What can you do right now to make a positive difference?

I do many things on a regular basis, however, this week is our local Relay For Life. It's a fun way to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I am a team captain and also on the planning committee. My team is called Unity. Our motto is "United we stand, or in this case, walk against cancer. The money raised through the relay is used for researching new and improved treatments, looking for possible cures, funding a 24 hot line that cancer patients can call to receive information or support on any type of cancer at any time, to build hope lodges for patients and their families to stay in free of charge while receiving treatments, and this year they even gave my step-Dad money for gas to travel back and forth for daily radiation treatments when gas more than $4 a gallon. He lives an hour from the hospital and is on fixed income so it was a really big help.

I work on the relay all year long. I write sponsor letters to request donations and prizes. I recruit teams and team members. I attend many planning committee meetings and team captain's meetings.

This week, with only a few more days left before the relay, I am going to be extra busy. The theme this year is race for a cure. I am helping my kids build race cars out of car board boxes for the race car lap/contest. I am putting all the donated prizes together to make gift baskets, packages, and mystery boxes. These prizes will be used for our game at the relay. We are playing Deal or no deal. People can donate to our team for a chance to be a contestant in our game. Our cases are brown paper bags with index cards inside them. Each card has a prize written on it. Our million dollar prizes are a spa basket (many spa items including a gift certificate for a 30 minute massage), a nascar package (many items including a gift certificate for the online nascar store), and a pool party package (a swimming pool with a built in sprinkler and pool toys). Then the prizes get smaller all the way down to our penny prizes (travel pack of tissues in case you cry if you win it).

This week I will also be busy packing and setting up supplies and tents. I will be helping with a snack bar. I will be lighting candles and decorating luminaria bags. I will be doing lots of walking (last year I walked for 6 hours) and hopefully raising lots of money. Many people bring tents and sleep part of the night. I bring tents for my team but stay awake all night. We only relay once a year so one night without sleep is a small price to pay for fighting cancer.

Donations to my team may be made anytime throughout the year, but the majority of the fund raising is usually done at the actual event.  Relays are held all over the United States. You can find your own local relay to create a team or join a team at www.relayforlife.org. Just click on find event and enter your zip code to find a relay near you. Last year my little country town raised over $30,000 and we are hoping to double that this year as we have recruited double the number or teams.