
After some frenzied discussion with TopJedi, Mykola, prompt, and several other users, we have decided that the first Newsvine charity event (conducted by its users and friends) should support Relay For Life. If you've been waiting for a 'dare to be great' scenario in which to get more involved with Newsvine, it is now at your doorstep.
Relay For Life is a signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society – however, it is a concept not exclusive to America, with events operating or planned for in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
Relay For Life raises awareness about cancer as well as money to support cancer research. RFL 'Teams' are gathered that donate and collect money for the Cancer Society. They also pledge to participate in the 24 hour Relay For Life event, where members take turns and rotate walking/running on a track.
The organization/event was chosen for several reasons:
After discussion, we came to the conclusion that myself and Mykola will host a main 'base of operations' style event in Ohio, as we seem to have several Ohio members here, particularly in the capital city. This event will take place June 23-24 in Grove City, Ohio. We encourage Ohio members to participate in this event and collect donations from your friends, family, and businesses. If you are not in Ohio, you are urged to logon and find an event near you, get a team together, and collect donations in your neck of the woods.
We would like to designate this Ohio event as a 'base camp' as it will allow for people who are unable to participate at all to still donate to a worthy cause and make us all here at Newsvine feel like more of a community while helping others. I will be able to take plenty of pictures and video to share during the event, that will be posted here (videos will probably be linked on YouTube). Depending on internet access, I'm willing to provide this in real-time.
If you host/plan to host an event, post the info below or email it to me and I will see that it gets listed in this space, as well as the series of articles on this topic to follow. As we speak, prompt is looking into organizing a Toronto, Canada event, and other will soon be in the works.
Let's stop talking and start moving, people. If you are in Ohio and can participate in the actual event, logon to the team website or email me and I will put you on the list. If you are elsewhere, organize your own team and relay that information and website to me. If you can't do either, you can still donate online.
I'll start the ball rolling. I'm a poor college student who winces every time rent is due. I'll throw in $20 bucks. I'm challenging Viners to donate half that amount, ten bucks – about the cost of wasting your money watching a mediocre movie at the cinema. If you don't have ten bucks, donate five. I highly doubt that the 30+ people on my friends list can not spare 5 bucks out of their pocket or on their credit card.
Let's get to work and plant those seeds of hope, people.
Add team-newsvine to your watchlist for updates on this event as it progresses.
Instead of creating a new article quite yet, I would like to see who is interested in a Toronto, Canada Relay for Life. There are two occurring in Toronto on June 23/24, one at Toronto's Forest Hill Memorial Park and another at North York's E.T. Seton Park. If you live in and around Toronto, and are willing to participate, please just leave a comment so I may see the possible support.
I'm interested, though transport is a bit of an issue for me.
I would be interested if Toronto wasn't so from from the east coast....and no Relay for Life events in my area at all, but I'll be donating for sure. Someone save me a tshirt? :P
Likewise...I am located in Asheville, NC, but the closest event on that date is in Greeneville, TN. I would be willing to start a team for that event, but I would like to know if there are enough folks close enough to participate.
After we conclude this event, we should maybe do one that focuses on another aspect of society such as the environment, or possibly a letter writing campaign to our state senators.
hlg... we are considering suggestions for the next events here please put your ideas up to a vote.
this is pretty cool! I've done Relay for Life like 2-3 times back in High School. I live in Columbus, so driving to Grove City wouldn't be a problem.
Do I have to show up and register early? Is there anyway I can come later on June 23?
It's the same day as the last group match for France! (World Cup 2006)
ps. are we all going to wear green newsvine shirts? I won't mine bringing extra cash to buy one. Would be even cooler if we could get personalized Newsvine shirts with our own newsvine address (i.e. zaki.newsvine.com )
As promised elsewhere, I will support this joint effort. Will send a few dollars when I can, would be nice if a PayPal payment could be made. I will also attend the festivities (can't run) in Grove City if I am available. Might be able to transport others in need of ride to Grove City. Just been told that Coshocton had a very successful RFL this year. $134,000, the largest ever RFL in this area. Just let me know. Thanks Corey.
How many members are you looking to get for the Relay? My wife and I are interested in signing up (or at least contributing).
Go Bucks!
As many as possible, but the stated goal on the website is 10. Please by all means sign up and join us! :)
Good to see we are already up to 7 members in the OH event.
Remember one of the charity ground rules is that all money, checks etc. needs to go directly to the charity. We don't want to manage members' money or act as middle-men for donations. Corey maybe you can post the mailing address and ask those mailing donations to just publish a comment about how much they contributed to help the tracking.
Corey, maybe you can get with Brian about comment #2.3 and put out a design theme that you guys "on the ground" will be proud to wear. I will contribute towards T-shirts for those on the registered list. Maybe the RFL coordinators there near you can mail our shirts to the addresses that the donors submitted.
Keep the shirts simple (read cheap) and plan on ordering 20 depending on how things develop :-) Email me the details -- and be sure to take lots of pictures for us viners of the event!
Seeing as there is little support for a Toronto run, I am seriously considering coming down to Ohio for it. I am going over my timetable and seeing if it is a viable option, and in the next day or so I will be checking travel arrangements to see how viable that is as well. Keep your ear to the ground, because prompt may be in town.
I signed my wife and I up through this link (provided above). Is there anything that needs to be done? Looking forward to meeting some fellow viners. Does participating in the relay help my vineacity? :)
Actually, I think this relay isn't a full 24 hours. It looks like it will run from 7 PM on Saturday to 11 AM on Sunday. Which is good, because I have a soccer game Sunday afternoon. :)
From the event schedule:
Grove City Planning Committee Meeting Grove City, City Hall 6/6/2006 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Grove City Relay for Life 2006 6/23/2006 7:00 pm - 6/24/2006 11:00 am
digitalscoots you can be sure we will add you to our friends list and I know that will help towarding adding a branch for you. Thanks for participating!
i guess this means i am "mrs. digitalscoots"... i'm not sure how i feel about that ;)
anyway, nice job getting this newsvine charity movement off the groud, top jedi.
corey, relay for life was a great suggestion (and for the record, i always thought they were 24 hours too!)
Unfortunately being from the UK it doesn't look like I can easily donate anything - instead I wish all you guys all my support - what you're doing is fantastic and I think its a great way to help build the newsvine community.
I'll keep my eyes open for the next event soon!
I jumped in with my donation on the general team donation tab. You guys are doing a great thing here.
Kevin is definitely pimping-newsvine-offline. I can't match his awesomeness, but I just bumped us up to the $500 plateau!
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |