All-American Award App
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Award Application - 2011 ALL AMERICAN AWARD Recognition of American Cancer Society Relay For Life Events Description: The All American Award recognizes growth, retention, Relay branding, diversity, and leadership in incorporating the 5D’s within Relay events and throughout the year. The 5D’s include: Fundraising Development, Event Development, Leadership Development, Team Development, and Survivorship Development. To qualify: ● Events must meet National Relay For Life standards • Events must show overall growth • Events must demonstrate successful implementation of the 5 D's • Events must use proper event branding/signage with current RFL logo • Events must show connection between RFL and ACS • Events must demonstrate outreach efforts to diverse group(s) To Apply: Applications including any attachments (photos, forms, clippings, etc) must be submitted electronically to your Chris Reichert by August 15, 2011. Divisions must submit final nominations to [email protected] by August 15, 2011. Division winners are announced during the September Division Relay Summit. National winners areannounced to Division lead staff in October & awards will be sent to Region Relay Manager. Because of the large numbers of applications to be reviewed, we encourage you to submit your application soon after the completion of your event. You may include up to two photos for each of the 5D’s (no more than 10 photos total). For questions, please contact Chris Reichert. Thank You!
Award Application – 2011 ALL AMERICAN AWARD Name of Relay For Life Event: Western Berks Date of Event: June 10 & 11, 2011
Division: East State: Pennsylvania
County: BERKS County Population: 411,442
Lead Volunteer: Denise Pasko Lead Staff: Jessie Rivera
Phone Number: 610-636-1432 Phone Number: 610-921-2329
Email Address: [email protected] Email Address:[email protected]
Growth in the following three areas is a key indicator of your Relays success. Demonstrate your events growth
from last year by filling in the amounts requested below.
2010/2011
Income (dollar/per cap) $169,691 / $237,254.68
Teams (number of teams) 66 / 60
Survivors (3% calculation) 233 / 312
Team retention is also a key indicator in your Relay’s success.
How many of your teams are returning teams? Please list the number and percent of total teams.
(Example: 40 teams returning with 100 total teams in 2011 = 40% retention.)
60 teams with 38 returning = 63% retention
Implementation of the 5 D’s is critical to your Relay’s success. Describe how your Relay
implemented each of the 5 D’s in 2011.
Leadership Development (Establishing a Business Culture, Focus on Building Relationships, Chairs &Co-Chairs for
Sub-Committees, 2 Year Transition of Leadership, etc.):
1. Does your event have 20 or more committee members?
X Yes
□ No
2. Does your event have a 2-prong structure (growth & production)? Please describe.
X Yes
While we all work together for the same goal – A successful Relay event, Our “growth” committees (Mission,
Survivor, Advocacy, Publicity, Sponsorship, Team Development, and Online) work closely all year long to get
more people involved and build the awareness in the community. An example includes the mission committee
introducing a Reading Hospital Nutritionist to present the good/bad vegetables for cancer related illnesses and
prevention.
The “production” committees (Entertainment, Logistics, Registration, Accounting, Luminaria) work together to
ensure the overall event day is successful by making the event entertaining, having the ability to emotionally
impact everyone, and educate our participants on prevention, detection, and patient services. This helps our
Relay ensure our participants return year after year.
We worked very hard to organize our committee in a structure that concentrated on the “whole package” and
not just the event as a “show.” While I, as the event chair, and co-chair Marie Shuman oversaw and worked
primarily with the growth of the event throughout the year, our second co-chair, Beth Woytko oversaw and
managed the production. We built a team using a traditional business model, working toward our strong suits
and allowing each of us to play toward our strengths and letting the others pick up where perhaps we had a
weakness. The key to growing our event, in our opinion, has been to build a strong leadership team and
surround yourself with strong and willing volunteers.
□ No
3. Does your event have a succession plan? Please describe.
X Yes
We have an extraordinary committee. We try to maintain ACS’s recommendation of a 2 year-term and then the
Co-Chair moves to the Chair position.
We begin our succession planning for the committee EARLY and begin recruiting new committee at team captain
meetings in the late winter and early spring. When the ACS came to us (events as a whole) and said that we
needed to have key positions on the committee filled for the FOLLOWING year filled 6 weeks prior to the event
in order to fulfill pacesetter requirements, we thought ACS had lost its marbles! It was hard enough to recruit
people as it was, but to do it that early was just nuts… BUT was it?! So, we ran with it and developed a form that
we called the “COMMITTEE INTEREST FORM” (included) and we began discussing the work of the committee at
team captain meetings several months before the deadline and getting people excited about it. We would hand
out the interest form and were ASTOUNDED at the response we received! In that first year, we had over 50% of
respondents showing at least some interest in hearing more about getting involved in some way! We continued
to bring it up and distribute the form at each meeting until the end of the year (in case anyone had missed
earlier meetings) AND we also emailed the notice out through Convio! We grew our committee to over 20
people and had the largest committee in the county! And it is growing even larger for 2012! We like to
encourage as much “new blood” on the committee as possible! The best part is that we were able to find
QUALITY committee members from using this form. We had so much interest in the committee that we were
able to choose from the BEST candidates to be the committee chairs and co-chairs and slide everyone else onto
the sub-committee! It has worked out so well for our event! And everyone is happy
□ No
Additional activity/comments:
Another NEW and exciting thing we did at Western Berks that worked out AMAZINGLY well was we switched up
our meeting format this year. Rather than just have the event chair stand in the front of the room and speak at
the team captains, we totally reworked our meeting format! And YAH! Everyone LOVED it! A meeting would look
like the following: Welcome, general announcements, and then we would break the group into 3 or 4 groups for
“mini-break-out” sessions. And we would design the break-outs dependent on what issues were particularly
relevant at that time of year. This did several things for our meetings: 1. Made them far more interesting for our
team captains, 2. Allowed us to cover much more material in the same amount of time, 3. Allowed our team
captains to get to know more of the committee, 4. Allowed our committee to get to know our team captains
better and 5. Allowed us to scout for that “new blood” for the committee! It was AMAZING and we hope that
more events will try this format! Please see DECEMBER TC AGENDA (included) for an example!
Team Development (Team Development Committee that includes Team Recruitment Chair, Team
Retention Chair, Team Mentoring, Data Collection, Outreach to diverse groups, etc.):
1. Retention percentage 63%
2. Number of new teams 22
3. Describe your outreach efforts to diverse groups
Our teams consist of Businesses, Faith Based, Friends and Families, Medical Offices, Schools, Social Clubs, Youth,
and National Partner. We reach out to different organizations either by attending a meeting or by mail or by a
personal visit/meeting. We invite them to become involved by volunteering, starting a team, or just attend our
event. We also are in contact with interested people who attend our fundraisers. Our team development chair
and event chair carry business cards and event videos and team captain handbooks in their vehicles and when
they are out on their daily business talk to businesses or organizations or individuals in the community and
distribute information constantly! Go out to eat? Talk to the wait staff or manager about starting a team! Taking
the kids to school? Talk to the teachers or principal about a mini-Relay! We try it all!
We set out this year hoping to expand our base with corporate/business teams and schools. We were really able
to score a big success by recruiting the Godiva Gems team, which is a team we have been “courting” for the past
three years! Not only did the Godiva Team sign up and raise over $2000, the husband of the team captain is a
cancer survivor and one of the coaches for the Reading Express football team, Ken Miller. He has become quite a
strong speaker for advocacy and actually spoke at Lobby Days in Harrisburg. We also recruited XO
Communications as well as the Baldwin Hardware team – all big employers in the area!
We were also very excited to dig deeper into the Wilson School District and we ended up with a team from
SEVERAL of the schools within the district! We had a friends and family team from the Shiloh Hills School in
addition to a school team from Wilson West Middle School and Wilson Southern Junior High! If you can believe,
EACH of these NEW teams raised over $2000 and the Shiloh Hills school team ended up our 4th ranking team
raising over $10,000!
We are definitely interested in attracting more youth teams and this year we did recruit one ALL-youth team.
Kids Crushin’ Cancer was a team of all children and they raised approximately $4400! This team was very active
and excited to be a part of the fight against cancer. They were VERY proud of their Silver Team Fundraising Club
status!
Additional activity/comments:
We also LOVE the new feature of Convio that notifies us via email as soon as a new team registers! This allows
us to reach out via email to the new team captain immediately and personally welcome them to the event and
get to know them. We feel that this is important not only for morale but for retention purposes. Teams,
especially new teams that feel lost and overwhelmed find it much easier to walk away and we never want to
lose even one team willing to raise money to fight cancer! So, we readily took advantage of this new feature and
emailed each new team and immediately began a relationship with new teams coming into our event. It worked
beautifully! And to show you how important this can be, take a look at our statistics! We had 22 NEW teams this
year and those new teams raised approximately $60,000 for our event! It PAYS to pay attention and take good
care of your newbies! By building this relationship, it also allows us to ask the new teams if they know of anyone
else that might be interested in forming a new team or becoming a sponsor, etc. We designate some time
during our meetings for any new teams that may need additional guidance, encourage team captains to read
our “Team Captain Guidebook” that offers great tips, and we offer suggestions throughout the year on how to
raise money for the American Cancer Society and enjoy the Relay experience!
Survivorship Development (implementation of National Survivorship Model – Year round survivor
recruitment, collection of survivor data, honoring survivors and caregivers, involving survivors in committee
and on teams, providing volunteer opportunities in ACS programs, involving survivors throughout the year):
1. Describe how you involved survivors year-round
We invite our survivors to Kick-Off (which includes a sit-down meal) and recognize them with a gift. We also
invite them to a Pancake fundraiser as our guest (to eat free) and we send Christmas Cards as well as our
newsletters. When we talk to our survivors or they register, we encourage them to give their email address so
that we can include them in our Convio communications.
2. Describe how you involved survivors in/at the event
We hold a survivor dinner, ceremony, and lap as well as present each survivor with a gift bag (which our survivor
committee goes above and beyond in search of in-kind donations from businesses in the community to fill the
bag with extra goodies). This year we also did a Survivor Ambush Makeover where 5 lucky survivors received
special gifts, new hair styles, new clothing, new make-up, and were pampered for several hours during our Relay
(all free of charge). The survivors were then revealed to everyone in attendance before our Survivor Ceremony
began as they were delivered back to our event from their makeovers in a stretch limousine. The event was such
a success that it was covered by the local newspaper as well as the local news station (please visit
http://www.wfmz.com/berksnews/28203936/detail.html for the video clip and see included READING EAGLE
– SURVIVOR AMBUSH MAKEOVER article for a copy of the newspaper article or visit for the online version
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=313838)
Another nice thing we did for the event this year was for our survivor dinner we had our teams “sponsor”
survivor tables. Each team had the opportunity to sponsor a table and by sponsoring a table they paid the $20
rental fee to rent the table and chairs from the rental company (and therefore making sure we had enough
seating for ALL survivors and their caregivers, in previous years we had run out of seating by relying solely on the
tables and chairs provided by the host school district). Once the team registered to sponsor a table, it was theirs
to do with what they pleased and the sky was the limit! The only thing we encouraged was that the sponsoring
team would visit with the survivors during the dinner, almost acting as their host and encouraged our survivors
and their caregivers to stick around and visit the carnival and stay for the luminaria ceremony. We thought this
would be a nice touch, some interaction between our survivors and our teams! The teams decorated the tables
in various themes – party theme, breast cancer awareness theme, beach-Zen theme, chocolate-lovers theme,
etc. Each table included not only decorations, but favors and gifts that the survivors and their caregivers could
take home with them as well! We also “strategically” placed the exit to the survivor tent to lead the survivors
and their caregivers into the HOPE Carnival in hopes that they would decide to stick around after the dinner,
rather than eat and run!
Our survivor committee is made up of all cancer survivors and this, we believe gave us an edge in tuning in to
what survivors are really looking for out of participation from a Relay event. From the very first phone call to
register or re-register the survivor(s), to a follow up phone call to invite them to an event, to the way our emails
were worded and survivor pieces were written in the newsletters, the survivors felt like they were a part of
Western Berks.
3. Did you provide caregiver recognition at the event? Please describe.
Yes we do. The Caregivers are also invited to the Survivor Dinner and to walk the Survivor Lap alongside of their
Survivor.
Kid’s Crushin’ Cancer team, as mentioned in the answer to question #3, (all youth team) was made up of kids
under 10, although 10 and under still were caregivers, were given special recognition as a first time all youth
team that hit Silver Team Fundraising Club representatives from the team were invited to carry the sails during
survivor lap.
And we had a really extraordinary activity and lap during the event. The goal for our "Make Your Own Superhero
Cape" and "Superhero Ceremony" was to show that you don't have to have the stereotypical comic book and
movie superhero powers to be a hero to a cancer patient or cancer survivor. It isn't necessary to have the ability
to sling from webs, fly, or have a super-human strength. There are everyday people in this world who lead very
ordinary and normal lives who are absolutely considered heroes. These are the caretakers, the friends, and
family members of cancer patients and cancer survivors. We chose the Superhero Cape activity to help promote
the awareness of how important it is to be a caretaker or a friend or a family member. We want everyone to
know that the average ordinary every day person can be a hero to someone with cancer. Our Superhero
ceremony included appearances by Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Spider Man, Batman, and Superman, all of
whom are the first thing people think of when you mention "superhero". And, while it's not wrong to say that,
yes, they are superheroes; we want people to recognize that the costume doesn't make the hero. Once our
costume-clad friends stepped back, they revealed other heroes; survivors, caretakers, friends, and family. They
may not be thought of as commonly as the others, and some people may be confused as to why these
individuals were included in this ceremony. But, to those facing cancer, or who have beaten cancer, or to
anyone who has watched someone struggle with this disease, it's very obvious that lacking a costume or crazy
powers does not stop someone from being a hero.
Caregivers were recognized during luminaria ceremony. “Let us please take a moment to thank the special
people in our lives, our caregivers. They may be a doctor, a nurse, a mother or father, a son or daughter, a
brother or sister, a coworker or a friend. Without these special people in our lives, keeping us positive and not
allowing any negativity, they keep hope in our grasp, never letting it go, never giving up, they as well, go the
distance. Without our caregivers, there would be far fewer survivors in this world. Thank you for being our
support, our strength and our defenders of HOPE.” Also, caregivers were invited to walk the silent lap to
remember the loved one they lost and they were invited to walk hand in hand with their survivor to walk the lap
in celebration.
Additional activity/comments:
During the event we also provided all survivors with an information card requesting their information should
they wish to become more involved with Relay and join or form a team/committee. We received good feedback
and even a response through the mail!
Another thing we have previously done have been have been to engage the help of the girl scouts to make cards
– for the survivors (and the cards were given to the survivors in their survivor gift bags) with the explanation that
the cards were to be signed BY the survivor and to be given TO their caregiver. Inside the card it said “Thank you
for helping me celebrate more birthdays!”
Fundraising Development (focus on fundraising as a priority, ensuring that fundraising tips reach all
participants, encouraging letter writing for fundraising):
1. Did you promote fundraising year-round (including online if applicable)? Please describe.
Yes we did. We held several challenges for Online fundraising throughout the year, including a 12-days of
Christmas Challenge (which included emails over the course of 12 days with a new online challenge each day)
and the “Ultimate Call to Action” (see included email) we issued one week before the event that netted
approximately $6900 in online donations in just ONE week!!
We also have posters for Team fundraisers available at our Team Captain’s meetings and encourage our team
captains to share their upcoming fundraisers at the meetings.
We had 794 participants and 682 of which were registered online! That just goes to show how heavily our event
relies on our website. We have a page on our website dedicated to “FUNDRAISERS” where we post team, Relay-
wide, and County-wide fundraisers. We would also send out emails via Convio when fundraisers were coming
up. Team Captain meeting agendas (see included APRIL TC AGENDA) and monthly newsletters (see included
copy of MAY NEWSLETTER) also included announcements about fundraisers. We also encourage new teams to
participate in County-wide fundraisers such as Sweet Streets and selling Reading Phillies baseball tickets as an
easy way to earn money for their team. Our team development chair also shares great “how to” tips on raising
money.
We did our best to educate our teams about sponsorships as well. In November we had a breakout in our team
captain meeting about sponsorship to explain sponsorships and how they are like any other kind of fundraising
and that anyone can find them and they apply to their fundraising goal. We found that most people simply did
not understand what sponsorships were and how easy they were to obtain! (and I think that is true for every
Relay event!) As a follow-up to the breakout, at the February meeting, we had one of our participants who took
to heart what she learned in the breakout and proceeded to go out and obtain over $1000 in sponsorships share
her experiences and what worked and didn’t work for her when approaching businesses!
2. Did your event include onsite fundraising? Please describe.
Our event used to do the “traditional” on-site fundraising that you might see at most events when we thought
“what is the biggest problem with on-site fundraising?” and the answer is – the only people spending money at a
Relay are the Relayers, which is traditionally why on-site fundraising, as a whole, is not tremendously successful
in bringing in big dollars (generally speaking). So, we thought, how can we solve that problem?? How can we
BRING people TO the event to spend their money?? Have a CARNIVAL! So, that is just what we did! In 2010, we
hosted the first “HOPE Carnival” and found that it exceeded our expectations for on-site fundraising. The teams
that participated in the carnival, collectively raised approximately $6500!! We had stumbled upon a winning
idea! We have decided that the carnival is the best way to bring the public to the event to not only spend their
money, but learn what Relay For Life is all about. Once they arrive, they can see that it isn’t only for “people with
cancer.” We have such an opportunity to reach out to the community and it is WORKING! And we plan on
hosting the HOPE Carnival as an annual event, something the community will hopefully begin to recognize and
accept and attend more and more each year.
In fact, our carnival idea has been so successful that other events across the state have asked us to consult on
opening a “HOPE Carnival” at their event! The concept of bringing outside money into the day-of-event
fundraising is worth exploring for every event! Plus, once you have them on-site, you can share the mission of
ACS! It is win-win for ACS
We also sell Luminaria during Relay, host a Chinese Auction, and have a concession stand open the full 24 hours.
We had several hundred more people on-site because of the carnival therefore the on-site sales of concession
food and luminaria were increased because of the increased carnival crowd. People were on-site to spend
money at the carnival, but while they were there, they were buying dinner for their family and picked up a
luminaria or two (or more) for their loved ones!
The Chinese Auction is something else special worth mentioning as it has grown substantially over the past two
years. We have taken the on-site income for our Chinese Auction from $1647.25 in 2009 to $3390.64 in 2010
and now $6400.00 in 2011!! Please see pictures below!
3. Did you offer fundraising incentives (for individuals and teams, i.e. fundraising club, early bird etc.)
We promoted the Team Fundraising Club as well as incentive prizes for teams and individuals who raised the
most money. We also like to recognize teams throughout the year that are doing an exceptional job. We
recognized teams (and individuals) for TFC, as well as other milestones and achievements both at our meetings
and on a one-on-one basis. We have built our entire event based on communication and good relationships. We
have done our very best to make it FUN for everyone. We try to recognize everyone, whether at a meeting or
individually. We know our team captains personally – every one of them – and we reach out to them on a
regular basis so everyone feels they are being recognized. We feel that “personal touch” makes a big difference
in keeping teams and team captains happy and productive.
We not only recognized our teams as teams, but we did a lot of recognizing our teams as a part of our event (as
the collective whole) this year. We all as team captains bonded together to reach pacesetter status (the ONLY
event in PA to have achieved this honor 5 out of 5 years!), we came together to become the FIRST event in PA to
become an ACS CAN Club event, we came together to not only reach our event goal of $172,000 before opening
ceremony (see picture below), but to take our event from the #1 event in the county to the #1 event in the
REGION (which was the personal goal we set for ourselves at kick-off and WE DID IT!!!) That didn’t happen by
accident. Our team captains – our teams – pulled together and MADE it happen. Our teams were so excited
about raising money this year, we are currently (at the time of the submission of this application) approximately
$70,000 OVER GOAL!
Additional activity/comments:
In the “Ultimate Call to Action” online challenge in the week leading up to Relay, we did offer a “fabulous” prize
for the top fundraiser, although, our participants could have cared less about the incentive. They wanted to
WIN! They wanted to reach our goal! And so they banked that money in a big way. We did end up awarding the
top three online fundraisers a prize (a Relay prize) during the opening ceremony at the event and recognizing
everyone’s efforts to helping us achieve the AMAZING achievement of hitting our event goal by the beginning of
our opening ceremony!
Event Development (effective emotional ceremonies, well planned survivor lap and activities, well planned
Luminaria ceremony, caregiver recognition, fun event):
1. Were your ceremonies emotional, engaging, entertaining, powerful, and diverse? Please
describe.
Yes!
Our survivor ceremony is VERY well attended as you can see in the photo below. Our survivor ceremony was
extraordinary. A great deal of consideration must be taken in order to put together an appropriate yet
entertaining survivor ceremony. This year our survivor chair came up with the idea of having our survivors and
caregivers release butterflies just before we embarked on the emotional survivor lap. Butterflies always seek out
the beautiful flowers and feed on them to survive, just as we wanted our survivors to look for the beauty in their
lives to help them be the powerful survivors they are. As the butterflies that represented courage, strength, but
most of all hope were released, the diverse emotional feelings were represented in everyone's eyes as they
looked to the butterfly filled sky. For the survivor lap we chose music that made our participants feel and share
in the emotional journey of love, living and laughter. There was not a dry eye to be found either on the track or
in the eyes of their loved ones who cheered them on from within the stadium. Even though tears were falling,
some of the butterflies took the participants by surprise by dancing around their heads as if encouraging them
to lead the way. The Survivor Committee’s engaging spirit through their hard work, passion and inspirational
speeches was felt by all in attendance.
This year we promoted year-long Luminaria sales through a successful incentive program which was proved by a
record number of Luminaria sales generating $10,000! We encouraged pre-event personalization of the bags
which brought a deeper connection for all participants. New to our event, was our first Reflective Gardens
where luminaria bags were placed in a beautiful reserved garden setting featuring a beautiful centerpiece
waterfall, completely donated by a local landscaper. Our ceremony theme was “Friends Go the Distance” which
truly reflects all who participate in our Relay. The ceremony included the top two team representatives reading
emotionally packed poems followed by a talented gentleman singing a moving and heartfelt version of Michael
W. Smith’s Friends. As the lights went out, the two team representatives lit ceremonial bags on a beautiful
decorated setting of purple and white coverings as we remembered those we’ve lost and honored our beloved
Survivors. Caregivers played an important part of our ceremony as we acknowledged their role in going the
distance, never letting us dwell on negatives and always kept us positive. In closing, an amazing 9-year-old girl
sang Go the Distance where the emotion of her song brought HOPE to every heart complimented with the
simultaneously lighting of Hope in the bleachers with a star in place of the “O.” With not a dry eye in the stands,
together we walked a silent lap in remembrance of our experiences and with those special friends we’ve shared
them. A wonderful CELEBRATION OF HOPE was achieved as each step took us closer to a world with more
birthdays!
We received overwhelming feedback after the event about how satisfied and inspired people were!
2. Was your event engaging all throughout the night? Please describe and submit program /
schedule.
Yes. In addition to the carnival, which is a HUGE draw and has tons of games and fun, we had activities planned
for the full 24 hours including: special laps, lap beads, games, music, bands, arts and crafts, dunk tank, etc.
Please see included SCHEDULE OF EVENTS. Even though it stormed and we had to move everyone inside, there
were still games played and singing while they waited out the storm. By 3am we had to move everyone indoors
and just take a look at this link to see the spirit of our Relayers in a hot gym at 3am with nothing to do
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4N6fsLPXv4). Simply AMAZING!
The outstanding part of what our Activities/Entertainment committee did this year was to engage our Relayers
BEFORE the event. As discussed in the answer to question #3, we had mini-breakouts in each of our monthly
meetings. At the May meeting, one of the breakouts was an Activites/Entertainment breakout and I have to say,
the chair and co-chair WOW-ed the team captains! They came in with props and music and got people invested
in the activities that were to come at the event! From this meeting on, they sent emails through convio to start
filling the schedule for the dunk tank (which in previous years had gone un-used because no one had bothered
with it), but simply by generating a buzz about it and generating a schedule before-hand, we had FILLED the
schedule for the ENTIRE available time at Relay in ½ hour increments and raised $674! We also doubled our
income from the Ms. Relay competition just by really generating that interest prior to the event by discussing it
at the meeting and by emailing details through Convio! We had 10 contestants competing raising approximately
$3088 (compared to the 3 contestants who had raised approximately $900 the previous year)!
3. Was your event properly branded with the current RFL logo and does your event connect RFL to ACS? Please
describe.
Yes. We have banners, posters, and signs hanging throughout the stadium as well as ACS staff on site. We
encourage all of our teams to use the brandwizard website for all of their flyers and promotional materials prior
to the event as well. We utilize the current RFL logo on all of our materials that we distribute and if we find
someone using an older version, we promptly correct the problem and provide them with the correct materials.
We also promote the use of the RFL URL on all flyers and promotional items. We heavily use our website to
distribute information, so as much as possible, we like to direct people to our website for information.
We recognize that branding is an issue and we encourage our participants to not only reference the “Relay For
Life” name but the “American Cancer Society” name as well when speaking to members of the community and
potential sponsors and in-kind donors, etc. One of our sponsors had purchased window decals for us that display
the RFL logo and relayforlife.org. We distribute them to teams and at fundraisers and to sponsors and in-kind
donors. We will give them to pretty much anyone that will display them in their business or car.
Having a clear plan and vision for your Relay is also critical to its success. Does your event have a plan that
incorporates future goals? Share details of your plan for income, teams, and survivors in upcoming years:
We at Western Berks have BIG GOALS! And we tend to achieve what we set our sights on! We have the most
motivated and inspired group of volunteers ever! We always strive to do better each year by increasing our
goals for survivors, luminaria, dollars raised, teams, sponsorship dollars, and ACS Can memberships. We also
strive to promote awareness of Relay for Life by attending community events such as Health Expos and National
Night Out. We attempt to increase our fundraising efforts by holding several Relay wide fundraisers each year
such as Relay Bingo, Breakfast with Santa, Chicken Barbeques, etc. This not only increases dollars but helps to
reach more people in the community, which in turn helps to create more teams and awareness.
We are indeed an All-American Relay, a showcase event that the American Cancer Society can be proud of! We
have not yet closed the books on the 2011 Relay season, but at the time of completing this application, Western
Berks is so far $70,000 ABOVE GOAL and STILL banking money! We are growing by leaps and bounds and I
cannot simply say that it is luck. Yes, we have worked hard. Yes, we have a fantastic group of volunteers. But it is
what you DO with the volunteers that will make a difference. They need to be motivated, they need to be
inspired! And I truly believe that communication is the KEY to our success. I have been asked time and time
again what our “secret to success” is and the only answer I have ever been able to offer is that we don’t have a
secret – we have an outstanding group of volunteers, as does every event, but we have built a special culture at
Western Berks and it is social networking and communication and IT WORKS! And the proof is in the success of
our event! ONLY event in PA to be Pacesetter 5 years in a row! We became the first event in PA to become an
ACS CAN Club event! We actually hit our event goal BEFORE opening ceremony!
We started out this year only wanting to become #1 in the East Region (only?! Right?? HA!) Well, we exceeded
that goal and ended up coming so close to reaching a quarter of a million dollars banked this year! So, we would
have to say that even though our event goal may not reflect this, our personal goals would be to hit a quarter of
a million dollars in a single year! And we tend to achieve our goals! Watch out ACS! Bigger and better things are
going to be coming from Western Berks! Our number of teams actually dropped this year because of the
dropped cap on team member requirement – we streamlined, which was fine by us. We feel it makes more
sense this way. Our number of participants did not suffer, though. We increased from 682 in 2010 to 794 in
2011, even with fewer teams. So, we ran with our 60 teams this year and we hope to grow, grow, grow even
more! We do have our eyes on our site facility, though. We are nearing maximum capacity and as we grow we
may have to consider a site change. So, while I say that our team goals soar to 80 teams and beyond, we have to
consider our logistics as we move forward. We need to make sure everyone stays comfortable and happy! And
as far as survivors go? The sky is the limit. Our survivor committee is made up of all cancer survivors and this, we
believe gave us an edge in tuning in to what survivors are really looking for out of participation from a Relay
event. From the very first phone call to register or re-register the survivor(s), to a follow up phone call to invite
them to an event, to the way our emails were worded and survivor pieces were written in the newsletters, the
survivors felt like they were a part of Western Berks. I had personally received feedback from several survivors
that had appreciated being “kept in the loop” on what we were “up to” throughout the year (even if they were
going to miss a particular fundraiser or even the event in June). Our number of survivors increased
tremendously (FY2010-2011 we increased 95 survivors – up to 312 from 217 in 2009-2010) and we can attribute
that to the overall philosophy of having survivors leading the charge and creating an entire package of
communication throughout the year to keep in touch and letting them know how important they are to the
American Cancer Society. We LOVE our survivors and we want to expand to include many, many more in the
coming years! I think that at over 300 we have finally built a good “base” of survivors to build on! We can grow
from here and include and appreciate so many more in the years to come! We have so much great work ahead
of us!
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