My Total So Far: $2131
Walking with Jane Team Total: $3022
Greater Fall River Relay Total: $48,424.13
Midnight $24-in-24 Hours Final Update
It’s over. Other than a two and a half hour break to run a Greater Fall River Relay for Life Captains’ Meeting, I’ve pretty much been tied to this chair since 8 a.m.
I’d hoped to launch a Pinterest Page today, as well as a Youtube presence but just keeping up with what I had in front of me was more than enough. Bouncing from one social networking platform to the next was pretty enervating. Once I calm down I think I will get a good night’s sleep.
We raised $1290 over those 16 hours. Twenty-three individuals made monetary contributions, two organizations did likewise, and two new people signed on to our team for the next push.
Those donations had a big impact on where we are financially. My personal total increased from $610 this morning to $2131 tonight at close of business. That places me second among all Greater Fall River Relay individual fundraisers.
The team made heady progress today as well. We started the day in eighth place overall. Tonight we are in third with a total of $3022. That earns us a bronze medal with 58 days left before Relay. We are still behind where we need to be to reach our $20,000 goal, but I feel a lot better about that than I did this morning.
We still have lots of fundraising to do. We will continue to try to raise money online, though nowhere nearly as intensively as we did today. Our focus will now turn to three events.
A week from now we will be making final preparations for our Second Annual Walking with Jane Pasta Supper at Westport High School on May 2 from 5-7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. If you want tickets you can call me at 508-674-0279 or email me at walkingwithjane@gmail.com. You can also mail us a check made out to Walking with Jane, P.O. Box 9721, Fall River, MA 02720 for the number of tickets you want. Put Pasta Supper in the memo line so I will know which event you are putting your money in for.
One month later, June 2, we hold our Second Annual Walking with Jane Yard and Craft Sale at the Westport Grange. Sites are $25 and you can reserve one by contacting me at any of the addresses above. If you send a check, puyt yard sale in the memo line.
Finally, we will be doing fundraisers at the Greater Fall River Relay for Life June 21-22 at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River. Come walk with us that night.
All three of these events will benefit our Walking with Jane Relay for Life team.
Of course we will also continue to work to raise money for the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk September 8. I will walk to Boston again this year from Hopkinton along the route of the Boston marathon. We have a number of events in the planning stages for that event for this summer. Stay tuned.
We are looking for additional team members for both Relay and the Marathon Walk, so let me know if you are interested.
And so I’ll say good night now. Thank you to all of you who took part in today’s efforts–and to all of you who will take part in the next.
11:30 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
No change in much of anything the last half hour, though the ACS team total finally caught up with everything else. This is your last call to take advantage of the matching funds offer. I’ll be back at midnight to wrap things up with final totals.
11 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
With an hour to go before midnight–and 45 minutes before the dollar-for-dollar match expires, 23 people and two organizations have made contributions so far today totaling $866.
Thanks this hour to Daniel Leach- St. Germain, Jennifer Honsa and Laurie Fernandes for their contributions to the cause.
And thanks, as well, to all of you who have gone out of your way today to offer encouragement and share all these posts we have written today for Twitter, for Facebook, for tumblr and for here. We could not have done this without you. I’ve written well over 4000 words so far today.
There is still time to make a contribution before the 11:45 p.m. matching deadline and the midnight final deadline for contributions for the $24-in-24-Hours Greater Fall River Challenge ends.
10 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
We’ve raised close to $200 in the last 60 minutes. Thanks to Michelle Sieman, Meg Flanagan, Chari Swist,Coyne and Powers Insurance Agency, and Sue Welch in addition to some anonymous donors for their help in moving us forward.
You can help us keep the momentum going by making a donation right now. We have just an hour and a half before our $2000 matching offer expires. We still have $1510 of that fund we could claim tonight. But only with your help.
I’ve outlined over the course of the day many of the things ACS does to help patients, their families, and researchers in the fight against cancer. You can help with all of those things just by making a contribution tonight. And if you make that contribution before 11:45 p.m. it will be doubled up to a total of $1510.
Thanks to all of you who have helped out so far today. I’ve been at this since 8 a.m. this morning. Less than two hours to go. I could use a Jerry Lewis ending.
9 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
And we’re back live after a highly successful Relay Captains’ Meeting.
Thank you to Brandon Cardoza, Nina Santos, Rae Brinkmeyer, Tracy Medeiros, Sam Texeira, and Hanna Silva, all of whom made donaions to the cause while I had to be away.
While I’ve been away from the machinery $124 has come in, raising our official total for today to $526. With the matching money, that comes to $831, but that will not be official until 11:45 tonight when we will close the matching so that our anonymous donor can match those funds before we turn into a pumpkin patch at midnight. That puts us at $1136 total raised by me so far for Relay. Our team total is $2002 and the Relay total is $47,071.13.
We still have $1695 in matching funds on the table at this point that are unclaimed. We can’t access that money without raising an equal amount. We have three hours and three minutes to do that in, so now would be a good time to make a contribution.
5:15 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Jennifer Leonardo and Melanie Leiter have just made donations to our $24-in-24 hours campaign. Those donations–as well as all the other donations received so far today will be matched by an anonymous donor–up to $2000 total.
http://main.acsevents.org/
4:50 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
OK, This was going to be the 5 p.m. deal, but Kerri has forced my hand ten minutes early. I have a donor who has agreed to match all Walking with Jane donations made to my Relay page today–with the exception of the WES donation that they already matched–up to $2000.
That means your donation will essentially double if you donate today before midnight.
And if you already donated, don’t worry. You’re covered, too.
Can we do this?
4:30 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Thanks this hour to Beth-Ann Donovan and Jake Menard who have joined the list of people who have donated to our efforts today. I’m hoping by 6 p.m. we will have my total to $1000.
Seven and a half hours left–and a long way to go still. Thanks to all of you who have spread the word, 960 people have been invited. Hoping they will all show up for at least a little while tonight for some part of this Social Mediathon–I may decide eventually on a spelling for that. We haven’t raised a ton of money but I’ve learned a number of things so far–and expect I will learn some more between now and midnight. http://main.acsevents.org/
3:15 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Becky Martins has made a donation to move us forward.
Another thing ACS does with the money you donate is maintain a 24-hour cancer information phone line at 800-227-2345. That’s an easy number to remember. And it is always there when you need information about your cancer and your treatment issues. So you really should join with the students at Westport Elementary, Jane Dufault, Danielle Dias, and Becky Martins in supporting this effort.
Or you could join Dan Albernaz and Remi Soule on or Walking with Jane Relay team. They just signed on today. If you are local, you should, too.
2:00 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
It’s been a busy hour. I’ve written an agenda, made some FB posts, talked to people on our Walking with Jane Relay team and tweeted a couple things out.
I also remembered that I have not mentioned a couple of other things ACS does that make a real difference in the lives of both cancer patients and caregivers.
Information is hugely important at every stage of the disease. I remember the day we got Jane’s diagnosis. Even ACS did not have much on their site about it. But that site, cancer.org, has grown a great deal since those days–and even a so-called minor cancer–gets pretty solid support there now.
The steady expansion of that site gives cancer patients of all stripes the information they need if they are going to be active participants in their own treatments. Jane and I were lucky. We had great doctors who were willing–and able–to take the time to explain to us what every treatment and option meant. But not every doctor is that patient.
I’ve been writing for a long time. I know how hard it is to take something as complicated as cancer is and make it simple enough for the average layman to understand. That kind of writing is time-consuming–and if you are paying someone to do it, that ability does not come cheap.
That’s why what we are doing today with the Greater Fall River Relay is so important–why it is important every day. There are patients out there who need the help only our dollars can provide. If you can help today, please do. Go to our page right now and make whatever donation you can afford. You’ll help support patients in so many important ways above and beyond the research side of things.
1:00 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Danielle Dias has joined those making a donation so far today. Dan Albernaz has joined our Relay for Life team.
Nearly 800 people have been invited so far to join this party. If each donated just $10 we would raise about $8000 today from my efforts alone. That would put our Relay over $50,000–well on our way to our $285,000 goal.
If you can help, now would be a good time to do so. We need to raise $100 an hour between now and midnight to reach my personal goal of $2000. We can do this–but only with your help.
12:15 p.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Thank you to Jane Dufault who has made a donation this morning. The totals above reflect those changes for my fundraising and for Walking with Jane.
I am taking a break from NET cancer work today to work on cancer in general. Today is our annual $24-in24 Hours Relay for Life of Greater Fall River Challenge. I am doing an online social media-thon that I have been working on most of the morning.
People sometimes ask why I work with the American Cancer Society as well as with various NET cancer groups. And I will admit my energies sometimes seem stretched a bit thin.
But I worry about more than NET cancer. This winter, I lost a neighbor to a brain tumor, a former student—a mere 30 years-old—to complications from uterine cancer, and a teaching mentor to colon cancer. I also learned an old friend I had not heard from in some years has seemingly fought off chordoma—a rare form of spinal cancer.
We’ve made progress on cancer but we are still a long way from an easy cure for any of them. ACS helps supply the money for some of the research but plays a more important role with patient and family support services.
Keeping a positive attitude is important when you are fighting cancer. But that is hard to do when your hair is falling out and you look and feel like hell. ACS programs help people find wigs and scarves and learn to use make-up more effectively. When you look good, you feel better.
Patient support is at the core of the American Cancer Society’s mission–and there is nothing more important for a cancer patient than having family close by when they are undergoing treatment. The ACS sponsors Hope Lodges across the country so families can stay close to patients without spending an arm and a leg.
Sometimes getting to treatments can be difficult. ACS provides transportation to major cancer centers across the country. And getting information about what you are facing is as close as a phone call a few clicks of the mouse.
To a cancer patient, these things can be just as important as research—and all of them cost money.
So June 21-22 I’ll be up for 30+ hours walking in circles and doing all I can to make our Relay in Fall River a success. Cancer never sleeps, so neither will I.
You can help by going to my Relay for Life fundraising page and making a donation. If you do it today you’ll be helping us with our $24-in-24-Hours Campaign. Walking with Jane raised over $2600 last year in this one effort. Help us beat that number this year.
11:00 a.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Keeping a positive attitude is important when you are fighting cancer. But that is hard to do when your hair is falling out and you look and feel like hell. ACS programs help people find wigs and scarves and learn to use make-up more effectively. When you look good, you feel better. Help support patient support from ACS with a donation today to our Walking with Jane Relay for Life team.
10:09 a.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Things have been too quiet the last hour or so, so here is another reason for you to donate to this effort today.
Patient support is at the core of the American Cancer Society’s mission–and there is nothing more important for a cancer patient than having family close by when they are undergoing treatment. The ACS sponsors Hope Lodges across the country so families can stay close to patients without spending an arm and a leg.
That’s another reason to support our $24-in-24-Hours Campaign today. Do it now.
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/hproudfoot
8:45 a.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Thank you to the Westport Elementary School students, staff, and PTO for their $221 donation to kick off our fundraising efforts in today’s $24-in-24 Hours Challenge. I’ve already updated the total below. I’ll add a ticker above shortly so you can easily see where we are.
Last year the American Cancer Society spent $1 million on NET cancer research. That’s about 20 percent of all the money spent on NET cancer last year. It’s one reason I do Relay For Life to support their efforts. Today is Greater fall River’s Annual 24-in-24 Hours Challenge. Please help Walking with Jane’s Relay team with a donation today.
8:14 a.m. $24-in-24 Hours Update
Good morning and welcome to the $24-in-24-Hours Challenge of the Relay For Life of Greater Fall River. I’ll be live blogging through this post over the course of the day.
Today’s goal is pretty simple: see how many times we can raise $24 online for our Relay June 21-22 and Bishop Connolly in Fall River. I’ll be posting reasons you should support our team in that event from now until midnight–with a brief break while I go chair a Relay Captains’ Meeting.
I’ll be live blogging through this post over the course of the day.
My personal goal for today is to raise enough money to reach my $2000 goal for this year. I’ve already made a good start on that: to this point I’ve raised $831. But I am really hoping our Relay team can make a big push today as well. So far our team has raised just over $1400 toward our $20,000 goal.
So think of this as a Social Media-a-thon. I’ll be posting here, on walkingwithjane.org, sending emails, tweeting, and, if all goes well, launching at least two other Walking with Jane social media sites over the course of the day.
It should be an interesting day. So let’s get this party started. You can help kick-start this campaign right now. Just go to my fundraising page–posted below–and make a donation. Any amount will help.
