Sponsors

This weekend marks 2 months until the Walk n' Roll! We really need to work on getting more participants and sponsors. I suggest making a list of everyone you know and mark whether they will be participating and/or sponsoring you. If everyone could also reach out to at least one company contact for a sponsorship, that would be great.
I know many of my friends are participating, but I have to create a list to keep track. I have sent out about ten corporate sponsor letters so far.

Updates

Mailing. Lori at NAF will be sending a mailing to all Northern California Ataxia Support Group members on the roster next week. The mailing will include a cover letter, a flyer, a registration form, a pledge form and a parking pass. Lets hope that individuals will make an effort to come to the event and/or get family and friends to come. Further, maybe we can get some more help in planning and/or fundraising.

Delegating. Delegating jobs is very challenging for me. So if anyone wants to help with any aspect of this event, please volunteer. I have attempted to create a list (on the left side of this blog) of tasks that could be done by anyone.

T-shirts. I have gotten a very reasonable quote for T-shirts from Westwind in Campbell. It looks like we will need all artwork (including company logos) submitted by early Sept. in order to be sure to get the shirts printed in time. This means that we need to 'step on the gas' in terms of getting company sponsors in the next month. I will try to send out some letters to my "potential sponsor list" on Monday.

Parking. I am going to ask Sunnyvale Parks and Rec for a deeper discount on parking. They give a 10% discount for groups, but we could use more of a discount. It doesn't hurt to beg, right?

7/12 NCASG meeting

I attended the Northern California Ataxia Support Group meeting on Saturday in Lafeyette. I was able to re-introduce myself to some people and met new members, too. I announced the Walk n' Roll event and we had a discussion about it. It was great to hear everyone's input and to see that people are interested. It felt invigorating to be part of an intergenerational group with a strong purpose. I have high hopes for this event and future events to come.

Friday crunch day

Friday will be a busy day! I have a phone meeting with Mike Parent from NAF about the Walk n' Roll event and expenses. I also need to make copies of the flyer, registration form, pledge form, sample letter and parking passes for the Northern California Ataxia Support Group meeting on Saturday.

Need Sponsors

We need to start looking for sponsor companies now. If you have suggestions about a company that may be willing to donate money, goods/services (for the raffle), or goods (water/snacks for post-walk) please post them as a comment or let me know. For example, we will ask Adobe, where Ikue used to work for a sponsorship. I started the process of completing an online grant application for Clif Bar, a local health bar company. Ikue also suggested Mimi's Cafe (where she used to frequent) and AMC theatres came up as a possibility (for gift certificates as raffle prizes). Here are some other links for grant applications:
wells fargo
safeway
Here is a list of sponsors for an Alzheimer's walk in L.A. The companies seem to be all over the board.
Any local companies, companies doing business related to health/human service, medical research, disability products, or companies where friends/family work could be potential sponsors. As a sponsor, the company would get free advertising by their logo being posted on our flyers, website, and t-shirts. If anybody has experience with getting sponsorships or wants to help with this part of the planning, I welcome volunteers.
If anybody has time, please do a google search to find other similar charity walks and see who they had as sponsor companies.
I am working on a template letter to potential sponsor companies that can be customized and distributed - I will post the template here when it is ready (later this week).

Flyer and Website

Now that we have a location set, I'm having a friend design a flyer for the walk n' roll. The goal is to have flyers printed for the Northern California Ataxia support group meeting in Lafayette on the 12th so that everyone at the meeting will have some flyers to take home and give to friends and family.
Also, my husband helped me to set-up the site "www.walkforataxia.com" (and .org), so if you go here it will eventually link to the flyer (coming soon), the registration form (coming soon) and this blog.