Relay for Life

I know at Man Approved Diet I normally talk about food and share my recipes, but today I’m doing something a little different and I think all of you out there in cyberland will understand.  I usually try to do my part to help out wherever I can, from simple things like donating to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW, or the guys with the poppies) or giving the Girl Scouts money to send cookies to our troops overseas (I got some while I was deployed and there was nothing quite like it).  I’ve also done a couple crazier things, like jumping in the Chesapeake Bay in January as part of the Polar Bear Plunge to support the Special Olympics for a couple of years.

This year I’ve decided to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.  As you can probably guess, it’s an event to raise money for cancer research and awareness.  By awareness I don’t mean letting people know there’s cancer, there isn’t a need for that.  Nearly everyone knows of at least one person whose life has been affected by cancer.  What I mean when I say awareness is getting people to go to the doctor and get a screening done or finding out what risk factors they have in their lives and how to change them for the better. 

Relay for Life is a team walking event.  The event lasts anywhere from a few hours up to 24 hours, with each team having at least one member on the track at all times.  The Relay for Life event that I’m participating in is 12 hours long, from 7 pm to 7am starting on May 3^rd.  My personal goal is to walk at least six hours of it, but if I can get my knees to cooperate with me by then, I will be walking the entire time.  I’m already starting to train to walk for that long, I’ve been going out hiking for a few hours at a time.  I figure hiking is harder than walking on a track, so if I can handle four or five hours out there, six or more on the track will be no problem.

Relay for Life is a fundraising event, so I’m working on finding different ways for my team to reach our goal.  My personal goal is $500.  It sounds like a lot, but I think it’s going towards a worthy cause.  I’ll admit that I’m going to need some help getting there, but I’m sure you guys will help me. 

The first way you can help is just by giving me some fundraising ideas.  I know we have a garage sale planned and we are trying to work out the details for a 50/50 drawing with a couple home based businesses.  After the Girl Scout cookies have all been eaten, we might be able to do a bake sale.  But my team and I could always use more ideas, especially since we have a couple months to work on it.

The second way would be to donate to Relay for Life.  If you click on the button below it will take to you to my official American Cancer Society fundraising page or go to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sailorsarah.  I thought it would be best just to send you to that link so that way you know that your donation is going to Relay for Life and I’m not using it for personal reasons.  Although I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to fund my next vacation :-)

 

Another way would be to share my button on your blog.  I figure the more people who see it, the more likely someone is going to donate.  And who knows, maybe someone out there would be inspired to talk to their doctor about their cancer risk and what steps they can take to lower that risk. 

<a href=" http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sailorsarah" target="_blank"><img src=" http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/r498/mgwife/FRLbutton-001_zps330be6bf.jpg" alt=" http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sailorsarah" width="300" height="300" /></a>

 

Just know whatever help you can give is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Sarah from the Man Approved Diet