I just got the sweetest reply to my letter to the Bad Ass Coffee Company regarding how much we LOVED their volunteers at the Bike MS ride in June. I'll try to get it scanned so you can see the pictures but here is what they said:
"Dear Marianne
Thank you so much for the wonderful letter and pictures. Alex Kim and his wife Cathy were rest stop captains in Weston that day. When Tim returned after scouting the route with an update of your status, no one was going anywhere until you made it back to Weston.
I was told about your group by Alex that evening after the ride. What you may not know is the tremendous impact you had on our volunteers. It was a fantastic event, an amazing ride and a lot of fun but the reason for being there is to support those who need it most. I scanned your letter and shared it with the team. I want to thank you for your courage and persistence and giving special meaning that day to an entire group of people. You are the true Bad Ass and honorary member of the team.
With Best Regards,
Ann Hoffman"
Maybe this is my Blue/White personality coming out, but connections like this are what makes Bike MS so much more than just a fun event. I love it!!! Thank you, Michelle, for starting us on this crazy fun journey 7 years ago!!!!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Burnout
I was talking with my fellow marathoner neighbor (who has run 7 or 8 of these things!) and she said that she was getting a little burned out, which she noted was normal for this stage of training (7 weeks until race day). I let out a huge sigh of relief. I am so burned out! I thought perhaps it meant that running wasn't for me after all. I've already discovered I'm considerably slower than the entire human race and I began to wonder if the universe wasn't trying to send me a message when my triumphal finish at the last two races I ran was somewhat less than triumphal.
So, anyhow, 4 days a week of running has made me a bit burned out. My plan to combat that is to replace one run with a swim and weights day (love swimming laps!) and to do a lot more visualization about race day as I run. That's what we're all doing this for, right? That adrenaline filled day of exertion! Oh, I'm also going to run a couple of courses that I've never run before.
What do you do to combat burnout?
So, anyhow, 4 days a week of running has made me a bit burned out. My plan to combat that is to replace one run with a swim and weights day (love swimming laps!) and to do a lot more visualization about race day as I run. That's what we're all doing this for, right? That adrenaline filled day of exertion! Oh, I'm also going to run a couple of courses that I've never run before.
What do you do to combat burnout?
Friday, August 12, 2011
Mary Kay for MS
MK for MS!
So what do you need to do? Simply choose some Mary Kay products that you would like to buy (either for yourself or for others -- there are great items for birthdays, anniversaries, christmas etc.) and then email me (mdolinar@marykay.com) or call.
Here are a few of the great products Mary Kay has to offer.
TimeWise Replenshing Serum +C. Nicknamed the "facelift in a bottle" :-) This stuff is great. I hear nothing but good about this from my customers who use it. Learn more by following this link: http://www.marykay.com/skincare/agefighting/10031103/10031103/default.aspx
TimeWise Night Restore and Recover Complex. Awaken the age-fighting potential of your skin at night. This advanced age fighter works with your skin's natural cycle to recover from the day's damage. So you can wake up to younger-looking skin. Learn more by following the link below.
http://www.marykay.com/content/twnightcomplex/twnightcomplex.aspx?ab=lghp_twrestoreandrecover
TimeWise Microdermabrasion Set. Fight fine lines, refine pores and achieve beautifully smooth skin -- immediately -- with this simple two-step set. Learn more by following this link: http://www.marykay.com/skincare/agefighting/timewisemicrodermabrasionset/default.aspx
Mary Kay Ultimate Mascara. Learn more by following this link: http://www.marykay.com/color/eyes/marykayultimatemascara/10017657/default.aspx
The new TimeWise luminous-wear liquid foundation. 23 different shades. Very light feeling on the face. A little goes a very long way. I love this foundation. It really looks good on my customers and I love the feel (or the lack of feel -- it's really light). If you would like to try a sample of this foundation email me. To see the different shades follow this link: http://www.marykay.com/color/foundations/luminouswearliquidfoundation/default.aspx
Check out this link for gift ideas: http://www.marykay.com/whatsnew/giftideas/default.aspx
Check out this link for men's products: http://www.marykay.com/mens/default.aspx
Check out this link for body care products, including pedicure sets, Satin Hands, hydrating lotion etc.: http://www.marykay.com/spabody//bodycare/default.aspx
And last but not least is the Miracle Set. This set includes TimeWise cleanser, moisturizer, Night Solution and Day Solution with SPF 25. A great way to keep your skin looking and feeling wonderful! Follow this link for more information (including before and after shots!): http://www.marykay.com/skincare/agefighting/MiracleSetStep1/default.aspx
All Mary Kay products come with a 100% money back guarantee. Return or exchange product if it isn't exactly what you expected.
If you'd like to try any product samplers just let me know. I'd be glad to help. If you can't find what you are looking for on the Mary Kay website (www.marykay.com), let me know. If I can't find it I know several Mary Kay consultants and directors. Between all of us I'm sure we can come up with something to help!
Happy Shopping! Be sure and tell your friends and family! The MK for MS campaign ends August 30, 2011.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Pictures from the car wash
Here are some pictures from the July 30th car wash fundraiser.
Check out this car! That's one big car! I didn't realize cars could be so big! A lot of them I couldn't reach the middle of the hood. It took two people with one big towel to dry the hoods of some of these bigger cars.
Marianne with the "I love clean cars!" sign :-) Hyabusa!
Working the car wash with the LPH Drill team.
Car washing after LPH left. The girls were so excited to finally be allowed to come and wash :-)
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The Car Wash Adventure
Big thanks to Texaco and Fresh Market for helping out with our car wash fundraiser!! Marianne worked with the Texaco people. I never met them. I'm sure they are really cool though :-) I did meet Dennis Jensen at Fresh Market though and he is AWESOME! Everyone should run to Fresh Market and buy something. Anything. Dennis was great to provide balloons for our signs and even offered to give us soap for the car wash. Really nice guy. And, as a bonus, he's a runner. Athletic people are really cool.
And a special thanks to our surprise "sponsor" Lone Peak High School Drill team! Special note: I know that many of you that read this blog live and breathe Caveman. I have to give a little shout-out to Lone Peak though. They were really nice to work with us at the car wash. Turns out the car wash spot got double-booked. Even though we booked first they had pre-sold tickets and were much bigger and better organized (not to mention they started their car wash earlier than we had planned to start :-). They could have easily just blown us off. They didn't though. They let us pass out our fliers, solicit their pre-sold customers for donations and wash cars with them. So, even though they are the rival of the High School my neighbors' kids go to (and the one Bill went to!) they are still pretty dang cool! Thanks Lone Peak High Drill Team! YOU ROCK!! And I'm sorry that some of you got harassed by some die-hard AF drive-by fans.
Well, Marianne wrote a great blog about the event so I won't go into it too much. I wanted to mention though that car washes are a LOT of work and we learned a lot!! Friday night I bought some great micro-fiber sponges and towels and soap specific for car washing. I thought we were set. We learned a lot from Lone Peak High though. They had special spray for the tires and windex for the windows. They had working spray nozzles for the hoses :-) In the end I wished we had gotten our car washed when Lone Peak was there to help us :-)
Here are some things we learned about car wash fundraisers (in case you are considering doing one :-)
Start early. It gets hot in the afternoon.
Bring hoses. For some reason I thought the hoses were provided by Texaco. Silly me. And make sure the nozzles for the hoses work! I brought nozzles but didn't check first to see if they worked well. Luckily LPH had working nozzles.
Pre-sell tickets. Most of the cars that came through were pre-sold tickets. One of the drill team girls told me that they were required to sell 10 tickets each. There were at least 20 or so drill team members at the wash so they must have pre-sold at least $1000 worth of tickets. We had less than 100 cars come through during the day -- although it seemed like a million cars! Ohhhh my back is aching! LOL So if LPH hadn't pre-sold tickets the take would have been less than half of what they ended up getting. A lot less than half actually.
We need bigger sturdier signs and more people to dance and hold the signs. We just needed more people in general.
So.... the million dollar question --- was it worth it? Yes! In terms of bringing awareness to the general public. Maybe we'll get one more person to read the blog. Maybe they will help spread the word. Maybe we'll get some virtual car wash donations (much easier on the back! :-). Who knows. Marianne spoke with a bunch of people that had an MS connection. One lady was tested for MS just last week. Marianne said we should partner with the drill teams of America and see if we can just have a solicitor at all their car washes :-) Raising awareness one car wash at a time! :-) We made almost $200 ($196 -- actually pretty dang good considering the numbers discussed in the final paragraph of this blog and the fact that we didn't pre-sell. Pre-sell. Pre-sell. Pre-sell. Must. Pre-sell!). I still think there has to be a better way though.
Conclusion.
How much money can you make at a car wash? Is it a good source of fundraising? I've been thinking about this. Best case scenario -- wash a car every 5 minutes. No, let's say you wash 3 cars every five minutes consistently for 4 hours. That's 144 cars. Each car pays $5 each. That's $720. In order to wash 3 cars every five minutes (assuming you can get that kind of traffic randomly) you would need at least a million workers. Ok. I'm exaggerating. Let's take a look at today. We had up to 20 or so drill team members and six of us (five, Marianne did the soliciting) and we worked our tails off! We constantly had cars. At times we had lines up to 10 cars long and we were there for almost 4 hours. We had 100 fliers copied and we gave out less than 70 of those. I don't have exact figures. Each car got a flier. So with 20-30 workers we physically did about 70 cars. $5 each car -- that's $350. Yep. Lots of people. Little money. Pre-sell tickets! Even pre-selling though is a lot of work. They pre-sold at least $1000 worth of tickets but they also had 20 or so girls ($50 each = $1000) to canvas neighborhoods, and solicit 40 sets of grandparents :-). For a fundraising bike team of seven (all in the same family :-) I don't know that car washes are the most effect use of time and money. Too bad because I have about $40 worth of really nice car wash sponges, towels and soap :-) Anybody need a car wash? :-)
Post Script: I've decided that we could use the 20/50 principle above to possibly make the car wash thing work. Pre-sell 50 cars at $20 each. Offer both a good outside wash and a vacuum/dash conditioner etc. for the inside. Give each person a specific time to come so we don't have lines. It would still take work (both in washing and selling) but it could be done in a few Saturdays at home and we could, theoretically, raise $1000. Anybody up for more car washing? Ok.... maybe I'll ask again next summer after our muscles have had some time to recuperate :-)
And a special thanks to our surprise "sponsor" Lone Peak High School Drill team! Special note: I know that many of you that read this blog live and breathe Caveman. I have to give a little shout-out to Lone Peak though. They were really nice to work with us at the car wash. Turns out the car wash spot got double-booked. Even though we booked first they had pre-sold tickets and were much bigger and better organized (not to mention they started their car wash earlier than we had planned to start :-). They could have easily just blown us off. They didn't though. They let us pass out our fliers, solicit their pre-sold customers for donations and wash cars with them. So, even though they are the rival of the High School my neighbors' kids go to (and the one Bill went to!) they are still pretty dang cool! Thanks Lone Peak High Drill Team! YOU ROCK!! And I'm sorry that some of you got harassed by some die-hard AF drive-by fans.
Well, Marianne wrote a great blog about the event so I won't go into it too much. I wanted to mention though that car washes are a LOT of work and we learned a lot!! Friday night I bought some great micro-fiber sponges and towels and soap specific for car washing. I thought we were set. We learned a lot from Lone Peak High though. They had special spray for the tires and windex for the windows. They had working spray nozzles for the hoses :-) In the end I wished we had gotten our car washed when Lone Peak was there to help us :-)
Here are some things we learned about car wash fundraisers (in case you are considering doing one :-)
Start early. It gets hot in the afternoon.
Bring hoses. For some reason I thought the hoses were provided by Texaco. Silly me. And make sure the nozzles for the hoses work! I brought nozzles but didn't check first to see if they worked well. Luckily LPH had working nozzles.
Pre-sell tickets. Most of the cars that came through were pre-sold tickets. One of the drill team girls told me that they were required to sell 10 tickets each. There were at least 20 or so drill team members at the wash so they must have pre-sold at least $1000 worth of tickets. We had less than 100 cars come through during the day -- although it seemed like a million cars! Ohhhh my back is aching! LOL So if LPH hadn't pre-sold tickets the take would have been less than half of what they ended up getting. A lot less than half actually.
We need bigger sturdier signs and more people to dance and hold the signs. We just needed more people in general.
So.... the million dollar question --- was it worth it? Yes! In terms of bringing awareness to the general public. Maybe we'll get one more person to read the blog. Maybe they will help spread the word. Maybe we'll get some virtual car wash donations (much easier on the back! :-). Who knows. Marianne spoke with a bunch of people that had an MS connection. One lady was tested for MS just last week. Marianne said we should partner with the drill teams of America and see if we can just have a solicitor at all their car washes :-) Raising awareness one car wash at a time! :-) We made almost $200 ($196 -- actually pretty dang good considering the numbers discussed in the final paragraph of this blog and the fact that we didn't pre-sell. Pre-sell. Pre-sell. Pre-sell. Must. Pre-sell!). I still think there has to be a better way though.
Conclusion.
How much money can you make at a car wash? Is it a good source of fundraising? I've been thinking about this. Best case scenario -- wash a car every 5 minutes. No, let's say you wash 3 cars every five minutes consistently for 4 hours. That's 144 cars. Each car pays $5 each. That's $720. In order to wash 3 cars every five minutes (assuming you can get that kind of traffic randomly) you would need at least a million workers. Ok. I'm exaggerating. Let's take a look at today. We had up to 20 or so drill team members and six of us (five, Marianne did the soliciting) and we worked our tails off! We constantly had cars. At times we had lines up to 10 cars long and we were there for almost 4 hours. We had 100 fliers copied and we gave out less than 70 of those. I don't have exact figures. Each car got a flier. So with 20-30 workers we physically did about 70 cars. $5 each car -- that's $350. Yep. Lots of people. Little money. Pre-sell tickets! Even pre-selling though is a lot of work. They pre-sold at least $1000 worth of tickets but they also had 20 or so girls ($50 each = $1000) to canvas neighborhoods, and solicit 40 sets of grandparents :-). For a fundraising bike team of seven (all in the same family :-) I don't know that car washes are the most effect use of time and money. Too bad because I have about $40 worth of really nice car wash sponges, towels and soap :-) Anybody need a car wash? :-)
Post Script: I've decided that we could use the 20/50 principle above to possibly make the car wash thing work. Pre-sell 50 cars at $20 each. Offer both a good outside wash and a vacuum/dash conditioner etc. for the inside. Give each person a specific time to come so we don't have lines. It would still take work (both in washing and selling) but it could be done in a few Saturdays at home and we could, theoretically, raise $1000. Anybody up for more car washing? Ok.... maybe I'll ask again next summer after our muscles have had some time to recuperate :-)
Raising Awareness & Money
Well, we just finished one of this year's fundraisers: a car wash in American Fork. We started the day with a jolt because we got to our spot and realized that the spot had been double booked. Yikes! We conferred with the other group (Lone Peak Drill Team) and decided to combine forces. It ended up being good for everyone. They got 7 more hard workers and we got a chance to solicit funds from all the cars that came through (both the ones who heard about it through our advertizing and the ones who heard about it through their advertizing). Many of the cars had already purchased their car wash through the Drill Team's pre-sale efforts but they were generous enough to donate to our cause too. We were able to talk to lots of people about MS, the National MS Society and Bike MS. A lot of people asked questions about MS itself and several folks were interested in riding in June. Hopefully some of the great people we talked to are reading this blog right now and will become involved with our team! Every little bit helps!
A big thank you to Texaco for the space and the water and to Fresh Market for soap and balloons!
A big thank you to Texaco for the space and the water and to Fresh Market for soap and balloons!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Where does the money I donate go?
Here is a breakdown of where the money you donate goes. To donate click the Fundraising Center links on the right side of this blog. Choose anyone's fundraising center. It all goes to the same place!
Administration -- 3%
Fundraising -- 10%
Research and National Programs -- 33%
Community -- 9%
Client Programs -- 20%
Education -- 25%
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