Training Kickoff

One week from today I will be attending a Training Kickoff at one of the local malls. My team member will be going with me. There will be a 3 mile training walk! I’m excited to get started! I’m getting my fundraising requests out today and tomorrow. I’m applying for fundraiser dates at some local restaurants. That should give me a boost! This is so exciting. I am nervous about the donations being met, but I have learned that if I come up short, I can change my registration from Walker to Crew! It’s a win/win! Crew members do not have a donation minimum required which is a relief. I do want to be able to walk with my team, though. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that I do a lot better than last year!

Get Started Meeting

This morning I attended my first meeting for The 3 Day. It was a Get Started meeting. Basically, it was like an orientation. Some people weren’t registered yet, so they could do that after the presentation. I was already registered. It was good information. Last year, I didn’t attend any of the meetings. The main reason for this was simply because there weren’t any meetings close to me. Last year was the first year they did a walk in Cleveland. There seemed to be a lot of bugs. This year already feels more organized.
I learned a lot of things I hadn’t realized last year. I learned that there are pins we can earn. For some reason, this whole earning pins things appeals to me…a lot! Maybe it’s from my involvement in Mary Kay. There are a lot of similarities between participation in The 3 Day and direct sales (particularly Mary Kay). Last year I raised a bit of money for my walk through my MK business. The woman who gave the presentation today mentioned that a Mary Kay unit helped her raise funds and she also had a purse party. I’m going to go that route along with some other ideas she mentioned.
I’m really getting excited about my involvement in this walk. I really want to raise the money now. My new team member is so nice and I really want to expand the team have a very enriching experience with this–as well as help this cause.
When I got home from the meeting I checked my email and sent the link to my site to my new team member so she can join the team. In my inbox, there was a great message! It said: “You have received a donation!” I got my first online donation for The 3 Day 2008! What a coincidence that I met my team member, went to a meeting, and got a donation all in one day! I am feeling very uplifted and optimistic.

Brainstorm

I’ve decided to make a list of things I need to try in order to raise the appropriate funds for The 3 Day:

- Email everyone I know.

- Talk to restaurant managers about donation days.

- Ask local shops about having a donation table.

- Have a donation jar at work.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. Would love to hear more ideas!

First Donation Dollars

I had a productive October in my Mary Kay business. As I stated I am donating 10% of my profits to The 3 Day. I sold about $500 in October. My profit was $250 and I am able to donate $25 to the cause. It’s not the $200 goal I had originally, but I will get there. I think this weekend I will talk to some of the local restaurants about fundraising. They do dining dollars or something at Max & Erma’s and TGIFriday’s and Applebee’s. I will be finding out how it all works and get those events scheduled. I’m going to raise the $2200 this year. I really want to walk. If I wind up raising more, I’ll recruit my husband and give him my excess donation money.

In addition to the fundraisers, I am going to get those emails out to my contacts. One friend has already asked me about donations. She actually asked if she was too late for 2007. I said no, but I was collecting for 2008. So, I believe I will begin to receive those donations soon. November’s a brand new month in Mary Kay, too. I have lots of appointments scheduled so I see more happening in that avenue as well. It’s going to get interesting, I think…

Learning Each Day

So far, I had not seen any way to create a personal URL address for my 3 Day website. Today, I discovered it is there. Now, I’m not sure if it was always an option or if they are updating the new 3 Day info as time progresses, but in any case, I found it. My 3 Day URL is: http://08.the3day.org/goto/mpes. Not real simple, but a lot easy than the actual URL address it forwards to!  To make a donation on my behalf, you must click on the area that says “Support Marnie.” The personal website has a link nearer to the top of the screen that says “make a donation” and that is misleading because then you must type in the participant’s name and get rerouted. Ugh! Last year’s website system was a bit better than this year’s so far. We’ll see how it goes! My team page URL is: http://08.the3day.org/goto/miraclewalkers.