I attended my first Race for the Cure Team Captain orientation in a very long time on Saturday. In fact, I think the first one I attended was nearly 10 years ago when I started Team Jaguars at IUPUI. This year, I had the pleasure of attending as Race Chair, which was such an honor. I’m telling you, this race chair gig is cool – it’s allowing me to see up close what it takes to pull off this massive event; I’m getting an incredible behind the scenes look at the Race; it’s giving me the opportunity to see how many people, companies and organizations support this incredible event and cause; and it’s providing me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people who are committed to finding a cure for breast cancer!First, a big thanks to the more than 50 team captains who attended Saturday’s orientation. You’re involvement is critical to the success of the Race.
Second, if you’re a team captain – or considering creating a team for this year’s Race, please join us at 6:30 p.m., this Wednesday, Jan. 13, Landmark Center, 1099 N. Meridian St., for our next Orientation. You’ll get everything you need to help you start your team, meet other team captains and hear how they’ve been successful in recruitment and fundraising and you can meet –and ask questions from the committee chairs who are working to make it easy for team captains to have fun and be successful.
Here are the top 5 things I learned at orientation:
- Teams (and participants) who register online will have their t-shirt and bib shipped to them for FREE. For teams, that’s huge! That means as a team captain you don’t have to worry about reconciling your team numbers, picking up and distributing shirts, etc. We’ll take care of that for you!
- There are some amazing incentives being offered to help us reach our goal of raising 1.2 million dollars. The Power of Ten is a way to encourage participants to ask 10 people for $10 – and, if you raise $100 you will eligible for a drawing for a 5 night/6 day stay at Omni Cancun. If you raise $150 or more you will win a packet of exclusive Race buttons (more commonly known as Flair).
- There are great marketing materials available for teams to help you recruit members and promote your involvement with the Race – posters, table tents and more. If you can’t make the orientation, please contact the office for supplies.
- The staff at the Komen Office has offered to attend any team captain meetings (free) to share information about the Race, about the Komen Indianapolis Affiliate –and to help you kick-off your team recruitment efforts.
- Teams and businesses are encouraged to participate in Paint the Town Pink. This decorating contest is open to anyone and provides you with an opportunity to draw attention to your business for the month of April (not to mention a way to raise awareness and help you sign-up more participants).
I also learned that 70 percent of the 40,000+ participants in last year’s Race were made up of teams. Teams have truly become the backbone of the Komen Indianapolis Race for the Cure. We certainly couldn’t do what we do without team captains. These incredible leaders help us make the Race more successful every year, so thank you!
So, grab your friends, co-workers and neighbors and form a team for the 2010 Komen Indianapolis Race for the Cure. I’ll look for you on April 17 – and although I’ll be there as Race Chair, I also will be a part of “Sheri’s Secure-a-titty”, where our friends will be dressed up as security members, in support of our friend Sheri, who will be walking as a two-year survivor.
If you have any questions or need information here are the best e-mails to know:
- For online registration questions: online@komenindy.org
- For Teams questions: raceteams@komenindy.org
