Life is to raise awareness of and educate people about cancer, these girls will direct activities to make sure people learn more about cancer risks, treatment and prevention.

An LTHS senior is coordinating entertainment. Thanks to this senior’s connections the Lake Travis H.S. Jazz Ensemble will provide entertainment until around 10:00 PM. After that he has arranged for quieter acoustic acts to play because of a city sound ordinance.

The high school usually has quite a few teams participating in Relay For Life. A senior is responsible for high school team recruiting. In past events there have been as many as 20 LTHS teams with over 150 participants from the high school. The students typically raise between $10,000 and $20,000 so student teams are a very significant part of the event.

One thing I like to do every year is to pair an older student with a younger student to run the subcommittees. Ideally a senior of junior with Relay For Life planning committee experience will train his or her replacement for the following year’s event. This is an excellent way to make sure the parts of the event students handle go well and it provides continuity for future events.

The 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis will be held at the Hill Country Galleria Mall from 7:00 PM on April 15 until 7:00 AM the following morning. As of March 29, 17 teams registered online and over $13,000 has been raised. The top team so far is Coldwell Cares with over $10,000 in funds raised. The top student team at LTHS right now is the Cavelletts. The girls have raised $525 so far.

Coldwell Banker Donates BIG Bucks to Relay

2010-10-28T16:25:00.000-05:00

The Coldwell Banker Lakeway office has an agent who put together a Coldwell Banker team for Relay For Life of Lake Travis last year and she has struck again. Stacy Nelson and many of her coworkers got together and put together a wonderful event that happend last night.

The event was held at the Hill Country Galleria Mall at Twin Liquors. There was wonderful food from local restaurants, wine from some of Twin Liquor's vendors and lots of fun. There was a great silent auction, drawings for some great gifts and an awesome raffle. I "worked" the event with our American Cancer Society staff partner, Lyndsay Varner and a coworker of hers, Paige DeLeon. We got to talk to people about Relay and about services that the ACS offers.

The really fun thing was sitting at the table with our accounting chair, Shelly Compton. As rafffle tickets were sold and people made general donations, the money kept rolling in. The event took in a total of around $9,400 and more is still trickling in.

So other real estate offices in the Lake Travis area and other teams that will sign up for the 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis, will you be able to catch Coldwell Banker?

The Lake Travis Relay For Life has never started this early and has never seen a fundraising start like this. Thank you Coldwell Banker, Twin Liquors, Mandolas, the Iron Cactus, Papa Murphys Pizza and anyone I may have left out for an awesome start!

2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis

2010-09-10T14:12:00.003-05:00

The very early stages of planning are on for the 2011 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. Carolyn Loran and Jan Fontenot will co-chair the event again. I will serve as a sort of at large planning committee member. Our new staff partner with the American Cancer Society is Lyndsay Varner. Lyndsay has been participating in various Relay events since she was young and she chaired the UT event last year.

The Lake Travis High School Interact Club will undoubtedly take on Logistics, the Luminaria Ceremony and Cancer Education and Awareness again. Having said that, the committee can still use help. If anyone out there is interested, please leave a comment here with your contact information or email me.

The event has tentatively been scheduled for Friday, April 15 at the Hill Country Galleria Mall in Bee Cave. This needs to be confirmed by mall management and we need to check it again school schedules. I will post the date when it is confirmed.

2010 Relay For Life Lake of Travis Photos

2010-05-07T15:26:00.001-05:00

Click the title of this post to see event photos.

We Made Our Goal!

2010-05-07T15:24:00.001-05:00

I picked up an email the other day stating that the 2010 Relay For Life met its financial goal. We raised almost $20,000 online and took in enough offline to make it to $25,000. Congratulations to all participants and members of the planning committee.

We Did It!

2010-04-19T09:21:00.003-05:00

The rain held off until around 9:30, but it did rain and we had our event anyway. I think everyone was pretty skeptical about holding Relay For Life in a parking garage, but it actually worked out very well. People walked and walked and it was pretty loud, with sound echoing throughout the concrete structure, but it was manageable. Luminaria bags were set up and the "track" was in between the bags and the exterior wall campsites. Entertainment was provided by an acoustic guitar duo who played and sang throughout the event. We extended the event from the original end time of 9:30 until 10:00, but most people left by 9:45.

A big thank-you goes to event planners, the LTHS Interact Club for providing so many students to pull it off and to the Hill Country Galleria Mall for allowing us to use the parking garage. Having to call the event off for the second straight year because of rain would have been terrible I think everyone was thrilled that we did not have to do that.

Thanks go out to all cancer survivors who attended, to team captains and all participants.

Come back to this post later in the week for a link to photos from the 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis.

Relay For Life Rain Plan - The Event Will Be Held Regardless

2010-04-13T19:56:00.008-05:00

The forecast is calling for a good chance of rain during the day of the 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. This is kind of ironic because we were rained out last year.

If it rains, we move inside:

If it looks like we will get significant rain, we will hold Relay in parking garage A, which is by Dillard's. The event will be abreviated and will run from 7:00 until 9:30. Logistics are being worked out tonight.

Camp sites will be parking spaces by the outside walls of the parking garage. The track will be marked with sidewalk chalk. As this will be a shortened event if we move inside, teams may chose not to have full campsites. Lawn chairs may be enough, but that is up to teams.

There may not be trash cans in the garage. EVERYTHING brought in must be taken out and we need to leave the garage as we found it.

For parking, please park in the garage on the level below where the event will be held.

We realize that it will be a bit like having Relay in a cave, but at least we will be able to have the Survivor lap and the Luminaria Ceremony. It will be etter to hold a shortened event than not to have one at all

Questions? Call an event organizer:

Carolyn Loran 261-8742
Jan Fontenot 968-8808
Kristy Hilboldt 445-8556
Sam Chapman 293-2422

By the way, we can thank the Lake Travis High School Interact Club for this rain plan. They met, spoke with people at the mall, got all of this arranged and they will tackle the logistics of getting everything set up. Amazing kids!

26, 168, 7000 - What?

2010-04-08T12:42:00.002-05:00

I just checked the 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis website and saw that our event has 26 teams registered online, 168 participants registered online and almost $7000 raised online. The Lake Travis event usually has more teams and participants register the night of the event. Team captains usually turn in funds raised at the bank night prior to the event as well. So as usually, our event goes from almost nothing 30 days out to lots of activity during the final 7-10 days.

Relay For Life Registration and Track

2010-04-06T13:47:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note for people wondering about the check-in and registration location, the "track" and other things for the 2010 Relay. Tables for team registration will be set up in front of the library across from the amphitheater. More tables will be set up for survivor registration close by. Team captains should gather their team members and then check in or register their team members. Not everyone needs to come to registration.

For the rest of this, look at the image below. This is a partial map of campsites and the track.
Luminaria bags will be available to the right of the stage in or in front of kiosks below campsite 6. The cancer education and awareness booth will be there as well.

Survivors will be asked to gather in front of sites 1 and 2 for the opening lap. The track will be the roads on three sides of the amphitheater, the sidewalk behind the Iron Cactus.

The Luminaria Ceremony will be in the grassy area of the amphitheater. Bags will be set up on the outside perimeter of the grassy area so please be careful not to disturb them.

Parking, and this is important - please DO NOT park on any of the streets in front of stores. You can drop off campsite stuff, but please park in a parking garage.

See you all there!

Relay is Almost Here

2010-04-02T16:17:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, the 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis is just a few weekends away. Our event now has 20 teams registered online and I suspect that at least 15 will register at the event itself. Coldwell Cares is the leading fundraising team so far with Stacy Nelson, the captain of that team, being the leading fundraiser to date.

Our event is at the Hill Country Galleria Mall this year. I met with 5 Lake Travis High School Interact Club members at the mall last week to go over logistics and the Luminaria Ceremony. These are two of the most critical components of planning and holding Relay and it is amazing that high school students have been handling both for years.

If you happen to be at the mall on April 16 at 7:00 PM or later and see our crowd, stop in and see what it is all about. The Luminaria Ceremony will be at 9:00 PM and it will be very moving. We love to have non-participating people drop by for this part of the event.

If you have not been involved in Relay For Life, please come join us. Even if you just come to see what it is all about, it may move you to join us next year.

Relay For Life Cavs in Service Hours

2010-03-02T08:57:00.007-06:00

Every year I try to make sure LTHS students understand how they can qualify for Cavs in Service hours by participating in Relay For Life. The school is very specific about Relay hours. Students, please make sure you understand how this works.

See the rules and download the specific Cavs in Service form for Relay For Life by clicking
HERE.

2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Dates

2010-01-29T12:23:00.003-06:00

The kick-off party for the 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis will be February 9 at 6:30 PM. The event will be in the Coldwell Banker office at 1008 UR-620 S # 200 Lakeway, TX 78734. This is a building at the corner of 620 and Lakeway Blvd.

Team Captain meetings will be April 13, March 2 and March 23. Team Captains and participants can sign up, learn about Relay For Life and pick up registration material for team members. Anyone interested in learning about the event or being a sponsor is welcome to come to these meetings.

The 2010 Relay For Life is scheduled to be held from 7:00 PM until 7:00 AM at the Hill Country Galleria Mall in Bee Cave.

Cancer and Anxiety

2009-11-24T11:08:00.002-06:00

Anxiety is a condition that anyone diagnosed with cancer is likely to encounter. Family members, especially parents, and friends can also experience anxiety. It is a very common emotion when dealing with the knowns and unknowns associated with a cancer diagnosis.

For example, if a mom has a daughter diagnosed with cancer, she may have difficulty eating or sleeping, she may have panic attacks, she may the sense of desperation. These feelings are quite common for parents when a child has been diagnosed with cancer. The anxiety can go on as the child undergoes treatment. For some people, the anxiety can grow to the point of being almost debilitating.

Anyone experiencing intense or ongoing feelings of anxiety needs help. Most doctors and cancer treatment centers will have resourdes. The American Cancer Society will have resources for people dealing with anxiety. Anxiety can be treated in a number of ways. People can get psychotherapy, get on medication and also try natural treatments. The key is to simply not let the anxiety rule your life.

If you or anyone you know is suffering from anxiety, contact your physician. You can also call the American Cancer Society at 800-227-2345.

Where Does the Money We Raise Go?

2009-11-13T10:32:00.002-06:00

Relay For Life dollars support:

Research - the American Cancer Society (ACS) has funded around $3.1 billion for research over the last 60 years. That is more than any entity besides the federal government. Over half of funds raised at Relay For Life fund local research.

Education - publish and update early detection screening guidelines for breast, cervical and colon cancer. Provide information and guidance related to testing for early detection of prostate and lung cancer. Round the clock phone support helping people make informed decisions, finding local resources and searching for clinical trials.

Advocacy - empower people to be able to fight back against cancer with ACS CAN, Celebration on the Hill, smoke-free laws and more. Increase federal funding for cancer research.

Services - Road to Recovery®, Reach to Recovery®, Look Good...Feel Better®, Hope Lodge®, Cancer Survivor's Network™ and children's camps. Matching services to patients seeking clinical trials.

For more information, call 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

Click to visit the Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2010 website.

2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis

2009-10-27T10:28:00.002-05:00

The date and location have been set for the 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. The event will be held at the Hill Country Galleria Mall beginning at 7:00 PM on Friday, April 16. The "track" will be the sidewalk around the amphitheater and logistics are still being worked out.

The Galleria will be a great site. We will have power and lights, a stage for entertainment and restaurants will be open for part of the event. We won't have the traditional camping on the field inside the track, but the event will be great.

The first planning committee meeting will be held on Thursday, November 12 at 6:30. The location is the Keller Williams Building at 1921 Lohman's Crossing in Lakeway, which is right by The Summit. The meeting is open to anyone wanting to learn about the event or curious about helping put it together.

Cavs In Service Hours

2009-04-21T14:19:00.000-05:00

From the Cavs In Service contact at LTHS:

"Today, the Cavs in Service board approved students receiving their relay for life hours if they raised $100 and were registered on a team. The money must have already been turned in and this is a one time only this year only deal since our senior deadline is so close."

I applaud and thank the Cavs In Service Committee for doing this.

Where Do I Drop My Relay Money?

2009-04-20T11:23:00.002-05:00

OK, we all know that the Relay For Life of Lake Travis was rained out this year. Volunteers were present in Lakeway to collect funds last Saturday and I am sure that there are people who either did not know to come or who were not available to come. So what to do?

People with registration material, luminaria bags and donations can drop by the Keller Williams Realty office at 1921 Lohman's Crossing in Lakeway any weekday from 8:00 to 6:00 and drop things for me, Sam Chapman, and I will make sure they get to the American Cancer Society.

PLEASE make sure everything is marked well with a team name, particiapant name and whether or not you are a Lake Travis High School student.

Questions? Cal me at 293-2422.

Relay For Life of Lake Travis Status is CANCELLED

2009-04-17T10:40:00.011-05:00

Sorry folks, but the 2009 Relay For Life of Lake Travis is officially cancelled. Because of heavy rain, we cannot use the field for Relay For Life. The athletic department is trying to regrow the grass and feels that the field will be damaged if we are on it.

Please bring paperwork and funds raised to the Keller Williams Realty office at 1921 Lohman's Crossing on Saturday, the 18th, between noon and 4:00 PM. If you have luminaria bags to turn in, we will save them for next year's event.

If you would like to be at another Relay, come back here in a few days. I will post other event locations and dates when I have them.

Maybe this screen shot will explain our cancellation better:

Fun Relay For Life Team Names

2009-04-15T12:54:00.003-05:00

I was assigning teams to camp sites the other day and saw some creative team names. This year's favorite is a team called Error 404 (Team Not Found). This is a high school team with a freshman girl as captain. Can you tell that kids surf the web a lot?

I love that I am seeing teams from past years repeating this year. These teams include the Miracle Workers, Band Against Cancer, Mable's Crew and Lake Travis FFA. The Tropical Trekkers have been a team at Lake Travis for years and are not joining us this year. They opted to join a West Lake Hills relay group. We'll miss the Hawaiian Ski Bums!

Relay For Life Bank Night

2009-04-12T15:40:00.004-05:00

Hey Relayers - come to the Keller Williams Realty office at 1921 Lohman's Crossing in Lakeway this coming Tuesday, April 14 to drop funds raised to date. We'll also have registration material for anyone needing it.

RFL of Lake Travis is a Week Away

2009-04-10T11:15:00.001-05:00

We got a very late start this year with a kick-off meeting in late February. Last week we had fewer than 10 teams registered and hardly any participants. We now have 17 teams registered online, probably another 15 or so that will come from local schools and fundraising is on the upswing. We have some great sponsors as well.

Guarantee Bank is providing our accounting team. Chic-fil-A will provide the survivor meal. The Lake Travis View gave us a great article yesterday. Keller Williams has let us use its Lake Travis office for meetings. Emmaus Church is letting us borrow tables and chairs. Of course, the volunteers putting the event on are great as well. As event chair this year, I have Thomas Fish coordinating entertainment and participating as DJ. Choral Austin will provide some of the music, including a song at the end of the Luminaria Ceremony, Christi Angel will sing the National Anthem. Students from the Lake Travis High School Interact Club round out the planning committee doing logistics, the Luminaria Ceremony and high school team recruiting. I wish I could mention names, but of respect for the school district's privacy policy I will not name names.

2009 RFL of Lake Travis - Amazing LTHS Students

2009-04-03T08:33:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago I was sitting around wondering how Relay would turn out this year. There was about half of a planning committee and one ACS staffer, Kristy Hilboldt. The committee consisted at that time of 8 high school students. Knowing that my business was kind of slow and that I have done this for years, I decided to jump in and chair again.

Things started getting interesting. Not thanks to anything I did, but suddenly we had a group volunteer to do registration and another volunteer to work on entertainment. I asked Guarantee Bank in Lakeway to do accounting and they agreed. Suddenly, we had a committee. Kristy and I were quite pleased and a bit relieved.

Back to the Lake Travis High School students. LTHS students have always played an integral role in Relay out here. The Interact Club at LTHS has always sponsored Relay and they have always provided committee members. Prior to agreeing to chair the event, I met with a number of the students to coach them about what they would be doing. I met with two freshman who are handling high school recruiting. The week after spring break, they had announcements running and posters in the halls. I met with two sophomores who agreed to coordinate the Luminaria Ceremony. This is probably the biggest job of anyone on the planning committee. A senior is handling logistics and a junior is handling education and awareness.

If anyone from the high school or district is reading this, you need to know how amazing these students are. One of the two sophomores handling the Luminaria Ceremony sent me a question via text last Saturday from the Hill Country Galleria Mall. The two were spending part of their Saturday at the mall discussing and planning the logistics behind the Luminaria Ceremony. Can you believe that? I told you they were amazing!

Now what we need is more teams and participants. Questions? Call me at 293-2422.

ATTENTION Lake Travis High School Relayers

2009-03-12T15:59:00.005-05:00

OK, LTHS students, Relay is almost here again. Register online on the RFL of Lake Travis website at the end of this post.

PLEASE make sure to read the Cavs In Service Guidelines that will be in your team captain packets You MUST follow the guidelines if you want service hours for the event. The guidelines from LTHS:

1. The maximum amount of hours a student can receive as a team participant will be 8 hours.

2. Planning Committee chair and members may receive additional hours, but that will be dependent on verification by event chair well as the approval of Cavs In Service board members.

3. Students must use the Cavs In Service Relay For Life form and obtain all signatures and verifications before submitting.

4. Forms without all information will not be accepted.

5. All teams must have an adult sponsor to attend event and verify hours spent at the event. An adult sponsor is defined as a participant’s parent or someone of similar age.

6. A minimum of $100 must be raised by the student.

7. Please print legibly.

Questions? Contact your Cavs In Service representative at the high school.

Team captain packets will be available in the front office after Spring Break. Visit the RFL of Lake Travis website HERE.

Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2009 Website

2009-02-24T10:31:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone - the website for the 2009 Relay For Life of Lake Travis is up and running. Go to it to register for the event as a team captain or particpant or go online to make a donation. The address is http://relayforlife.org/laketravistx.

Relay For Life f Lake Travis 2009 Kick-Off

2009-02-12T16:55:00.001-06:00

Email Kristina at KristinaHilboldt@cancer.org.

2009 Relay For Life of Lake Travis

2009-02-09T09:42:00.004-06:00

Hey folks, the date has been set. Mark your calendar for April 17. The kick-off meeting, which will be February 24 at 6:30 at the Keller Williams Lake Travis office at 1921 Lohman's Crossing in Lakeway.

To get to the office, turn on to Lohman's Crossing from 620 and look for an office building a little ofer half a mile down on the right. Keller Williams is in a new building at the base of a water tower. There is a sign at the driveway, but it can be hard to read, especially in the dark.

By the way, if you are interested in helping with the event or if you know anyone who would be interested, there is no event chair so far this year and more planning committee members are needed. Call me at 293-2422 for details.

Check back here for updates.

2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Totals

2008-04-23T15:11:00.003-05:00

The list that follows will show the accoounting data so far. I can't claim it is 100% accurate, but it will be close. As for the code to the left of team names, A is for an adult team, HS for high school and MS for a middle school team. I guessed at half a dozen of these, so if any has the wrong classification, please let me know.

Relay 2008 Load - Get more documents

In case you are curious about how I got this document loaded here, I used docstoc.com, which I have never used before. I uploaded an Excel file and got the code to embed on this blog post. It is sort of like embedding a video from youtube into a blog post.

2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Photos

2008-04-17T13:30:00.002-05:00

I just uploaded photos and video I took to a photo sharing website. Click the title of this post to see them.

The event has come and gone for the 7th time at Lake Travis. This was my 6th event. My main role this year involved team and participant recruiting. A large part of that was making sure that student teams know what they were supposed to do - like raise money.

Preliminary numbers show around 35-38 teams, maybe 400 people and the event will probably pull in around $40,000 by the time the books close. Most of this was student money, which is wonderful.

My team, Keller Williams, raised a little over $3400. A first-time team of Lake Travis Middle Schools girls called Team Cheer will probably have brought in around $3500 when all the accounting is done. I was thrilled to see that.

If you read an earlier post about our team called Soldiers For A Cure, the troops on the ground in Iraq who participated from afar, they have raised almost $1000 online. A huge thank you to them!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered to put this thing together, to survivors, their families and caregivers who participated, to team captains and all participants.

I will post more when I have more specific information.

Soldiers For A Cure

2008-04-08T13:52:00.002-05:00

This is one of the coolest things I will ever share about Relay For Life. The Lake Travis event has a new team that has 9 members and they will NOT be at the event. Why not? They are soldiers in Iraq. How cool is it that 9 soldiers who are helping keep the world safer are also helping fight cancer? I want to get more information from the team captain and post it here. One thing we want to do at our event is have people write notes to Soldiers For A Cure members and take pictures to send to them. We will also have a place set up where people can donate money to let us buy phone cards for them so they can call home.

Moe Paknia Challenges Keller Williams Agents

2008-03-17T15:39:00.002-05:00

My coworker, Moe Paknia, made an interesting announcement last Wednesday at the Keller Williams Lake Travis Market Center team meeting. He stood up and told everyone that he had made a $100 donation to our Relay For Life team and challenged all the gentlemen of Keller Williams to match him. A couple of the guys cheered and then Elaine Garner spoke about and yelled something about the ladies. The challenge was on!

So Moe had a little social event at the office on Friday afternoon in the office. I was out of town with my daughter for the end of spring break and didn't get to see the action, but Moe and Elaine collected over $500! That took our team's total up to $1200 and we're just getting warmed up.

If you are interested in getting involved in the 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis, click here to learn more.

LTHS Relay For Life Partcipitation

2008-03-05T13:55:00.004-06:00

I just got issue 82 of the enewsletter that the LTHSPTA puts out and it mentioned the 2008 Relay For Life that is coming up on April 11th. I posted Cavs In Service hours guidlines earlier and they are important. You can read them a couple of posts down the list.

In past events, there have appeared to have been students and student teams who were not at the event for the right reasons - to participate and raise money for researching a cure. This isn't an excuse to stay out all night.

Of the over 100 LTHS students at the 2007 event, there were close to 50 who did not raise any money at all. High school students as a group raised almost $4800. There were close to 50 middle school lstudents at the event last year. As a group, they raised over $5900. 30 of the middle school students raised over $100, with one raising $1775! Those kids were there for the right reason.

So LTHS students and their parents who are reading this, I have a challenge for you. Get involved, participate and outdo your younger middle school competitors. If you are a student and you want to participate, please participate actively.

To register a team or as a participant online, click here. Then look a little down on the left comumn for this.

Click on Sign Up and get started.

I am working on team development and recruiting this year so if you have questions, call me at 293-2422.

Next Meeting

2008-02-24T10:30:00.001-06:00

The next planning committee meeting for the Relay For Life of Lake Travis will be March 4 at 6:30 PM at Buster's BBQ in Bee Cave. Team captain packets will be available for anyone wanting to start a team.

Cavs In Service Hours for Relay For Life

2008-02-14T08:56:00.003-06:00

If you have been involved with the Relay For Life of Lake Travis, you know that hundreds of students are usually involved. Many participate to get service hours. Any Lake Travis High School student wishing to participate in the 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis needs to know what the guidelines are to get credit for Cavs In Service Hours. Straight from the Cavs In Service board at LTHS, here are the guidelines:

1. The maximum amount of hours a student can receive as a team participant will be 8 hours.

2. Committee chair and members may receive additional hours, but that will be dependent on verification by event chair well as the approval of Cavs In Service board members.

3. Students must use the Cavs In Service Relay For Life form and obtain all signatures and verifications before submitting.

4. Forms without all information will not be accepted.

5. All teams must have an adult sponsor to attend event and verify hours spent at the event. An adult sponsor is defined as a participant’s parent or someone of similar age.

6. A minimum of $100 must be raised by the student.

7. Please print legibly.

Questions? Contact your Cavs In Service representative at the high school.

Relay For Life Needs Teams & Participants

2008-02-05T13:38:00.000-06:00

This year's Relay For Life of Lake Travis, which will begin at 7:00 PM on April 11, needs survivors, teams and participants. I am the community team development person and what I do is visit with businesses and organizations to see if they will get involved. I have team captain packets and anyone who wants one should just call me at 293-2422. People can also register for the event online by clicking HERE.

Relay For Life is lots of fun and is a great way to celebrate survivorship and raise moneh for research. So please get involved!

2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Kick-Off

2008-01-06T14:18:00.000-06:00

CORRECTION:

The kick-off meeting for the 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis will be held at Buster's BBQ on RM 620 on January 15 at 6:30PM. Relay For Life will be held April 11th this year at the Lake Travis High School track. The event will begin at 7:00PM.

If you would like to get involved in advance of that, contact event Chair Kathleen Poulter at LT_rfl_chair@yahoo.com.

2008 RFL Lake Travis Date

2007-11-28T08:06:00.000-06:00

The date has been set for the 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. Once again, the event will be at the Lake Travis High School track and it will be on April 11th. The start time will be 7:00PM.

Although I will not be event chair this year, I will still keep this blog active. I will attend planning meetings and get information from Kathleen Poulter, the 2008 chair, and post as I get more details.

2008 Relay For Life

2007-11-26T16:40:00.000-06:00

Well, it is time to start talking about the 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. To start out, I want to introduce this year's chair. She is Kathleen Poulter. Kathleen has been involved with Relay since 2002 as a captain for Mabel's Crew. If you're interested in helping, contact Kathleen at LT_rfl_chair@yahoo.com. I will assist Kathleen as I have chaired before, but my role with not be anything like it has been in the recent past.

I think Kathleen will do a great job for the 2008 Relay, but she won't be able to do it without committee help, team captains and participants. So let's get out there and have another great Relay.

Relay For Life Committee Needs Help

2007-10-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

The 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Planning Committee needs help. After 5 years of involvement and 2 years of chairing the Lake Travis event, I am stepping out. Relay of Lake Travis needs a Committee Chair and other members. If you have participated before and would like to get involved, please contact Abby Hamessley of the American Cancer Society at 512-919-1882 or email Abby.

Although I won't be back as event chair, I have offered to help. I have a lot of material that I am happy to share and I will also assist with organizing the Committee and by coaching members if that is desired. Want to know more about the various functions of Committee members? Call 293-2422 or email Sam Chapman.

Relay For Life Lake Travis Photos

2007-04-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

Click the title of this post to see some great photos of the 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. Most of the photos were taken by Scott Payne, who owns a business called Periscope Photography. If you took any photos that you would like me to add, please email me.

Relay 2007 Has Come and Gone

2007-04-26T15:00:00.000-05:00

The 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis was last weekend. I don't have final numbers, but I will post them when they are in. The event wasn't as good as past events in terms of numbers, but the show was great. Our luminaria ceremony was very special, entertainment was excellent and there were some great looking camp sites. There were more people trying to raise money the night of the event than I expected. The following photo is an example (click on this or any other photo to see it enlarged). A couple of more follow.

And this one says a lot about how a survivor feels about being at Relay, doesn't it?

I will get numbers posted later. I will also provide a link to a site with a lot of photographs after I upload them. Thanks to everyone who planned the event and to those who participated!

Relay For Life of Lake Travis Field Map

2007-04-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, I have just finished the layout of the field for our event. Click on the photo for an enlarged version. Please don't contact me to reserve your camp site. To do that, come to a meeting this Wednesday or next Wednesday at the Falconhead Apartments clubhouse at 6:15PM. The apartments are across from Lake Travis Middle School and the clubhouse is to the right of the office.

Stewart Title is a Sponsor

2007-04-04T16:35:00.000-05:00

I would like to thank Stewart Title Company in Lakeway for becoming a $500 sponsor for this year's Relay For Life. Thanks, Stewart!

Email Is So 90s

2007-03-27T13:59:00.001-05:00

Email is so 90s! What, you ask? Let me explain…

The 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis, just as events before and the 2007 event, had many Planning Committee (PC) members from Lake Travis High School. Of the PC members last year, 12 of 19 were high school students. During one of the planning meetings early into planning last year’s event I asked the students how I should communicate with them – mobile phone or email??? Ryan looked straight at me and said: “Mr. Chapman, email is so 90s. Its all about text messaging now!”

OK, fast forward to March, 2007. I had sent out emails to all PC members about a meeting in early March. Then I remembered Ryan’s words. It took me 20 minutes to figure it out, but I created and stored a text message on my cell phone. It read: “Relay meeting Wed at 530 at Falconhead.” I sent it to all students cell phones.

I commented on being impressed that all the students were present. One mentioned the text message and asked who had sent it. When I said that I did, the students looked at me in – well, I’m not sure if it was disbelief or that they were really impressed. The comments were things like: “Mr. Chapman, you rock! – You da man” and other assorted comments.

I didn’t send the text for the last PC meeting. Guess what? Only 5 of the students showed up. I guess email really is 90s!

Lake Travis Relay For Life Party Animals

2007-03-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

These girls are members of the Relay For Life of Lake Travis Party Animals team. I was thrilled to find them out by the Randall's grocery store in Lakeway yesterday raising money for their team. From left to right, these middle schoolers are Ava Carnes, Chloe Henry-Hernandez (team captain) and Claire Moreland-Ochoa.

Not only were the girls raising money, but their presence in such a prominent location was helping to get valuable PR for our event!

Planning Committee Meeting March 7th

2007-03-06T14:01:00.000-06:00

The Relay For Life Planning Committee will meet Wednesday evening at 5:30 in the Falconhead Apartments clubhouse. Click HERE for a map. Anyone interested in picking up team captain or registration or other material is welcome to come at about 6:45.

One of my goals for the meeting is to schedule one-on-one meetings with subcommittee heads. This has worked very well in the past as I can outline specific responsibilities with each person rather than spend overall meeting time on subecommittee roles.

Team Development

2007-02-18T12:05:00.000-06:00

There is a great page on the ACS website for Team Development. What you do after going to the page by clicking on the title of this post is find the link called Team Development Training, which is highlighted in purple. Once you log in, you can view 5 training modules. Each is about 20 minutes long. Whether you are new to Relay For Life or a veteran, these are great. I'll also add a link to the blog links section to the left of posts.

Planning Committee Meeting Schedule

2007-02-09T13:12:00.000-06:00

2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Planning Committee (PC) Meeting Schedule:

This post is intended for PC members, but feel free to read if you're interested.

All Planning Committee meetings except for the final one will be at the Falconhead Apartments clubhouse starting at 5:30PM. All subcommittee chairs should be present at all meetings if possible. If you’re going to miss, please let me know.

Some meetings will also be bank nights. The actual bank night will start at 5:30. Please encourage team captains to drop in to pick up material, have questions answered and drop off funds raised.

In addition, I want to meet one-on-one with all subcommittee chairs to discuss in detail what your responsibilities are. Any committee member at any time can contact me via email at schapman1@austin.rr.com or phone at 293-2422 for questions or assistance.

2-13 Kick-off at Buster’s BBQ. Please arrive by 5:00 or earlier. Kick-off will be from 5:30 to around 5:45.

2-21 Falconhead Apts.

3-7 Falconhead Apts. Also a bank night at 5:30.

3-21 Falconhead Apts.

4-4 Falconhead Apts. Also a bank night at 5:30.

4-11 Falconhead Apts. Also a bank night at 5:30.

4-18 Lake Travis High School Track for a mini-rehearsal.

5-1 Falconhead Apts. – wrap-up.

4-20 Relay For Life – day schedule still to come.

Team Captain University Spring Training

2007-01-31T13:44:00.000-06:00

Anyone signing on to be a Relay For Life Team Captain can attend the Central Texas Team Captain University Spring Training. It will be held on February 10, 2007 from 9:00AM until noon. Registration starts at 8:30. It will be at the American Cancer Society Office at 2433 Ridgepoint Dr., Austin, TX 78754. Click HERE for a map. I've been to ACS trainings and they are great. You can get a lot of good information about recruiting, fundraising and much more. RSVP to Carole Sisk at 512-919-1750 or email Carole.

First Planning Committee Meeting - Finally!

2007-01-25T16:15:00.000-06:00

We had our first planning committee meeting yesterday evening. There were 9 Lake Travis High School students there. Three are subcommittee heads - Logistics, Luminaria and High School Team Development. I had one person return from last year - Melanie Snow. Melanie is a teacher at Lake Travis Middle School and she will co-chair Survivors with Amber Munson, who is new to the team. We had Karen Jellison, who is new to Relay, there as chair of Community Team Development. Kelly Jones, our ACS staff partner, was also there. After introductions we talked about subcommittee jobs so everyone would have a good understanding of what their respective roles would be. I also talked about the importance of recruiting survivors, teams and participants being part of everyone's job. The meeting went well and the Committee is pretty fired up. It sure is good to get started!

Planning Committee Meeting Cancelled

2007-01-16T10:41:00.000-06:00

It should be no surprise that I am cancelling our first Planning Committee meeting. It was to be tomorrow, but roads being icy and snow on the way I think it is best if everyone just stays home. Our first meeting will probably be next Wednesday, the 24th. I'll post here when I have it figured out.

Does this help explain it?

Survivors and Early Detection

2007-01-15T11:32:00.000-06:00

During an ACS training a couple of days ago I was wondering how to get more cancer survivors to our Relay For Life. One thing that came to mind was a guy I talked to a year ago who didn't think he deserved to be recognized as a survivor. His cancer was caught very early and his treatment was minimal. He doesn't think it was a bog deal compared to people who have gone through more extensive treatments. That made me think of another reason for survivors like this gentleman to be honored at Relay as a survivor. He would represent that early detection can do for you. Not that everyone who has cancer detected early will have the same prognosis, but everyone needs to be checked. Regular check-ups are vital. Awareness is critical. Knowing your family history is critical.

If anyone reading this is a cancer survivor, regardless of your treatment, we want to honor you at the 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. Our website isn't up yet, but when it is, I will post the address here. Registration will be just a few clicks away. If you don't want to wait, call or email me.

If This Doesn't Make You Cry...

2007-01-13T17:51:00.000-06:00

Why do we Relay? There are a lot of reasons, but a significant one is to raise money for research. We need to find better methods of treatment and prevention. I was at a training today at the American Cancer Society office in Austin with a lot of other people. One young lady, who is terminally ill with brain cancer, shared her story. It was extremely moving. Her story is one of many that tell me that we need more involvement in Relay For Life. Read Kelli's story by clicking on the title of this post. It it doesn't move you, you must not be human.

First 2007 Planning Committee Meeting

2007-01-12T10:22:00.000-06:00

The first formal meeting of the planning committee for the 2007 Lake Travis RFL will be Wednesday, January 17 at the Falconhead Apartments clubhouse. We will meet for about an hour starting at 5:30PM. The purpose of the meeting is to introduce everyone on the committee to each other, to review my goals for the 2007 event, review what each person on the committee will be responsible and to answer questions. We will also set a schedule for the rest of our planning committee meetings leading up to our event, which will be on April 20/21.

As our meetings progress we will also have bank nights and team captain meetings. The purpose of these will be to provide support and material to team captains and to have funds raised turned in before our event.

Anyone interested in helping or just has questions should call Sam Chapman at 293-2422 or email Sam.

Happy 2007!

2007-01-05T09:59:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but I'm glad that 2007 has arrived. I have made some changes in my career that will be good for me and I'm excited that our Relay For Life event planning is starting. A lot of things go on year-round, but the formal planning that involves a planning committee always kicks off in January. I think about Relay all year long an dtalk with people about it all year long, but the real count down for me doesn't start until our planning committee meets for the first time. I'm formalizing our committee calendar and will announce a schedule of meetings early next week.

Another Great RFL Resource

2006-12-12T14:04:00.000-06:00

I may have posted this here before, but I can't remember. There is an awesome website with online information for Relay For Life. It is maintained by South Atlantic Division volunteers. The site provides a manual for event chairs, ideas for fundraising, team themes, ceremonies, team recruitment, site logistics, team captain's meetings, kickoffs, music suggestions, and more! I have looked through some, but not all, of the site. It is amazing to see so much Relay information in one place.

Central Texas Relay For Life Blog

2006-12-12T13:31:00.000-06:00

I just received an email from Glenn Ross, the CRM Director for the High Plains Division, about a new Central Texas Relay For Life Blog. Glenn says: "We plan on interviewing local volunteers about the various programs they volunteer for such as Reach To Recovery and we hope to interview local cancer researchers. We also want to provide current information on event and team captain meetings (which can be done by linking to your posts on those topics)." This will be a group authored blog with the authors being ACS staff and volunteers. Sounds like a great idea to me!

Informal Relay Meeting

2006-11-16T09:20:00.000-06:00

I set up an informal Relay For Life meeting yesterday evening so that some of the new committee members could get to know one another. My ACS staff partner, Kelly Jones, was there with me. Betty Stowe, who will coordinate registration, and Amber Munson, who will co-chair our Survivor Committee, were both there. Both ladies are excited about getting our event off the ground. They are both new to Relay For Life, but also have links to cancer. We sat around and talked about various things for a while and then discussed some of the goals of Relay as well as how we will begin to move forward with the 2007 event. I think both Betty and Amber left feeling a little more informed and a lot more enthusiastic. I am excited to have them on board.

Texas Relay Numbers

2006-11-14T13:08:00.000-06:00

I got a couple of emails from our ACS staff partner, Kelly Jones, today. They were very impressive. Of the 12 events around Austin, here are the averages:

$87,002 in funds raised
56 teams
613 participants
102 survivors
$141.93 raised per particpant
$1561 raised per team

How does that compare to Lake Travis? We raised $66,706, had 60 teams, 500 participants, 55 survivors and raised $133.41 per participant and $1112 per team.

In all of the 2006 Texas Relay For Life events, there were 10,270 teams, 119,245 participants, 23,289 survivors and the total funds raised was $19,529,289.

Let's get together and make our 2007 event even better!

2007 Relay Location

2006-11-02T14:59:00.000-06:00

Well, we finally have the track at the Lake Travis High School secored for the 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. The event will be overnight starting at 7:00PM on Friday, April 20. Thanks to Holly Kuchera, LTHS teacher and Interact Club faculty advisor for getting the field secured.

It turns out that organizations outside the school system can not reserve a school facility until 2 months from the date of the event. So rather than having the ACS secure the field, the Interact Club, which historically supplies most of the planning committee members, got the field for us.

Anyone interested in volunteering for the event - please call me at 293-2422 or email me.

Relay and Cavs In Service

2006-09-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

I met with Jill Escalante at the Lake Travis High School last week. Jill works with the Cavs In Service (CIS) program. Cavs In Service is a designation that LTHS students can earn at graduation if they put in a certain number of Community Service hours per semester.

Relay For Life has been a great way for LTHS students to get service hours. The problem is that some students have figured out that they can use Relay as an excuse to stay out late. The CIS folks got feedback about some of the students doing inappropriate things at Relay this year and want to make sure the kids are actually earning their hours.

So there are some changes regarding as how the students will qualify for service hours. First, they will need to raise a minimum of $100. Second, each student team will be required to have an adult present. This doesn't mean someone over 18, but a parent or other adult sponsor. Third, they need to participate at least hours. The students will check in with the team captain and parent. When it has been verified that a student has raised $100 and after the 8th hour of participation the night of the event, the adult will sign the CIS form and the student will be responsible for turning it in.

Personally, I like these changes. Student participation has been excellent, but each year there have been more students there for the wrong reasons. I would rather see fewer students participate, but having those students there for the right reason. Overall, I see this as a positive change.

Upcoming Relay Training

2006-09-19T15:27:00.000-05:00

The following is for anyone on the 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Planning Committee or anyone who wants to help:

I'd like to have everyone "save the date" for Saturday, October 28th. We have a great opportunity for all committee members (committee chairs at the least) to attend the Central Texas Regional Relay Training!! This is our opportunity to make sure everyone on our committee is trained and even if they are "seasoned" relay volunteers, they could benefit from this training by sharing their expertise and/or picking up some new, fresh ideas! This year, we are adding a special breakout session for the Team Development committee (any committee member working on teams) that will be especially helpful for these committee members.

Here are the details:
Saturday, October 28th at Great Hills Baptist Church - Austin, TX (10500 Jollyville Rd, Austin, TX 78759) time - 9:30 a.m.(registration) 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. lunch will be provided to everyone and everyone receives a relay "goodie".

I can't stress these trainings enough! This is their best opportunity to be trained and have the opportunity to network with other volunteers just like them in neighboring communities.
It's sort of like the chairman's retreat/lunch that you attended in July, but on a bigger scale and meant for the committee chairs. Hope you can make it as well!!! Let's really talk this up. Thanks for all the recruitment you've already done this year and keep up the great work! Questions? Just ask me!

Kelly Jones
Community Manager
American Cancer Society, High Plains Division
512-919-1888 (office)
512-929-0886 (fax)
512-731-5295 (cell)

2007 Planning Committee

2006-09-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

The 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Planning Committee is shaping up. Melinda Faust of Keller Williams Realty joined us this morning. Melinda will be our sponsorship and underwriting person. Melinda has experience with this and should be a great asset.

I have been lucky to add several other new Committee members fairly recently. Betty Stowe of the Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce will be in charge of registration. Karen Jellison of Stewart Title will be in charge of team recruiting outside of the high school. Amber Munson of Hammond Associates will be co-chairing the Survivor committee with Melanie Snow. Melanie has co-chaired Survivors several times and her experience is great to have.

As school has begun, I am back working as the Rotary Club liaison to the Lake Travis High School Interact Club. I expect Interact will probably provide people to round out the Committee for next year's event. They have always had a very big role in planning and holding Relay here.

I'm excited about our 2007 Relay. I think we're already off to a much better start than any previous year.

New ACS Staff Partner

2006-08-29T14:07:00.000-05:00

With Dorothy leaving our committee to relocate to Corpus, Flor and I were going to take her to lunch today. Flor was running a bit late and called to say "we are almost there." The we was a hint that perhaps she had her replacement.

So five minutes later, in walked Flor Zapotechne and Kelly Jones. Kelly is taking Flor's place as our American Cancer Society staff partner. Kelly has been with the ACS for 8 years, starting in the call center and making her way to Relay rep. Kelly is very enthusiastic and has experience with Relay events in other areas. I'm thrilled to have a staff partner with experience and enthusiasm.

Another 2007 Planning Committee Member

2006-08-22T16:18:00.000-05:00

I had coffee last week with Amber Munson to tell her about Relay For Life. Amber is a cancer survivor and was very interested in learning about Relay. Now she doesn't just know about it, but Amber is joining our 2007 Planning Committee as the chair of the Survivor Committee.

On a sad note, Dorothy Pelham is leaving the area to move to Corpus Christi. Dorothy is a survivor and had participated in Relay before. For the 2006 event Dorothy did an excellent job as community (non-school) Team Recruiting Chair. We will miss her!

New Planning Committee Member

2006-07-17T10:47:00.000-05:00

Flor and I met yesterday with Betty Stowe. Betty will come on board with us as our Registration Chair. Betty has a lot of accounting in her background and currently works with the Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce. Betty is clearly enthusiastic about joining out planning committee and I'm thrilled to have her!

Bigger Numbers

2006-07-16T07:29:00.000-05:00

Flor, our Relay For Life of Lake Travis ACS staff partner, gave me a map after Saturday's meeting. The map gave me something that I have been wondering about for several years. It gave me a better understanding of how huge a thing Relay For Life is.

The map was of the High Plains Division of the ACS. This is an area comprised of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. Texas and Missouri are the only states within the Division that are broken up into Regions. There are 3 Divisions in Missouri and 7 in Texas. So if you include the states that were not split, there are 12 “Divisions.”

The 2005 fundraising efforts in the 5 state area included 679 Relay For Life events and 33 Galas. The numbers don’t break down between Relays and Galas; they are a total for both. The entire area had a population of 36,250,910. The total income, after expenses raised came to $63,379,980. That comes to $89,017 per event and $1.75 per capita. That is a huge amount of money put towards researching a cure.

Big Numbers From Small Towns

2006-07-16T06:24:00.000-05:00

I went to the ACS office in Austin yesterday to a Relay For Life Event Chair Seminar. There were people from all over the High Plains Division coverage area. People came from Bastrop, Seguin, Gellispie County and other not so local areas. Of course, Chairs from Austin area events were there as well.

We talked a lot about planning Relays, recruiting team captains and survivors, publicizing our events and fundraising. What stood out to me as much as anything was what was hanging from the ceiling. People from the ACS had hung flowers that they cut from poster board. On the flowers were event names and their numbers. Some of the most rural areas had some of the best numbers, especially on a per capita basis.

Blanco, a town north of San Antonio and southwest of Austin had a great event. The last population estimate for Blanco County I saw was under 9,000. The two largest towns are Blanco and Johnson City, combining for a population of somewhere around 3,500 people. OK, I’ve established those numbers. Now for the Relay For Life numbers. The Blanco event had 33 teams, 63 cancer survivors and raised $76,757! That is truly amazing.

Other numbers for other areas: Llano, another country town with a population of 3,000-4,000, had 20 teams, 60 survivors and raised $41,000. San Saba, with fewer than 3,000 people, had 9 teams, 23 survivors and raised $25,290. Lee, another rural (but larger) town, had 37 teams, 64 survivors and raised $72,000.

Listening to the event Chairs for the smaller towns showed the same, if not greater, passion for Relay For Life, than Chairs of Austin area events. Those of us who have chaired events in West Lake Hills, Austin, Lake Travis and other Austin area events learned a lot from our smaller area counterparts. One thing I learned was that if the small towns can have numbers like these, we can certainly improve our numbers at the Lake Travis event.

2007 Relay of Lake Travis

2006-06-23T09:19:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while I think about our Relay For Life event and get ideas about our 2007 event. That may be because no matter where I go in the Lakeway and south Lake Travis area I seem to run into someone I know from Relay. That is actually a pretty cool thing.

One thing that has been bothering me is the lack of underwriting and sponsorship we have had in the past. Frankly, it just hasn't been a priority. There is also a lot of competition in our area, as there must be everywhere. The biggest competitors seem to be the Lake Travis Education Foundation, the Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Club (of which I'm a member), various golf tournaments and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation annual fundraiser (which I also help with).

In my non service life I am a Lake Travis REALTOR®. One thing that I have not done is try to get real estate business from my volunteer activities. However, I have solicited for Relay, Rotary and the CFF event while doing real estate related activities. I have a thing about asking for business while doing community service activities. I just figure that if people like me for what I do, they're free to contact me.

Getting back to sponsorships and underwriting, I suppose I should start getting more assertive about that. Even though the 2006 Relay expenses were only around $3,000, I'm sure we can do better. If anyone out there really reads this and has ideas about sponsorships, please post a comment. I'd also like to know how you feel about trying to make some good real estate contacts while doing community service.

New Numbers - Again

2006-06-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

Well, here I go again... I got an email from Flor the other day telling me that we had yet another accounting glitch. It seems that the University of Texas online donations got posted to Relay For Life of Lake Travis. My guess is that we ended up with $60,000 to $65,000. this is still better than I expected, but a bit of a let-down. I guess we'll just have to do a little bit better next year!

I'll Be Back

2006-06-03T12:22:00.000-05:00

Just an FYI for anyone reading this thing, I'll chair the 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. Who will join me on the planning committee?

I'm certain that we'll have some great high school students from the LTHS Interact Club again. We always do. Relay is Interact's biggest project every year.

Who else will be back? I don't know, but I can tell you that we'll have a new thing to focus on this coming year. Sponsorships and underwriting is something we have not focused on in the past. We'll start getting after that this fall when businesses are still planning their 2007 expenses.

So I'm excited about next year's event. I'm also excited about taking time off and not thinking about it for a while! Really though, I talk about Relay For Life year round.

More RFL LT Photos

2006-06-03T12:20:00.000-05:00

I've posted more Relay For Life of Lake Travis photos. See them at my 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis site.

2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis Photos

2006-05-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

I've just uploaded more photos from our event. See them now. If you happen to know a girl named Michaela Murphy, you might want to thank her. She took around 100 photos the night of our event. The photos on the site were taken by Michaela and my dad, Cal Chapman.

Lake Travis Elementary Team Site

2006-05-27T12:25:00.000-05:00

This is a photo of the LTE site, which was set up to honor Coach Conely, who was diagnosed with cancer late in the school year.
The team raised over $400 for the American Cancer Society.

Relay Costs

2006-05-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

I met with Flor last week and went over the financials for our Relay For Life. I always knew that we traditionally do well with funds raised, but I have not been very in touch with our expenses. The total expenses for our event, which raised over $78,000, were just around $3,000.

I don't know about you, but I think raising that much money with that little cost is pretty amazing. Our expenses include things like the field rental, luminaria bags and glow sticks, postage, banners and signs, posters, brochures and give-away items for the cancer education tent.

Next year we will actually have a person going after sponsorship and underwriting. It would be pretty cool if we had no expenses at all for the 2007 Relay For Life of Lake Travis!

Revised Relay Totals

2006-05-16T11:31:00.000-05:00

Flor just sent an email to all 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis participants telling us that we're now over $78,000 in funds raised. Money is still trickling in and I'm loving it!

LTHS Student Numbers

2006-05-11T16:41:00.000-05:00

I just went over our master spreadsheet, which shows teams and totals. The high school had 26 teams registered and about 330 high school student participants. Of the 330 students, 146 raised over $100. This resulted in 12 hours of community service for those students. There were 17 students who raised between $50 and $99.99, resulting in 6 hours of community service for each.

There were a number of students who paid the registration fee, but did not raise any more than that. There were others who didn't even pay the registration fee. What that tells me is that there were a number of students who registered and were not able to participate, who just didn't get things together or who wanted a reason to stay up all night.

For the kids who just wanted an excuse to stay out all night, we're going to do things next year to discourage them from coming out. We want people at the event who are participating for the right reasons. What will we do differently? Come out next year and see!

Summing up, Relay For Life of Lake Travis has always had huge student participation. That is a great thing. It is important for students to get involved in community service early in life. It is important for them to gain awareness of cancer. It is important for some to take leadership roles. All of this happened, just as it does every year.

To the students who were on the planning committee, who were team captains, who raised money and especially to the ones who did all three - congratulations and thank you!

Real Relay Numbers

2006-05-08T19:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight was our wrap-up meeting for the 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. I had talked with Flor around 5:00PM to make sure she had everything and to ask if there was anything else I could do and she had only two things to say.

The first was "you're scaring me." I think I spooked Flor asking if she had everything together - or maybe she was just setting me up for her next comment... The second thing Flor said was "I have a huge surprise, but I'm not going to tell you." My first thought was that perhaps we took in a little more money than I thought we had.

So at the meeting tonight we didn't have a huge number of people, but we did have committee members, team captains, a sponsor and participants. I asked Flor to give us the numbers because I didn't have them yet. Here they are:

56 teams!
515 participants!
Funds raised $77,335.60!

I was shocked, as was everyone else. I asked Flor how this could be possible as the last estimate we had was much lower on all counts. Do you remember reading about some accounting challenges??? Well, we sort of didn't communicate something important very well to our accounting team, which was very good by the way. It is a bit technical, so I won't go into it, but the result was that we made tons more money than we thought we did. We also surpassed our goal by over $17,000!

So, once again, my hat is off to a fabulous planning committee, awesome team captains and wonderful participants. What a great event. And you know what else? I'm looking forward to next year - and so is much of our planning committee. We'll be back!

How Did We Do?

2006-05-05T12:18:00.000-05:00

I talked with Flor yesterday about final numbers. She doesn't have absolute final numbers, but she had good estimates. Here they are:

55 Survivors
50 Teams
450 Participants
$45,000 raised

Am I happy with the numbers? Actually, I am. My first thought was that we fell short of what we wanted in terms of money raised and that disappointed me. After all, we raised over $54,000 last year. After a a little more thought, I'm not do disappointed after all.

One thing to consider is that fund raising may just be more difficult in general this year. The December, 2004 tsunami and the hurricanes last year saw people dig into their pockets and donate huge amounts of money for relief. How many people had a lot left to give?

Going back to my personal goals, I wanted to have an event that was meaningful, memorable and successful in terms of money raised. Although our dollars raised per person was lower than last year, but we accomplished the other goals. We had greater participation at all levels. We had more luminarias than ever. We added the Empty Table. We had more spectators for the first few hours. That is success!

Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2006 Pictures

2006-04-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

My dad dropped in two days ago and downloaded pictures he took the night of our event. I have posted them on a Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2006 photo sharing website. When I get the pics from our event photographer, I'll begin to upload them. Below is a sample:

The Empty Table

2006-04-25T18:28:00.000-05:00

We did something after the Luminaria Ceremony at this year's Relay For Life that we borrowed from another event. It is called The Empty Table.

We had the table and chair set up at one end of the track and ignored it most of the evening. The idea was just to make people wonder what it was there for. At around 9:30 we moved it to the part of the track that was near the survivor area. People became more curious.

Here sat a table with a white table cloth and an empty chair. On the table was a rose in a vase, an inverted, empty drinking glass, a lantern (it was too windy for a candle) and a plate with a slice of lemon and some salt sprinkled on it.

At the end of the Luminaria Ceremony, but before the lights came back on, I lit the lantern. Steve Matt, our Emcee, directed people's attention to the table and many gathered around it. Then Steve read:

"We call your attention to the small table that occupies a place of dignity and honor. It is set for one, symbolizing the fact that some of our loved ones are missing from this gathering. They have been diagnosed with cancer, and they are some of the names and faces behind luminaries.

The chair is empty. Many of those who fought the battle with cancer are no longer with us, but rather than mourning their loss, we choose to celebrate their life.

These people are unable to be with their loved ones and families now, so let us join together to recognize and honor them, and to bear witness to their struggle and their memory.

The table is small, symbolizing the frailty of a single patient, sometimes alone in the fight against his or her disease.

The tablecloth is white, symbolic of the medical profession: doctors, nurses, and researchers who help fight the battle for life.

The single rose in the vase signifies the enduring love of their families and friends and the strength of a patients' will to fight the disease that ultimately claimed many of them.

The pink ribbon on the vase represents the ribbons worn on the lapels of millions who support a continued search for a cure not only for breast cancer, but for other cancers as well -- cancers that are expected to kill over half a million people in the United States this year.

A slice of lemon on the plate reminds us of the bitter battle against a deadly disease, a battle fought by more than 1.3 million new patients each year.

The salt sprinkled on the plate reminds us of the countless tears of personal anguish shed by the patient and those shed by family members and friends who have lost a loved one.

The glass is inverted in memory of those people who are not here to join our celebration of successes.

But, the lantern represents the light of hope that lives in the hearts of all of us -- hope represented by cancer survivors and the hope for a cure discovered as a result of the detailed work of the medical profession made able through funds generated through events such as Relay For Life."

The stadium lights came up right after Steve finished reading. Many people were very moved. Before Steve started reading, I had told only four people about The Empty Table. I didn't even tell our committee - I wanted everyone to be surprised and moved. It worked.

Thanks and acknowledgements

2006-04-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

I want to take some time to thank and acknowledge people and businesses who made the 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis a success.

The planning committee is made up of the people who made this event happen. This is an all volunteer event except for one staff partner from the American Cancer Society (ACS). We could not have had such a great event if they had not been involved. If you know any of these people, please take a minute to thank them. The Planning Committee subcommittees and members:

Survivors - Debbie Pojman, Melanie Snow
Community Team Recruiting and PR - Dorothy Pelham
High School Team Recruiting - Shawna Fletcher, Ryan Alter, Kylie Fuller
Cancer Education - Lisa Mozejko, Elena Cernickey
Logistics - Elena Barry, Courtney Tinney, Darcy Argueta, Shannon Pyle
Luminaria - Michelle Makovy, Allison Harbin
Entertainment - Steve Stillman
Accounting - Guarantee Bank - Tara Temby, Thor, Robin, Januarie
Emcee - Steve Matt
Flor Zapotechne - American Cancer Society staff partner

I want also to thank our local sponsors:

Target - gave the ACS a nice grant and had a team
Lake Travis High School - allowed us to use the track for a very small fee
Lake Travis View - lots of great press
Falconhead Apartments - let us use their clubhouse for planning meetings
Chick-Fil-A - sold chicken sandwiches and donated $1 per sandwich to the ACS
Mary's Paradise Ice Cream - sold ice cream and donated $100 of proceeds
Busters BBQ - tables and chairs
Old Republic Home Protection - survivor meal
First American Title Insurance Co. - survivor meal drinks
HEB - survivor cake
Flowers by Nancy - purple carnations for survivors
Randall's - donated soft drinks and water for sale
Starbuck's - midnight coffee
Subway - donated sandwiches for planning committee
Crossbridge Church - donated over $7000 to the Stillman team from a golf tournament AND arranged a grant from Thrivant Financial for Lutherans

Entertainment - we had some good music this year and I want to thank the bands:

The Fred Thomas Band - they also sold CDs and donated proceeds to the ACS
Circle of Hands
The Edward Mora Band
The Texas Fiddlers
JR Cooley

Other help:

Kellyscott Graham - technical advisor, late night sound equipment
Karen Dicus - delivered tables and chairs that she scrounged
Michaela Murphy - photography

I have a feeling that I may have left someone out. If I did, it is because my mind is still numb. I did manage 12 hours of sleep last night after being awake for 40 hours. I have a feeling that I'm not the only person who is tired!

We Did IT!

2006-04-22T16:42:00.000-05:00

Another year, another Relay For Life. Yesterday was a loooong day, but we did it. Relay For Life of Lake Travis went off well. Sure, we had glitches, but quick thinking, improvising and unexpected help got us through.

The weather was great. The day started cloudy, but turned sunny with a nice breeze. We started setting up around 2:30. Most committee members showed up around 5:30 and we quickly got organized.

The crowd was a good one. The field seemed to have more camp sites than ever. Some of that may have been because there were larger tents and pop-up canopies than in previous years. Part of it may in fact been because we had more survivors, participants and teams.

The numbers aren't in yet. We had some registration challenges, which lead to accounting challenges. The team from Guarantee Bank didn't leave until after midnight (I'm sure glad they were there!). I don't think we will have final numbers in terms of teams, participants, survivors and funds raised for another week or so.

So now is the time to start reflecting - and planning for next year. As tired as I was, this morning I started writing about things that we did well and things that we can improve for next year. I figured that if I didn't get it down in Word (funny how I used to say "on paper") quickly, I could lose it as my sleep-deprived memory started to blur fact and fiction.

My hat is off to the planning committee. Everyone performed admirably. They also performed without much in the way of thanks from people at the event. That is OK, it is about service, not glamour. People from various positions filled in at other positions that they had not been trained in. Some hung around as the tent city was almost gone to help clean up the field. We had a great committee this year. Next year we will have many repeat members, which I am very happy about. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with such great people.

As I looked over a foggy Lake Travis High School track and field at 7:30 this morning it was calm and empty. The events of the night were a memory. How could it have passed so quickly? We will have a wrap-up meeting on May 8th. I'll have information to post a bit later about top individual fundraisers and top teams. The rest of the stats will also be available.

The important thing is that I think we accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish: we had a Relay For Life that was meaningful, memorable, emotionally impacting and I think we raised a bit of money to boot!

Almost There

2006-04-20T18:30:00.000-05:00

Well, Relay For Life of Lake Travis is barely over 24 hours away and there has been a lot of drama over the last 24 hours.

First, the weather has been scary. Yesterday's forecast called for a front to stall out and showed rain chances building Friday. We had some wicked weather last night and more today with many severe thunderstorm warnings and several tornado warnings - tis the season!

Dennis Polyniak, with Old Republic Home Protection, is providing our cancer survivor meal. Dennis is also an aviator and has a friend at the weather service (to check on flying conditions...). Dennis called me this afternoon to tell me that tomorrow looks to be much better than we had expected. The news channel I just watched is saying the same thing. So it looks like we are in good shape for weather. Dennis was very concerned earlier in the day because the forecast didn't look too good. So besides the weather, what else could go wrong? After all, on Monday our planning committee had things better organized and prepared than any Lake Travis event I can remember!

This morning, I got a call from Debbie Pojman, who is co-chair of our survivor committee, telling me that the tables and chairs we had arranged may not be available. We need about 22 tables and about 100 chairs. These are for the survivor meal area, registration, the luminaria sales area, advocacy and cancer education. If our source really dried up, tomorrow would be interesting at best. I have a source in Apache Shores who may be able to provide tables and chairs if we need them, but we need a truck and labor to pick them up and then to deliver them back the next day. Oh, how I love a good challenge!

I also got a couple of emails from the high school today. One came from Holly Kuchera, our Interact Club faculty advisor. One came from a student who is in charge of our logistics committee. By the way, have you noticed that I don't mention students' names? There is a little privacy issue there... Anyway, we thought we had arranged to get about 10 students out of school early tomorrow to set up the field and organize team material. The emails I got told me that the students would not be able to leave early.

There are two concerns here. First, we had about 6 students going to the Falconhead Apartments clubhouse to help organize team material. With their help, Flor (our ACS staff partner) and Dorothy (our awesome community team recruiting chair) could have knocked this out in a couple of hours. Without the students, Flor and Dorothy will be lucky to have the material ready in time for Relay. The other concern is that many of the students who will be laying out the field and helping to set up in other areas are on the same team. They had hoped to be able to lay out the field and set up in time to go home, shower and change and get their own camp site material in time to get set up for the start of Relay For Life.

So as in everyone's daily life, we too have unexpected challenges. The weather looks to be fine. Our students may be able to get out early after one of them presents their dilemma to the principal. The tables? We just have to wait and see.

Just as past Relay For Live of Lake Travis have presented challenges, so does the 2005 event. But just as events of the past have gone well, this one will too. What is interesting is that what the planning committee will have gone through to pull this off will probably go unrecognized. Go ahead, ask me if I care. I don't for myself, but I sure would like the rest of the committee who put this together would get some thanks.

I can't wait for tomorrow. At 7:00 PM we will kick things off and this Relay For Life of Lake Travis will be the best yet!!!

Bad Weather Plan

2006-04-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

It looks like we may have challenging weather on Friday. After going so long without rain, we may have a cold front stall over the area. Rain is a concern, but lightening, wind and hail are the major concern.

The Lake Travis High School track sits high on a hill and is surrounded by light towers, which would make really good targets for lightening. The bleachers are also metal. Worse yet is that there is no place for hundreds of people to hide.

I'll have access to real time weather information in Friday. If the weather causes us to delay the start of the event or to cancel it (please noooooooooo!), I will post information here on Friday.

So if the sky looks threatening, please look here for updates.

Last Planning Meeting

2006-04-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

Last night was the final planning meeting for the 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis. We met up at the track where the event will be held. The purpose was for all subcommittees to know where they will be stationed and to take care of any last minute logistical things.

incredibly hot. Yesterday was the hottest day ever seen in Austin in April. One of our volunteers measured 98 degrees on her car's outside air thermometer. The forecast calls for a cool-down for the event and I sure hope that happens!

After meeting at the track we went back to the clubhouse at the Falconhead Apartments, where we have held our planning meetings. We went over a few more things and then turned it over to our Accounting Team, which is made up employees of the Lakeway branch of Guarantee Bank.

The only thing left now is the day of Relay For Life. About half a dozen volunteers will meet at Falconhead to organize team material for registration. Some of us will show up at the track between 2:30 and 3:00 to lay out the field, set up registration, the cancer education and survivor areas, getting the bands set up, etc.

So we're ready to go. I'm excited to see how many survivors, teams and participants we will end up with. Of course I'm also pretty interested to see how much money we will bring in!

Relay For Life of Lake Travis Gets A New Volunteer

2006-04-17T10:24:00.000-05:00

I got a call from a young man last week who heard about Relay For Life and wanted to help. He turned out to be Kellyscott Graham, lead singer for the band Feeding 5000. Kellyscott came to out planning committee last Monday. When he introduced himself, most of the students on the committee had the collective comment "I know you!" The addition of Kellyscott means that we will have expert technical assistance with out entertainment, specifically our bands. Kellyscott will help with set-up, sound management, tear-down and everything in between.

Steve Stillman is our Entertainment Chair. Steve is a member of the band that plays at CrossBridge Church (do these names sound familiar?). Steve welcomed Kellyscott with open arms. Although Steve has good people in the bands he has lined up for our event's entertainment, the addition of Kellyscott helps Steve to feel that much more confident that we'll have excellent entertainment.

Relay Reports

2006-04-14T17:02:00.000-05:00

There is a very cool web provider called Kintera provides an online solution to help nonprofit organizations deliver information and solicit and collect donations. The American Cancer Society (ACS) used Kintera for its Relay For Life websites. As event chair, I can log in to the Kintera site for the Lake Travis event and pull reports, which I just did.

To date we have collected $19,847, of which $11,191 was from online donations. Whenever a participant signs up online, he or she can set up a personal web page with Kintera. See my Relay For Life personal page. Once I set up my page I can direct people to it to donate online with a credit card. Back to the report figures...

The online donations collected to date are from 378 online transactions. So our average online donation so far is about $29.61. Not too bad considering that a lot of the donations were actually the $5 registration fee for participants. A fun thing about the personal web page is that a team member can enter offline donations. The input a check number and total and when the check hits the ACS office and is put into the back end, the total shows on the participant and team website. This is a fun way for teams to challenge each other and for us to see what we have raised to date for both online and offline donations.

Another thing I can do in pulling reports is get details about each team including member names, total team funds raised, team member funds raised, etc. To date we have 39 teams registered. Considering that many teams register then night of the event and we had 44 last year, we're doing well. We have 20 survivors registered, 10 planning committee members (some are registered as survivors rather than committee) and 232 general participants.

I did not have access to the Kintera site last year so all I have to go on in terms of how we're doing now compared to this year is a gut feeling. But next year, assuming I repeat as chair or perhaps as keeper of the Kintera site, I'll have an idea.

8 Days and Counting

2006-04-13T13:49:00.000-05:00

Well, the Relay For Life of Lake Travis is just 8 days ago. We're up to almost $20,000 in funds raised that I know of. Many teams and participants hold money until the last minute.

The week or two before Relay always has me feeling very anxious. Although the planning committee has things well in hand and registration of teams and participants has been good, I always worry about not having a great event. I want our event to go smoothly, to be enjoyable, meaningful and memorable for everyone involved. I feel good that it will, but I can't help but feel a bit nervous.

Our last planning meeting was also a bank night. Dorothy and I split up the list of team captains and called everyone to invite them to turn in registrations, luminaria orders and money. We also told them they could select their camp sites, hoping that people would come so they would get a good place on the field. This actually worked. We had half a dozen or so captains come and they turned in $3200.

Our meeting on Monday will be at the field at the high school. This is so we can go over layout, logistics and the agenda. It won't take long, but it a good dress rehearsal.

Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2006 Website

2006-04-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

The home page for this year's Relay For Life of Lake Travis is now displaying the online donation total correctly. Lots of us got very excited a couple of weeks ago to see that we had already raised over $26,000 online. We learned later that somehow, sponsofships for the entire city were put in by mistake.

Another Exciting Pizza Party

2006-04-05T17:13:00.000-05:00

This Tuesday, our high school recruiting team held more pizza lunches at the high school. We provided pizza and soft drinks in exchange for students listening to us present about Relay For Life. We went through 18 pizzas in record time. We will probably pick up another 6-10 teams as a result. I was impressed with the number of students who either knew about Relay or had participated before. It is great to have people repeat.

CrossBridge Church Golf Tournament

2006-04-03T12:50:00.000-05:00

CrossBridge Church held their Shelley Stillman golf tournament yesterday and it was a big success. They had about 100 golfers and additional people who showed up for the burger buffet and silent auction. The tournament was held to raise money for the Stillman Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2006 team, which is called Tumernator 2.

In addition to what was raised from the golf tournament and silent auction, CrossBridge Church also obtained a grant and matching funds from Thrivent Financial For Lutherans. This money will also be donated to the American Cancer Society for our Relay For Life event. My guess is that CrossBridge raised between $6,000 and $7,000.

What is even more amazing than how much money was raised is the fact that this golf event was put together in less than two months. Not only that, but CrossBridge didn't keep a dime - all funds raised are for Relay For Life. So thank you to all the people at CrossBridge Church who pulled this together. You did an amazing job!

Participation Is Growing

2006-04-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

I just checked the Relay For Life of Lake Travis official website and saw that we now have 30 teams registered online. That is great news.

I want to encourage everyone to use the online tools. You can register a team, you can register as a survivor, you can register as a participant or you can donate. There are a lot of advantages to doing everything online. The biggest is simply that it cuts down on paperwork, which cuts the cost of material and man hours.

Do how does the Lake Travis event stack up to others in our area? See others at Relay For Life of Round Rock, Relay For Life of Austin and Relay For Life of Leander.

Our planning committee will meet again Monday, April 3 at 6:00 PM at the Falconhead Apartment clubhouse. The meeting is open for anyone to attend. Team Captains are invited to come at 6:45 to turn inregistration forms and money and also to get material or support.

Guarantee Bank

2006-03-28T13:05:00.000-06:00

Flor and I met a couple of days ago with Tara or Guarantee Bank in Lakeway. Tara and two or three others from Guarantee will be our accounting team this year. Their job is to count money on bank nights and at the event to prepare it for depositing. This includes cash, coin, checks, credit cards and whatever else shows up.

I can't tell you how great it is to have professionals doing this. In Relay For Life events of the past I remember counting money with non-bank volunteers. It seemed to take forever. Tara was invovled in last year's Relay For Life of Lake Travis and the counting went very quickly and smoothly.

My hat is off to the folks at Guarantee bank who are involved this year!

Food, food, food

2006-03-26T11:50:00.000-06:00

Chick-file-A and rental's have tome to the rescue. To find out what they are doing, keep reading.
Food - why is this 4-letter word so important important? In the past, the Relay for Life of Lake Travis has been luckey enough to have the Lake Travis Track Boosters sell food from the concession stand. Not only did they sell food, they donated their profits from the night's sales to Relay. Not this year... As track season will be over, the concessions stand will have little inventory. So what to do about food?

Teams at our Relay have a history of bringing ice chests full of food and beverages. However, not everyone lives with a full stomach the night of Relay. This year, we have to thank, in advance, Chick-file-A and Randall's.

Chick-file-A has agreed to sell chicken sandwiches from just after Relay For Life starts until close to midnight. They will donate $1.00 per sandwich sold to the American Cancer Society. Randall's has agreed to sell drinks and perhaps other goodies with proceeds also going to the ACS.

So thanks in advance to these two great, local merchants for helping to keep us energized throughout the night of April 21/22.

I'm Surprised

2006-03-21T09:55:00.000-06:00

We had a planning committee meeting last night and I'm really surprised at the turnout. Why? Spring break was last week, but the students also had yesterday off. To my surprise, there were 7 high school student members of the planning committee in attendance. I told them I was surprised to see all of them and one made a comment that they had all put the meeting on their schedules.

We also had a bank night last night. This is a time when team captains and participants can come to turn in registration information and money. They can also pick up any material that they need. We had three captains come in, including the captain of Anna's courageous Chemo crusaders. Anna, the 7th grade cancer survivor, continues to be our event's top individual fundraiser. Her team is also the top fundraising team.

OK, I need to give credit to the other planning committee members who were there. We had a Co-Chair of the Cancer Survivor Committee, the Community Team Recruiting Chair, The Registration Chair and his wife, our Entertainment Chair and of course Flor, our ACS staff partner.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

Thanks

Shelley Stillman

2006-03-20T15:37:00.000-06:00

If you have followed Relay For Life of Lake Travis 2006, you might know that we are dedicating this year's event to the memory of Shelley Stillman. Here is a bio from Shelley's dad:

Shelley Stillman April 10, 1985 – September 1, 2005

Shelley Stillman was an extraordinary young woman with a contagious smile who was bound and determined to succeed in whatever endeavor she set her heart on. She enjoyed the outdoors, playing piano and soccer and spending time with family and friends. She was a hard charger in soccer and in life. She collected multiple awards while playing for Lake Travis High School and helped her team finish 2nd in State in 2003.

Shelley also played for the Town & Country Lady Warriors, an elite Austin club soccer team. During her time with the Warriors, they took home two State Championships. Academics were extremely important to Shelley as well. Even during her treatments, she did not want to fall behind in College, so she took online classes at ACC and was accepted into the University of Texas at Austin for the fall of 2005.

Shelley was in her first year of college in North Carolina on a combined scholastic and athletic scholarship when she began to experience extreme pain in her lower abdomen. After several incorrect diagnoses, an MRI showed a large growth which was soon to be determined as a soft tissue sarcoma. Very little is understood about soft tissue sarcoma’s and Shelley’s was very aggressive.

The tumor caused her extreme pain by pushing on her internal organs as well as putting severe pressure against her spinal cord and femoral nerve. She spent her 19th birthday, April 10th, in the hospital recovering from the first serious operation to remove the tumor. After the 2nd operation in October at MD Anderson, we were told Shelley was cancer-free, but by November the sarcoma was growing back.

Shelley endured many months of chemotherapy, days of nausea, large doses of morphine and hydrocodeine to combat the pain, countless needles and pokes for blood tests and transfusions. She lost her hair as well as most of her muscle mass, but she never lost her smile. She still had an undeniable sense of happiness, beauty and determination to beat this horrible terminal cancer.

Shelley’s unwavering faith allowed her to reach out with love and touch the lives of so many of the patients and staff during her many times at MD Anderson, St. David’s, Seton, CTRC and the Southwest Regional Cancer Center.

Last year Shelley was excited to be the top fund raiser for the Lake Travis Relay for Life. Shelley would be proud to know we are dedicating this year’s Relay for Life – Lake Travis to her.

She was an inspiration to many people and continues to be remembered through a scholarship that has been set up in her name. You can find more information on this at http://www.shelleystillmanfund.org.

Two Announcements

2006-03-16T09:08:00.000-06:00

Texas Oncology is hosting cancer survivor luncheon on March 24th at 11:30. It will be at the Doubletree Hotel at 6505 IH 35 in Austin. Space is limited, so survivors and their guests should contact Katie Thorn at 512-919-1867 or survivorluncheon@hotmail.com by March 20 to reserve seats for lunch.

TEAM CAPTAIN UNIVERSITY - there will be a meeting for team captains on Saturday, March 25 from 1:30 to 3:00 at the American Cancer Society office. RSVP to teamcaptain06@yahoo.com. Why should you go? There will be discussions about recruiting, fundraising, how to answer difficult questions, where the money you raise goes, etc.

Lake Travis High School Recruiting

2006-03-09T18:06:00.000-06:00

Today was a fun day. I got to spend several hours at the high school with out in school recruiting team talking to students about Relay For Life. We "bribed" the students to come by offering free pizza and soft drinks. Over the three lunch periods there were probably about 50 students who listened to our presentation. When the day was over we had given our 7 team captain packets and had commitments from about 40 of the students to participate. I'd call that a good day!