donation letter (in case you want to send it to anyone)

this is what i send out to people in case they might be interested in donating with all my information. feel free to copy it and send out to anyone that you think would donate. any help i can get is great! thanks

Recently, Emily Lester, a young and extraordinary woman lost her battle to leukemia. Her story inspired me to look into ways I could help raise awareness and funds for blood cancers. So, when I found out about LLS’ Team in Training, I thought it was a great way to incorporate my love of running into my goal of helping fund research for people like Emily with blood cancers.

Please take a moment and read over this. I am challenged to raise at least $4200 for research for blood cancers and I’d appreciate it if you’d help me out!

Every ten minutes, another child or adult dies from leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma.

An estimated 823,349 Americans are presently living with blood cancer.

The Cause:

With the help of your support, the five-year survival rate for leukemia has tripled in the past 46 years. That’s why I’ve joined The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team in Training. The goal of LLS is to raise funds to help accelerate the cures for blood related cancers. The money that is donated goes towards research, patient services, and raising public awareness. In the past twenty years since Team in Training was formed, people that have already participated in Team in Training have raised more than $800 million to support blood cancer research and patience services.

How you can help:

Please support my participation in Team in Training and help advance LLS’s mission. Make a donation (of any amount)—it’s tax deductible!

• Online donations: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/hpierson

• Mail a check made out to “The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society”

• Corporate matching: http://www.matchinggifts.com/lls/

In addition, you can also pass this message and my fundraising page on to anyone that might be interested in supporting this wonderful cause. No matter the sum, every donation counts.

Please make donations before September 19^th, 2008.

For more information on Emily’s battle, check out her journal: http://www.caringbridge.org/fl/emilylester/index.htm

Thank you so much for your support!

Hilary Pierson

P.S.

Here’s a quick update on our progress thus far:

As of August 2^nd, we have raised $1935. We need to raise $2100 by August 8th and the full amount by the beginning of October. We’ve had three fundraisers so far with all of them being successes. We’ve kicked off our raffle for a $50 gas card that August 23^rd. Together we’ve also run about 200 miles in our training efforts with our longest run being around 8 miles this past weekend and our first 10 mile run coming up. This whole experience has already been extremely challenging and rewarding so far and we both cannot wait to see what else is in store.

art walk fundraiser/top gun triathlon

well, i think i mentioned in my last post how i was going to get up early on friday morning… i didn’t and i feel like i’ve slacked. this week kind of sucked working out-wise. i’m not sure why. probably because of my dogsitting having to get up early EVERY morning, no sleeping it at all. haha. anyway, last night we had a fundraiser for TNT in gulfport. it’s their art walk, which happens every 1st friday and 3rd saturday. vendors set up their booths of things they make and sell for the most part. we had a booth collecting donations for the leukemia & lymphoma society. overall, we collected about $145, and we cashed the coins from our jar that we had, another $24, so we’re dividing that money between the two of us. i just sent in money today $251, i think. i’m hoping it gets there safely and quickly before recommitment. i picked up the checks from country day yesterday too.

sorry, i got side-tracked. the art walk was a cool experience. some people stopped and talked to us when we told them what we were doing. one lady did the 3-day breast cancer walk and she really was impressed that we were going to take this half-marathon on. another man used to own a gas station, and got shot 7 times while kids tried to rob him! another person was also supporting team in training. their daughter is from rhode island and her parents make dog treats and sell them to help her daughter out. she’s 21 and also going to san francisco for the nike women’s marathon. she’s going to try to help us raise our money too by giving her recipe for the dog treats to us for us to make and sell too. overall we did well at the art walk and hope to do it again, and possibly take pictures at their costume ball– gecko fest. we’re still working on the details for that. 

this morning we woke up at 5:00 am for volunteering at the top gun triathlon. we handed out the straps and chips to everyone in the morning, and that was kinda fun and then there was a break and then we had to get back to work and take off the chips from the ankles of each athlete. probably 800 athletes or so participated in this sprint triathlon (1/4 mi swim, 10 mi bike ride, 5k run) and we helped each and every one. the atmosphere was a lot more stressful and hectic than our running races. you have to have a number on your helmet, your bike, your running clothes, and i’m not sure about swimming, how that works. i think that each heat has a specific cap color. anyway, it’s a lot different than a simple running race and it seems so much more complicated with the transition area and all the different equipment. but that’s why i’d like to try it, because it’d be challenging!

after we were done collecting most of the chips, pam (our tnt coach) said that we could go eat the food. they had macaroni grill and chocolate cake!! it was delicious and since i hadn’t had anything other than a banana all day, tasted fantastic! while we were eating, katie and i met these really cool guys named todd and troy. they had just done their first tri and it was interesting how they thought it went, and how they trained. they said they had trained for three months (in tennessee, their home). oh, they’re brothers by the way. they inspired me to really try to train for one of these types of events. apparently the swimming portion (1/4 mi) is only 8 laps, (there and back being 2 laps) of an olympic sized pool- which the ymca’s is. they said that the running is the hardest part for them, and us being runners training for a half marathon, would definitely be able to handle a triathlon with proper training. swimming is katie & i’s weakest point, but for me, i would definitely be able to work towards a sprint distance! i would need a working bike though since katie’s bike that i use is broken in some way… anyway it’d be totally worth it. i think that troy and todd both really enjoyed training and the experience as a whole and it’s totally up my alley! we exchanged information, and we’re going to email them our blogs/fundraising pages and we have their blog. it was exciting to meet new people! one thing i have noticed about this team in training project, is that you meet lots of interesting people and everyone has their own story. 

currents
$1935 between the two of us
$943 = my current
$107 = needed for recommitment
$3257 = total still needed

conclusion = still need a lot of money, so let’s donate!

tomorrow katie and i are scheduled to run 10 miles and we’re heading down to north shore since that’s what our team did today while we helped at the triathlon. 

i think i’m going to read now,

hilary!