Fundraising Friday: Plan a 3-Day Spring Scavenger Hunt

3Day_2017_DAL_MDER-347

It’s Friday, it’s spring, and (hopefully) the sun is shining! It’s the perfect time to get outside and enjoy nature, all while raising money for the 3-Day of course! With April being Earth Month, and Earth Day coming up on April 22^nd, you can take advantage of the Mother Earth-appreciation and host an outdoor Spring Scavenger Hunt this weekend.

If you are part of a team, this is a perfect way to get your teammates together and do something fun, but if you’re a solo walker, you can also reach out to your local coaches and see if you can help plan a larger event for walkers from your area.

3Day_2017_DAL_MDER-238

The concept is simple: Meet in a local park or outdoor area, and hand out a list of spring and 3-Day themed items they must find. The catch? They must ask people for help, or ask them for the items directly (no just picking up off the ground!), and every person they talk to must receive a donation form or 3-Day business card.

Letting people know, even strangers, about your local 3-Day and your own personal goals, could result in lots of donations you wouldn’t get otherwise! You never know how someone may have been affected by breast cancer. Also, encourage your participants to stop into local businesses and spots like the library or Town Hall while they’re searching to leave a 3-Day flyer behind. You’ll cover your town in a pretty pink bubble!

How should you go about planning this event?

First, you’ll need to print donation forms where your participants can fill out their information to get donations, but also print out general “Join Me” 3-Day cards that your scavenger hunters can leave at businesses.

Next, come up with your list of spring items! Some of our ideas are:

A pink flower from a local florist
A selfie with your local barista
A piece of pink ribbon or string
A selfie with someone wearing pink
A picture of a school or local track/playground area
A photo with or of local wildlife (you can include pets if you like – and be mindful not to touch or disturb the animals)
A ticket from your local dry cleaners
A map of your town and/or local park
A picture of a pink house,door, or flower pot
A selfie with a local firefighter or policeman

Then print out your list, and start gathering your friends! Again, working with a local coach might help recruit more 3-Day walkers, but you can also use this as a fun family activity. Getting your loved ones involved in your fundraising will help you raise money, but also connect the people in your life to your 3-Day cause.

What items should we add to the scavenger hunt list? What are your spring fundraising plans? Tell us in the comments!

Tales from a Slumber Party Tent: Kendall C., San Diego 3-Day Walker

3DAY_2017_SD_MDER_1329

Glamping is a huge part of the 3-Day experience, and our fields of pink tents are always a welcome sight for participants after a long day out on the 3-Day trail. Last year, though, participants had the opportunity to upgrade their glamping experience even further with our Slumber Party tents! Complete with air mattresses, a friendly doormat, camp chairs and more, they were a special reward for those who had recruited two new walkers to our pink family.

And they’ll be back in 2018! Open to walkers and crew, if you recruit two new 3-Day walkers by May 31, you can have a big pink slumber party on-event! You and your pals can celebrate your 60-mile journey in a Slumber Party Tent, a large tent that sleeps up to 4, complete with air mattresses, sheets, pillows, camp chairs and a phone charger. We can promise it will be tons of fun, especially because you’ll have your friends with you on the walk. Don’t take our word for it though! Kendall C., who walked her first 3-Day last year, got the luxury of spending her weekend in the Slumber Party Tent with her teammates from The Divine Sisters of the Ta-Ta Sisterhood…and she’s already trying to recruit friends for 2018 so she can be back in that tent again in November!

chin
“I’m always telling people how much I loved it and how it’s an experience I will never forget. Actually, one of the best in my life!”

Part of that was thanks to her team, who recruited her as part of their neighborhood team. Kendall walked for her three friends who have all been diagnosed with breast cancer, but didn’t know when she signed up that she would be sleeping in the Slumber Party Tent. Talk about an extra perk!

tent

“The tent was SO much larger than we anticipated and the air mattresses and pillows were such a treat to have! I also couldn’t believe there were chairs, which we loved having at the end of the day to relax in. We also would bring all our chairs together to hang out in the evening before bed. I also remember a welcome doormat, and a little table complete with a fake succulent! I mean, that is glamping in my book and I’ll take it any day! To top it all off, there was a cell phone charger we ALL got to use, even at the same time. We were so, so happy to have the Slumber Party tent and it completely made our camping experience perfect!”

Kendall says all the special touches made the experience all the more enjoyable, and encourages everyone to recruit and try to earn their own Slumber Party Tent experience this year. It brought her team even closer together, especially as they decorated the larger tent. Her tent won the decoration contest for its “All I Want for Christmas is a Cure” theme, which Kendall is still glowing with pride over.

tent II
“When else can you decorate a tent while camping with your girlfriends?! It even heightened the excitement we already had for the walk. We put tons of Christmas lights on it and you could probably see our tent from a mile away! Once we had our theme, “All I Want for Christmas is a Cure,” we could not stop buying pink Christmas decorations. We had pink stockings (with our names in glitter of course), pink garland, pink Christmas trees, and I even wrapped presents in pink paper! It was really fun to come up with all the ideas with my tent mates too.”

Her enthusiasm for all things 3-Day extends beyond her decorating success last year, and right into her training and recruiting goals for this year as well.

The Divine Divas of the Ta-Ta Sisterhood
“I am still riding on the high from last year’s walk! It completely exceeded my expectations in every way. The training brought an entire new group of friends my way and I looked forward to every training walk with them. I loved feeling a part of something and felt like I was making a difference! I was raising awareness and fundraising at the same time and that felt good.

The walk itself was also so much fun! The 3-Day crew took such amazing care of us and we always had everything we needed. Whether it was food or drink, help from the medics, our amazing tents, and they even hosted an amazing family night. I really loved every minute and once I start telling somebody about my experience, I just can’t stop!”

Want to join Kendall in 2018? Register now…and then get recruiting! Go to The3Day.org/Refer for all the details and get the Recruitment ID you need to recruit two friends to walk 60 miles with you by May 31st, and you could be enjoying your very own Slumber Party Tent!

A Family United: Julie G. and the “Trekkers for Tudy’s Tatas”

I Walk For: My Daughter. My Sister. My Niece. Myself.

On the 3-Day, we hear that people are walking with and for family members all the time. They walk alongside them, in their memory, and with their family cheering from the sidelines. What we don’t always see, though, is four sisters all walking together, alongside their daughters and nieces. All as one, walking for seven years!

That’s the story of Julie G. and her “Trekkers for Tudy’s Tatas” team in Dallas/FortWorth. In 2017, she walked with her sisters Kim, Lori and Chris, along with her daughter Lindsey and her niece Morgan.

Julie’s sister Chris first brought the family into the 3-Day bubble, walking for two years as a part of another team. Then, in 2010, Julie’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Immediately, all three sisters signed up for the next 3-Day walk, and have walked ever since in her honor.

Julie says they have all walked together simply for the “sheer joy it brings our mother. She is so humbled by the fact that we fundraise, train and walk all in her name.”

Since that first year, their team has also added Julie’s own daughter Lindsey, and her niece.

“Walking with family members is by far the most special part of the walk. It started out with just my sisters and then it has grown to my daughter and my niece. We are a family of 18 including husbands, sons and other nieces, and to see that whole group standing with matching t-shirts along the route screaming our names and holding up posters bring tears to my eyes.

It really is a family effort. My husband and son are so supportive when it comes time to train and when the walk actual takes place. They are there every day driving around making sure to hit every cheering station along the route. But the most special part of the walk is the finish line and seeing my mother there. She knows it’s for her. We include her in the closing ceremony because she is the reason we walk.”

3-day walk2

Each member of the family approaches the walk differently, although they all swear by the 16-week training program. They try to train together on weekends, and Julie recommends early morning walks for quality time and cooler weather. Also, Julie says to be sure to get your walking shoes EARLY so you can break them in. All of this will have you ready to go when 3-Day weekend arrives and let you just take time to enjoy your 60-mile walk.

That is what Julie says she and her family loves most about the 3-Day: all the small moments of happiness that happen throughout the walk. Her daughter is a fan of “the silly outfits teams wear as well as the signs that husbands hold up along the way,” while Julie can’t get enough of our puppy supporters. The rest of the family loves seeing all the pit stop and cheering station themes, and they will even be hosting their own cupcake-themed cheering station this year.

It’s a family affair from start to finish for Julie and her family, but it always comes back to the matriarch.

“My mother can’t put into words what it means to have us walk year after year. She knows it’s a sacrifice for us financially and physically and that proves to her more and more how much we love her and how proud we are to call her our mom.”

3-day walk4