Bark For Life: Gear up for on-site fundraising!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Ojibway Park

UPDATE (4/19/12 9:25 pm):  During the Team Captain's Meeting tonight, Dave announced that the team with the most registered participants at Bark For Life would have $500 added to their Relay For Life team total!  The second place team will have $250 added to their Relay For Life team total!

So let's get out there and recruit some team members for Bark For Life!

We're gearing up for the Bark For Life of South Washington County in just over 2 weeks.  If you haven't heard about Bark For Life, or simply haven't thought about how Bark For Life might help you raise money for your Relay totals, this post is for you.

For starters, just to make sure everyone understands the awesomeness that is Bark For Life, here's a brief description of the event:

Bark For Life is a non-competitive walk for dogs and their owners to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society's fight against cancer.  This is a mini-Relay-event with Opening & Closing Ceremonies, team fundraising booths, educational materials, games & activities, entertainment and photo opportunities.  A full schedule of the event can be accessed by clicking here.

Aside from being a fun event (which it is!), Bark For Life provides you with additional ways to boost your team's fundraising totals.  Dogs and their people will be walking around Ojibway Park on Cinco de Mayo - enjoying the festivities of Bark For Life.  Oh-so-many of these individuals will have money in their pockets, wallets, bags, etc. that could easily be donated to your team in exchange for such things as:

• Food
• Games
• Gift basket drawings
• Duct tape bracelets or Relay Crafts or .... just about anything you can think up to sell

If you are thinking about doing some on-site fundraising for Relay For Life on June 8th, this smaller event may be just what you need to warm up... work out the kinks... fine-tune your approach to maximize dollars raised once we set up camp at East Ridge High School.

If you are not sure you are ready for the big-time-venue of the actual Relay, you might consider some on-site fundraising where the crowds are smaller.  Or when the window of time for the event is shorter (Bark For Life runs from 8:30 - 11 a.m., so just 2-1/2 hours to schedule people to help out with your fundraiser).

The other thing to consider is that Bark For Life, with it's shorter duration may seem like an easier event for some people to participate in than the actual Relay For Life.  It's also a little earlier in the season, so it may be a great alternative for the folks that are out of town in early June, but who still want to help your team raise money. 

Take advantage of Bark For Life to introduce "Relay Newbies" to the Relay For Life experience.  To sign up, just follow this link to the BFL landing page.  Once your team members are registered, they will have access to all of the online tools available for RFL, so they can really add to your fundraising efforts.  Even more important than their fundraising, they'll start to get an idea of the Relay For Life community and hopefully become as excited about RFL as we are!  Today's Bark For Life participants are tomorrow's Relay For Life participants!


The last way you can earn some money for your team total is perhaps the easiest.  The team that has the most individuals registered for the Bark For Life will have an additional donation allocated to their team total.  Just for showing up at Bark For Life!  Can you believe that?  So get your co-workers, friends, classmates, family members, neighbors... anyone you can think of ... to join you for Bark For Life.  They'll be joining in the fun, experiencing a taste of Relay For Life through the Bark For Life and potentially helping you to drive up your fundraising totals.

Remember that you are welcome to join in the fun whether you have a dog or not!  See you there!