#BreastFootForward
Last fall I was locked away in a room with a desk covered in MCAT prep books: biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, anatomy, just SO MUCH SCIENCE……everywhere! And I was going a little stir crazy, but I knew there were only three more weeks left before I took the MCAT so that was a little relief. Sitting in that room, ignoring the mountain of flash cards at my table, I started to daydream of all the things I would do with my day once the test was behind me, and do you want to know the first thing I decided to do? The very first thing that would make all the difference between being locked in a room for a year, ignoring my friends, family, and community? Buy a big a big peanut butter flurry from Sno Top. (Sorry, but it truly was at the top of my list.) But the second, and less self-serving thing I was going to do was get to work on my fundraising for The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.
But I was still locked in a room with books and I would get a daily text from one of my friends making sure I was actually studying, not Netflixing, not online shopping, not spending my last days playing with my new pet, The Original Housebunny, and most definitely not planning my silent auction. Trust me, this was probably the hardest thing for me to do, because… you see, I LOVE to plan things. I get this idea, and then this big, elaborate image starts to develop in my mind and before I know it I’m so siked about it I can barely keep myself from running out of that locked room and telling everyone and their mother about it! But remember that friend I told you about? Well he kept dropping those texts and I sat in misery waiting for my test to be out of the way so I could allow myself to be excited for my fundraiser.
The day after the test was done, I booked my venue and within a 3 week time frame I and a couple friends had connected with and convinced over 64 companies, both local and national, to donate to our team, #BreastFootForward. What followed was an incredible silent auction with some pretty cool prizes and some really great tee shirts with all of our donors listed in the back. And a week after the auction was done we had the walk. If you haven’t been a part of the walk, you should join a team this year an do it. In fact you can join ours! #BreastFootForward has been such a success here locally and it really is thanks to the dedicated team of leaders we had who spent so much time putting our team shirt bags together, fundraising throughout the community, promoting our event day and night and ultimately helping to deliver all of the prizes after the bids closed.
Now you must be wondering what we ended up raising. Well, let me tell you! By the day of the walk, because of the silent auction, I had raised just over $2,700, (that pays for a full week of research in your local community) and I had qualified to become a Pacesetter. And by December 31st when fundraising closed online we, as a team, had raised $4,000 and ended as a Top Ten Team in Syracuse! I have never been more proud of my community and especially my friends who put in a lot of time and effort to make our silent auction a success. <3
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Recognition Dinner
Fast forward to two weeks ago and I can honestly tell you I never saw what happened coming! I had received an invite to a recognition dinner for my efforts as a team leader and ultimately as a Pacesetter. Of course I planned on attending and I was looking forward to talking about this year’s walk and fundraising plans. During the week leading up to the dinner I was asked to come up with a 3-4 minute speech (!!!!!!) and I was shaking like a leaf when I stood in front of everyone at the dinner. But even that isn’t why that night was so incredible, it’s because I ended up being the speaker of the night, and not only did they present me with an award, but MY TEAM WON AN AWARD! I don’t even know how I contained my excitement and pride, I did have as my guest a special teammate to share my excitement with, so I guess technically I didn’t contain it because we couldn’t stop hugging each other and taking pictures. And my guest of honor was pretty awesome in that she was our team’s breast cancer survivor. Now let me clarify that, she is a 14 year breast cancer survivor as of this past February!
2014 was good to us and to our community and I know that what we did made a difference in this fight. I met some pretty incredible people throughout the course of our fundraising last year and I genuinely cannot wait for this year’s silent auction and walk! The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk is such an incredible fundraiser to be a part of and I urge you to join. Honestly, any contribution helps because it provides transportation for treatment, lodging, counseling, and research among other things, be it $3 or $100, you are making a difference. So here is a look back on our journey and I hope you find inspiration from it.
Xo,
Maliha
I want to come back for this!