Official Fundraising Total

Our "official" profit for the Oakbrook Fundraiser is $201. I received the items and invoice about an hour and a half ago. By the end of the day, all order should be with thier sellers. The sellers are encouraged to deliver the items as soon as possible.

I would like to thank everyone that helped to make this fundraiser a success! I sincerely appreciate all of your hard work.

Thanks,
Rob Ruddle

Next Years Theme Tent Decorating & Fundraising

The 2009 Relay for Life theme will be Disney. The theme was voted on and announced at the wrap-up meeting tonight. Also, I regret to inform you that Jason's Journey did not receive any awards for tent decorating this year. On a good note, we raised about $200 with the Oakbrook fundraising project. Don't hold me to that amount until I get the "official" results tomorrow from Oakbrook. I think this was the easiest project we have done and I think we should consider doing it again later in the year. We sold at least 65 items this time. Maybe if we get a few more people selling next time and extend the due date a little bit we can move up on the profit scale. If you are interested in seeing the profit scale I included it on a previous post. Looking at the profit scale, I think this particular fundraiser has the potential to make a lot of money for our team. I have some ideas on
how to increase our numbers but I will have to go over them at a later time after I have all of my thoughts organized.

Memorial Tree for Jason

This is a picure of the tree next to the picture that was presented to Jason's parents.

2008 Hope

The HOPE display at Relay 2008. Dennis did a GREAT job!

Tent Site is Ready

New Team Shirt for 2008

We discussed a new t-shirt for the 2008 Relay and decided we would make this years shirt in honor of Jason. The shirt will be red (Jason's favorite color) and it will have a yellow star that says "In Honor and Memory of Jason Santore".

We will be selling the shirts for $12 dollars and orders will be taken at the Relay. If I receive your order by tomorrow, August 8th, I will be able to have it done by Sunday and you can have it to wear during the last day of relay. If you order at the Relay, we will have it to you in a couple of days.

Oakbrook Favorites Fundraiser

We will be doing a fundraiser through Oakbrook Fundraising. There are 35 different products including frozen pizzas, Auntie Annes Pretzels, magazines, cookies, and more. We will be collecting money at the time the orders are taken.

There is a profit scale that determines how much we will make.
200+ Units = $5 per unit
150+ Units = $4.25 per unit
100+ Units = $3 per unit
50+ Units = $3 per unit and I have to pick them up.

The starting date for the fundraiser will be August 13.
The ending date will be September 3.
The products will be delivered on September 20.

We will make every effort to have the orders to the sellers the same day or the following day. It will be the responsibility of the sellers to destribute the merchandise to the customers.

There is no upfront cost for the team. Orders will not be placed for people who have not paid by the ending date: NO exceptions!

Raffles at Relay 2008

Since our Back-to-School and Back-to-College baskets did so great last year, the team decided to run similar raffles this year. We went to Wal-Mart last night and bought the products that you can see in the pictures below. We will be charging 1 dollar for a chance or 5 dollars for 8 chances. Each basket has about 30 dollars worth of merchandise. Jessica is making two blankets with the fabric shown below that we will also be raffling off.

Path to the stars

As discussed, we painted the pathway that will lead to the giant star at our relay site. After discussing it with some team members yesterday, we decided to make the path a stream with cement stones. We made it look like little kids wrote on each stone just as they do with their initials after helping someone pour cement. We wrote "Remember", "Celebrate", and "Fight Back", which is Relay for Life's slogan.

The Sky is Done!

The sky is finished! Amber and John worked diligently to get them completed before Relay. There is another mirror image of this board that will go on the other end of the tent site.

Site Progress

1 down

The stars and clouds are coming along really nice. They should be finished by the end of today. The little stars are already done. All we need to finish is the poem and the path.

The Star Is Done

We finished the star today. What do you think?

Pampered Chef Party Results

The Pampered Chef party held at Rob and Danielle's house raised $125. I just got the check yesterday. We are currently looking into some other fundraising opportunity. We have been in contact with a local company.

Today's carwash raised $145 and

Today's carwash raised $145 and some change. The next carwash will be July 19 from 11 -5 at Advance Auto in Uniontown.

6/17/08 Captains Meeting

There are a few things I would like to share with you from the meeting today.

1. If you raise $500 online before Aug 31, you will get a free t-shirt that says "Virtual Cancer Fighter". If you raise $1000 by the same date, you will get a free polo shirt that says the same thing.

2. If you send five emails from the fund raising site by July 1st, you will get a free sweatshirt.

3. There will be a change in the way winners of auctions and raffles at the relay are announced. Winner will not be announced over the speaker system. They will be posted in a designated location that will be determined by the planning committee.

Pampered Chef Party

Jason's Journey will be hosting a Pamper Chef Party at Rob and Danielle's house on Friday, June 20th at 7pm. All team members are invited and are encouraged to bring a guest. This will be the second Pampered Chef Fundraiser we have done this year. The first one raised a little over $100 for the team. Please direct questions about the event to rob@mrruddle.com.

5/21/08 Team Captains' Meeting

At the latest Team Captains' Meeting we discussed the size of the tents. Many teams had tents that were under the specified size, but the support ropes were encroaching on the neighboring team. The committee asks that all tents, including support ropes/wires occupy less that 15ft x 15 ft.

The gates will open at 2pm Saturday. No set-ups will be permitted on friday except for deliveries from companies that will not deliver on saturday. If you have a company setting up your tent for you, make sure they know that they must set it up within the designated area. We had some issues with this two years ago.

Team pictures will start at 7PM Saturday at the individual tent sites.

The next Captains' Meeting will be June 17th at 6pm at the Uniontown Polish Club.

2008 Relay Site Map

I uploaded the site map to Jasonsjourney.org. Here is a direct link: http://jasonsjourney.org/2008sitemap.jpg

We have sites 8 and 9. I highlighted them on the map.

Online Fundraiser (Pampered Chef)

We are doing an Online Pampered Chef Fund raiser that starts immediately. It will close on May 30th. Go to this link and enter my name as the host (Rob Ruddle). Pass this link and my name along to all of your friends and make sure they know it benefits the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. We will be hosting a live party in June, but the pink breast cancer products are only available until the end of May.

http://www.pamperedchef.biz/amyann?page=2ways-order-products

We made about 100 dollars with our last Pampered Chef fund raiser. I know this is a short notice, but I am confident that we can double that total this time around.

Pass it on.

Thanks,
Rob Ruddle, Team Captain

Team News (keep yourself in the loop)

As team captain, I am encouraging everyone to check the website regularly. I realize that over the winter, there wasn't a lot of information posted but I did update it with any important information that came my way. I have been trying to keep you all updated with what happens at our committee meetings and team meetings. If you are familiar with blogging and RSS you can subscribe to this blog or many email clients now allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds. I am going to be sending an email out periodically and when I update important information on Jasonsjourney.org. If you would like to be included in the people that get these emails, please email me at rob@mrruddle.com. Just put "subscribe: jasonsjourney" in the subject line.

Thank you for being a part of Jason's Journey,

Rob Ruddle

Old Newspaper Article Talks About Jason

If found this old newspaper article from when Jason was the Survivor Ambassador for the Fayette County Relay for Life. I figured that some of you might like to have it.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_204889.html

This year's relay theme is

This year's relay theme is nursery rhythms. We thinking about themes for our tent site. Please send ideas to Rob ASAP (rob@mrruddle.com). We usually try to tie our theme together with fighting cancer. For example, last year we chose dinosaurs for our theme and we made our slogan "fighting to make cancer extinct". A couple years ago, we chose Alladin and we made our slogan "a whole new world: cancer free". I'm sure you get the point. All ideas are welcome. We will be making the final decision as a team.

Car washes have been scheduled

Car washes have been scheduled for May 31, June 21, and July 19 at Advance Auto in Uniontown. The event will be from 11am - 5pm each day. We are planning to sell food as well. If you are able to help, please contact Rob or Barb as soon as possible. Please direct any questions to rob@mrruddle.com.

Pampered Chef Results

We made roughly $100 with the pampered chef fund raiser at Rob and Danielle's house.

Relay Kick-Off (3/11/08)

Team campsites were not chosen. They will be picked at the team captains' meeting on May 21.

The other team captains' meetings will be June 17 and July 16.

The t-shirt orders will be given to the team captains at the July meeting. To order your shirt, you must fill out the team roster. See Barb or Rob for the roster.

Collecting Donations Online

We are able to collect money online again. The URL is different from last year. The new URL is http://main.acsevents.org/goto/jasonsjourney . If you know someone who would like to make an online donation to our team, send them this address.

Team Roster

Please see Rob, Danielle, or Barb about signing the Team Roster form for this year's Relay. Instead of individual team waiver forms, we have one sheet for everyone. Not only does it ask for your initials, but it also asks for your T-Shirt size! Be sure to talk to one of us ASAP so we can check one more thing off our list of preparations.

Pampered Chef Update!

The Pampered Chef Fundraiser end date has been moved. The LAST day for sales will be March 15th. Please see the previous posting for the link that will allow you to purchase products. If you're not interested in Pampered Chef, tell someone you know because they might be! So far we've raised $90 . Let's see if we can do more than that!

HOW TO ORDER PAMPERED CHEF

You can order Pampered Chef products online at this link: www.pamperedchef.biz/lauriesbiz
Just make sure when asked for a host name you put in Danielle Ruddle. This will allow the order to be processed for the fundraiser. Place your orders by March 9th because the fundraiser ends that night. If you've got any questions, email Danielle at baby_doll615@hotmail.com

Pampered Chef Update

The Pampered Chef Party Fundraiser will be held on Sat. March 1st, at 11:00 am at my house. Catalog sales will go on through February and all sales will be completed March 10th. Please contact me if you have any questions. I also MUST know if you will be attending the show so I can have the refreshments planned accordingly.

Sarris Candy Sales

Jason's Journey is selling Sarris Candy until the beginning of March. If you haven't already received a Sarris Candy order form please contact Barb Santore at cbsbls@hotmail.com. Remember, Easter is March 23rd, so people will be shopping for their Easter baskets. Don't forget to tell them all candy will be delivered before Easter!

Fundraiser-Pampered Chef

A Pampered Chef Fundraiser Party is being planned for Saturday, March 1st. Details will be posted later, but mark your calendars!

1-8-08 Committee Meeting

At the committee meeting we discussed moving the relay from 4pm - 4pm to 6pm - 6pm. It was also decided that we will move the survivor ceremony to sunday @ 2pm because we want more people to attend the cermony. As of right now we will be in the same location as last year because of the turf on the football field but we are still open to other possiblities.
Sheila talked about the new 'Fight Back Ceremony' which will only be 10-15 min. During this event everyone will take a flag which represents the commitment to save a life and sign the banner and pledge card which symbolizes the action necessary to save a life. The time of this event will be announced at a later date.
The 2008 Kick-off will be about $6 and is penciled in for 6pm March 11th at the Uniontown Polish Club.