Extra spots open for the Disneyland Half

[wfloyd]

Here is a copy of the email I got if you still want to register for the Disneyland half.

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We?re very excited that you have registered to run the Inaugural Disneyland® Half Marathon presented by Kaiser Permanente this September. We wanted to take this chance to let you and your fellow runners know that a limited number of additional Half Marathon spots have become available. If you have friends or family members who did not register in time but would still like to run, this may be their chance. You can pass this email along to them and the link below will take them to an on-line registration page. These extra spots will fill up quickly, so encourage anyone that you know is interested to take action now. Once the spots are gone, the page will indicate that registration has closed.

Extra spots now available for the Inaugural Disneyland® Half Marathon ? Register Now! https://www.signmeupsports.com/events/register.asp?eventid=34967&origin=e

On another important note, a select number of rooms at Hotels of the Disneyland® Resort are now available to Disneyland® Half Marathon Weekend participants, family and friends. These rooms, just recently released, are available on a first-come, first-served basis and will only be available until June 30 or until they are sold out, whichever comes first. Disneyland® Hotel, Disney?s Grand Californian® Hotel, and Disney?s Paradise Pier® Hotel are all open and available for you to reserve, so stay where the magic is and where the race begins! Contact the Disneyland Sports Travel team at 877-814-3528 to reserve your room today.

 

[Kristi1357]

Now I am absolutely furious!

I wanted to do DL so bad! I finally signed up under a charity just so i could participate. I am in no way meaning that raising money for a charity is a bad thing. I am just terrible about raising money and am pertified of not raising my minimum. If I do not meet my minimum, I am charged the balance. I really cannot afford to pay the balance.

Sorry, just had to vent, as this STINKS!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Kristi--re-register anyway. If the charity is a *good* team to be with--they will have a window period where you can cancel. That is what Team in Training has--you have 2 months into training before you recommit and sign your contract obligating you to the money. Recheck the program to see if they have anything similar and then register on your own with the half. Then should you be able to finish with the fundraising, you still have your entry.

(example--for WDW--We signed up in August with the Team and had until the end of October to ascertain how we were doing.)

ETA: And Kristi don't be furious--it is very likely that the spots allocated for charitable teams were not filled and since it was an inaugural event--instead of the slots sitting empty--they put them back in the mix. I don't think they were holding out on you.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Kristi, I just looked at the website you signed up for--is your fundraising minimum only $500?

I know that sounds bad to say "only"--but it really isn't that much. I had to raise $2100 and WDW is a local event for me. Did they offer any fundraising suggestions and support?

*cracks knuckles*

Here's what you can do:

#1 Letter campaign--write a letter to EVERYONE you know! Tell them what you are doing and that any amount will help. I didn't think I knew 100 people--but guess what, I did. That is what TNT tells us to do--write to 100 people: brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, dentist (mine donated $50), auto mechanic, doctor, florist, et cetera. And rule of thumb as well as Murphy's law--those who think will donate a lot--don't...and those who you think don't want to be bothered and won't donate--are the ones that donate more than your friends.

#2 Bucket drop. What the heck is this? Well you get a bucket--and you stand yourself in front of Walmart (They will allow this if you request a date) or a grocery store. Best if you have something to *give* away. I did Mardi Gras Beads once. But my fundraising needs were higher--so it wasn't a big deal to purchase them bulk. You can give away stickers (kids love stickers!) or leis or candy or just about anything that is cheap to obtain. Better if you can get it donated. This way it doesn't look like you are begging for money--but rather trying to earn the money instead.

#3 Contact a restaurant--I worked with Texas Roadhouse. They donated 10% of the evenings sales to LLS. Different restuarants have different requirements--I picked one that gave me the biggest bang for my efforts. Some will require you to distribute flyers and will only donate from those patrons with a flyer--that's why I picked TR as I didn't have to do any of that. Heck--if I knew enough people to give flyers to ... well, I woudln't have to work so hard to raise money, now would I. I did a 50/50 raffle (where out of all the money in the pot--half goes to charity and the other half to the winner. A restuarant employee won my raffle so they donated the money back to charity).

#4 A raffle. YOu do need a venue for this to work best--but solicit some prizes and raffle them off. One of my teammates hubby is a craftsman and made a bench similar to what a furniture shop sells to go on your patio. Spa days are great!

I see they have the fundraising page. Make one for yourself and then put that in your e-mail signature. You'd be surprised at the surprise hits you get from complete strangers.

Don't sweat it--you can do it!!!!

 

[DianeL]

Where I was working before we had co-workers wife make lunch for our office and charged I believe it was was $5.00 per person for I think it was the 3-day Walk she did locally.

She had made a simple spaghetti, dinner rolls, cookies and I think a plain salad. We were all thrilled to do our part and eat She did supply the plates and forks. I can't remember if she brought in pops too or not it's been about a year now

So perhaps you could do something for where you work? family members work?

She brought the spaghetti into work in a slow cooker.

Good luck with whichever road you take

 

[Kristi1357]

Sorry if I came off as whining earlier. I really just HATE fundraising. I am much more comfortable with donating my time and energy than asking people for donations. I would pay the $500 myself before I stood outside Wal-mart. I think it's awesome you can do that, but I am way too shy for that sort of thing.

My MIL is the queen of fundraising and volunteering in NH. In fact, one of the many things she does every year is organize the local March of Dimes WalkAmerica. I guess I am just saying that to convey that I truly understand how important it is to help these organizations.

I am probably even more leary about all this since a good friend tried to do the Big Lake Marathon through LLS this spring. She raised only $900 of her min. and had to drop out. She felt guilty, as if she let those her donated under her name down. She signed up for the race seperately and still finished. And this friend tried everything to raise the funds! She even collected used cell phones and used the money from turning those into an internet company for cash. She wrote letters to businesses, friends, family, etc. I even forwarded her emails to my family. She still could not raise nearly enough funds to continue.

Unfortunately, I already agreed to be held liable for the minimum. So, registering on my own is not an option. I think raising money for any charity is wonderful - I just do not have an aggressive personality to go with it. (I really wish I was more outgoing!)

We do have a Texas Roadhouse. I will give them a call and see if I can set something up. That's a great idea, thanks Lisa! Diane, yours is a fabulous idea too - but since I work in a tv station, it wouldn't be feasible here.

Maybe I can even try to get some ideas from MIL since she knows everyone, everywhere!

Thank you guys! I am feeling a bit better about this.
I am just upset at how my beloved Disney runs things.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

umm--you work at a tv station????


OPPORTUNITY ALERT!!!

We had a reporter in Orlando how did LLS. Of course her being on air--they just made that a fluff spot and she was able to broadcast to all of Orlando that she was raising money. I'm sure she made her money easy--not sure what she raised though.

Not saying that you need to go on air--but how about a chat with HR to see if you can put up some posters or maybe even some collection jars around. What if you had a snack set up in the lounge that people could buy their snacks from that instead of the snack machine. Unless it is a small station (I worked for one of those once LOL!) there should be a lot of people working there whom you could ask for help--or make known your intentions if outright solicitation is not permitted.

I wouldn't be upset with Disney. For both events (WDW and DL) they allocate so many slots to charity. The charities have until x date to submit their rosters. They have a secondary date to firm up those slots. However--it could be that they didn't even fill up the allocation and that is how extra room freed up. WDW has been going at it for years--and they have no problem with their allocations.

Also a while back they sent out a survey to ***** their parking situation. Located in a city--that is a big thing to consider when you have throngs of people coming to participate in the event--they may have reassessed and figured more could squeeze in.

Being their inaugural year--little quirks like that will happen. Now if they allowed same day sign ups--that would be something to be furious about.

See if a mod would allow you to post a thread and you could be our official WISH fundraiser gal. Since it is all legitimate and for a good cause--maybe a fundraising thread with your web page for direct contributions would be permitted.

Have you considered doing a garage sale?

Does you or your hubby's work company match (hubby's does--so in your case...I'd only have to raise $250 as they match up to $1000 to a recognized charity).

Make sure your donors know this. All they need to do is provide the form directly from their company and you submit that with their donation--the orgnization then confirms the contribution and then completes the form and returns it to the company for a donation.

That was my back up plan for LLS. It cut my portion in half if I was short.

And some LLS chapters are better than others--ours is highly supportive of fundraising efforts and you are supposed to have a mentor that does plan one group event--so there is always an opportunity. I was a mentor last season and it was frustrating when someone would be upset to their lack of opportunities to fundraise but when an opportunity (and their were many as my individual team had 5 mentors which meant 5 fundraisers not including the ones that chapter organized)---I had little sympathy for them. Either their heart was in it or it wasn't and it was downright frustrating for them to be upset but then refuse help when offered. Not all chapters are like this unfortunately. They are suppose to have all the same stipulations and opportunities--but as with any organization--some chapters are better organized than others. So I'm sorry your friend couldn't finish.