My Angels

What were you doing two Saturdays ago? If you’re like me, life is so busy that you can hardly remember what you did yesterday, never mind two weekends ago.

But I had been building up to Saturday, October 20^th for a long time because I’m the captain of an American Cancer Society Relay for Life 2013 team.  We had our first fundraiser the 20^th. It was a great big yard sale in the parking lot of our church.

My team is called Angels for a Cure because we operate out of our church, the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church. I’ve been going there since January of 2004 and we became members in 2005 (I think, once again the mind reels at all to think back that far.)

It wasn’t until 2010 that I found out we had a Relay team. We’d gone to other Relays, supported my husband’s work team, my sister’s team and so on. Have you ever been to an event? There’s a Relay for every 60,300 Americans and there were 5,146 Relays in 2010.

There were Relays that year in 18 countries outside the U.S. and even a virtual Relay for Life through Second Life where 3,000 plus avatars raised $222,000. Dogs around the U.S. also celebrated 179 Bark for Life events and 870 national youth partner teams raised a million bucks, too.

I volunteer at the American Cancer Society twice a week and we were reorganizing our pamphlets yesterday. It seems like there are more kinds of cancer than months in the year. Almost every month features a different kind.

This month supports awareness of two—lung cancer and stomach cancer. Lung Cancer Awareness Month culminates in the Shine a Light on Lung Cancer Vigil November 13 and the Great American Smokeout November 15. I also just found out you can join Team Lung Love and run, bike, swim, golf, play tennis or do another sport for lung cancer awareness, too.

For the first time ever, No Stomach For Cancer is kicking off Stomach Cancer Awareness Month® with a walk tomorrow as well. Even if you’re not walking, it’s a day to wear the official stomach cancer color periwinkle as you go about your day.

So, back to the yard sale. It was a great success! We got to church by 7 a.m. (late by yard sale standards), set up and were selling by 7:45. We made about $100 an hour and finished up with over $400 in sales. ($413.51 to be exact!) Way to go, Angels (and THANKS for all your help with the sale!)!

We’re not doing any more fundraisers this year because our church will be busy with supporting the community for the holidays but I feel we got a great start to our campaign.

Now for next year, we’ve got a fundraiser planned for each month before Relay in April. Look out world, here come Angels for a Cure!