Team Fiber Arts Avengers

[indiegirl]

The Fiber Arts Avengers can become a team for the 3Day. We can sponsor as many participants as we want and all of the team's money will be tracked on our team page(s). This is a great way to spread the wealth of our generous donors and contributors.

From the 3Day:

Important Notes

Each team member is still required to raise her or his minimum fundraising requirement. For the sake of the cause, we hope each team member will raise even more! The purpose of a team is to support each individual in doing more, not less, than they could do on their own.

Donations can be attributed to only one participant's donation account. We cannot split or transfer donations at the donation office.

Teams are specific to a 3-Day location. If you would like to recruit members to your team who are registered for a different 3-Day event, they must select their own team captain for that location. For example, you could form "Teri's Team" for the Atlanta 3-Day and register as team captain. Your cousin can then form "Teri's Team" for the Boston 3-Day and register as team captain for the Boston branch of your team. Each local team will have its own Team HQ.

If you are a crew member, you will be assigned to a Crew Team to fulfill a specific function on the event (e.g., Pack-Up Crew Team, Pit Stop Crew Team). You can still form a team for the purposes of fundraising and support with other crew members and walkers.

And we can have T-Shirts made very easily through the 3Day--we can even have these made for folks who are NOT walking (so if you want a shirt, you can buy one):

http://www.promoshopstores.com/3day/

So I think we need to come up with guidelines on who and how we support our walkers -- maybe we have a page of possible recipents of the donation money and the folks donating can read about each walker and chose who to donate to?.

I think there needs to be some sort of criteria for who gets our funds -- including they have to join The Fiber Arts Avengers team via their 3 Day donation page. All participants have the option of joining a team in the profile section of their 3Day HQ page. I've created a Seattle Fiber Arts Avengers and am the Team Captain. Each location would need someone to create the team (not hard) and then serve as Team Captian (not hard).

We can be a national effort! Once we have guidelines in place for who gets the money and how it is distributed, I think we will be set!

As for this round of auctions, I can compose a letter to the winners of the auctions if that is what we decide to do.

Jesse

[indiegirl]

Hello?

[ravingcutie]

That sounds good to me. So basically we'd have team members across the country?

[indiegirl]

:photo

We'll be famous.

[jmo]

That sounds like a really great idea - look what you started, Jesse! ;)

[indiegirl]

That sounds like a really great idea - look what you started, Jesse! ;)

I'd love to take the credit, but sadly, my idea was for knitted I-cord keychains. Pam kicked it up a notch. Way up.

Jesse

[mamapez]

Awesome! Go Team Fiber Arts Avengers!!! :bigups:

[indiegirl]

Ideas for criteria for our walkers?

--Join the FAA team
--? One of us has to personally know the walker?
-- anything else?

[Susan_WW]

Sounds great :D

[CraftyMommaOf2]

fantastic idea! i'm thinking...

[mamapez]

I emailed Shell to update her on the status of the auctions and to let her know about Team Fiber Arts Avengers. I was hesitant about it, because I didn't want to offend her. I know how personal and special her team is to her. But I didn't want Jeanine to be left out either, especially after getting them all hyped up about FAA.

Shell replied:

"Wow! That is so awesome! Thank you so much Amy! You
are an angel.

There is a history to my team given that it was formed
in the middle of my treatments between chemo and
radiation. This is the 3rd walk that my team is
doing. We are committed to doing a 3-Day walk every
single year in a different city. Do the people
understand that I'm a breast cancer survivor?

I'm more than happy to have my team wear a banner of
some sort representing the support from your group. I
often get up and speak at the walks, during the
evening at the camps, and would be more than happy to
talk about the group and what they are doing to help
support the 3-Day and its walkers.

Thank you so much for al that you are doing! :O)

Shell"

What do you think? I don't want to go against the group if you think that being on the Team is important. Can we at least let them finish with this round since we started it already?

[Ruth]

I think you might be worrying too much Amy, I don't think it matters THAT much about which team people are in since it's all one big team aiming for the same goal really.

[indiegirl]

Ruth, I think Amy is being sensitive to a request I put out there that our donations only go to folks on the FAA 3Day team.

Amy--as I understand it, you have auctions specifically for Shell and her mother running right now? Do what you are doing. That is fine. BUT, I don't feel comfortable throwing up a new list of folks who have not joined our team yet. I think we need to take the next couple of weeks and implement a critera that we are happy with, and I do think it's important they join or start and FAA team. Next year we will start earlier, before folks join teams.

But what you are doing at this time for your friends is fine because we had nothing in place.

I went ahead and did a letter for our donors that includes info about Frankie--she joined the Seattle FAA team tonight. Meeting her minimum this round will be easy and then we can help others in the June auctions.

I got a little panicked tonight and felt I needed to make a decision I felt comfortable with and could stand behind. YOu'll find the following letter in a seperate thread, but here is what I said:

Dear Friend of the Fiber Arts Avengers,

I am writing to you tonight with a heart full of gratitude and awe. I am overwhelmed by the generous contributions of both the donors and the vendors for our second round of auctions benefitting my efforts in the Seattle Breast Cancer 3-Day.

As of this writing, I am just about $400 away from reaching the minimum to participate in the event: $2100. With the proceeds raised from auctions closing this evening and tomorrow, I will easily make the minimum and far exceed what I ever thought possible.

The amazing team of women who have organized and donated to the Fiber Arts Avengers auctions through goods and services have done so because they believe that one small act can a have tremendous effect and the proof is in the outcome of our efforts: to date, I've estimated we will bring in at least $4000, and we have one round of auctions to go next month.

I'd like to see our dollars sponsor other walkers after my minimum is met. After all, the Fiber Arts Avengers is not about me, it is about making a difference. Let's make a difference in a big way. Let's be superheroes to others who are struggling to meet their fundraising goals.

I've begun a campaign to create The Fiber Arts Avengers 3-Day Team. Each location can have a Fiber Arts Avenger team, but as of this writing the only team so far is in Seattle. I hope to organize more walkers in other cities before the next round of auctions in June and perhaps next year the Fiber Arts Avengers will sponsor walkers in all the cities participating in the 3-Day.

One of the women you'll see on our new team page is Frankie Hall. She has recently become my walking partner. Our paths have crossed for a reason, and that reason is that Frankie is a super hero herself and I needed to meet her. She is walking in honor of her dear friend and collegue, Linda, who lost her battle to breast cancer after a grueling fight. Linda and Frankie taught together for twenty years. They raised their kids together, shared their dreams, supported each other through crisis and adversity. When Linda died, she took a peice of Frankie's heart with her.

What makes Frankie a superhero is is that she is recovering from total hip replacement surgery, performed in November of 2004. That means Frankie will walk 60 miles -- just twelve miles short of three back-to-back marathons - eight months after her surgery. Frankie is carrying on Linda's fight now. Just a like a friend should.
I would encourage you to donate to Frankie's site to assit her in reaching her minimum to particpate, which is $2100. Donate directly to her site at:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=61814&lis=1&kntae61814=B489 96885DC84C49B152D58EAE39D4D9&supId=69114866

Stay tuned because we will sponsor more walkers in other cities in the June Auctions! Hopefully we will have walking Avengers all across this amazing country.

With gratitude and love,

Jesse Michener


Thanks everyone!

Jesse

[pamelamama]

Yes, Amy, I think it's fine to support your friends that (that? who? whom?) we've already offered to support!

[mamapez]

Oh, okay. Whew! I was worried that I was rocking the boat. :yikes What we are all doing here is so wonderful! We are supporting breast cancer research and that rocks! :inlove: The last thing I wanted was to introduce trouble. We have been having lots of fun and love and warm fuzzies, and it should stay that way. :D

My auctions are only running for Jeanine. Shell had specifically requested that we put any donations towards her mother's goal, since she, herself, is only $500 shy.

I was pm'd with the names of the three other walkers, who are friends with that mama.

I can pull down my page after the auctions (I think there is one auction that references my page explicitly), and we can add an "official" support page on the "official" FAA site.

I apologize for jumping the gun. My page was put up there on a site separate from FAA, just to see what folks thought. I didn't realize it would be cementing our commitment.

:hug for everyone's hard work and :highfive on FAA's continued success. :)