WOW!!!! What a fabulous weekend in Memphis! We all made it, some in a little better shape than others, but the main thing is everyone who started, made it across the finish line. This has been such an incredible weekend, once again words can not describe it.
When my body and my brain catch up on a little rest, I have ALOT to tell you and give you some reports on but for now I did want to touch base on a couple of things..
First - ABC 24 News out of Memphis featured Team Ethan on their Marathon coverage. So we had the awesome experience of having a photojournalist following us at our planned events all weekend. His name is Ryan, and he was just awesome. I will say he added an extra bit of excitement and fun to our weekend. And the best part, he is now an official member of Team Ethan! He actually wore our team shirt and ran with some of our different team members carrying his camera on his shoulder, and he did it in record time! He put some of us to shame! LOL It really was alot of fun having him around. You can see the video clip that aired on ABC News on Saturday night in Memphis at ABC24.com just click on videos, then click on "Thousands run for St Jude"
Second - At this point our team has raised just over $14,500.00 for St Jude!! Donations are still coming in and I'd love to see us hit the $20,000.00 mark. So if you did not get to come and be a part of this awesome experience, I do ask if you can reach into the bottom of your pockets and make a donation to the team or one of the team members. Ben's page is www.stjudeheroes.org/users/benpowell and Becky's is www.stjudeheroes.org/users/ethansmom Or you can go to stjudeheroes.org and find our team and select any of the team members that you choose to donate to. It really does not matter, bottom line it all goes to St Jude.
As of Saturday morning, the entire marathon has raised around 1.8 million dollars. To put this huge amount of money into perspective.... it cost just under $1.4 million a day, yes... I did say EACH DAY to cover the operating cost for St Jude. So all of this fundraising and hard work for this big weekend only covers the cost for ONE DAY! I encourage you to look into the many ways you can help this wonderful hospital in your local area or just on your own. Keep in mind, St Jude never ever turns away a child for treatment because of the inability for a family to pay and no family has ever received a bill for anything from St Jude. They do take what your insurance pays if you have insurance. They operate totally on fundraising and donations from people like me and you doing what we can to support this wonderful hospital.
More info and stories from the weekend and also pictures will be posted later, but I did want to get out a little "teaser" for you. More to come....
Thank you to those of you who did make this trip. Leave some comments to let others know about your experience here. Start saving up pennies in a jar for next year to come back and bring a friend with you. It is just to much fun to miss out on!!!
It was great to see you all again, already missing each of you and looking forward to next year!
When you say "GO TEAM ETHAN" I can tell you... TEAM ETHAN WENT ALL THE WAY TO THE FINISH LINE!!!!!!!!
Thank you all again,
Mardecia and Allison
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Good Morning!!
It's a very cool morning in Memphis this morning. I am looking at the forecast for the weekend at this very moment, at this point it is forecasting partly sunny (no rain) with a low of 30 for Friday night and a high of 52 for Saturday. No rain is what we are looking for! One thing you have to love about Memphis... if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes...it'll change. Hopefully this forecast will hold. Last year it was pretty brisk when we got started, but warmed up to a very comfortable temp by the time we got going good.
A few things to keep in mind. First of all, and very important, I need to touch base with you about the St Jude Hospital tour. Just a reminder, no children under the age of 16 are allowed on the tours. They are very strict regarding this. Also, if you are sick, please for the sake of the children whose immune systems are very low, do not participate in the tour as you will be coming in contact with some of the patients.
***If you have RSVP'd that you will be attending, I have your name on a list that has been turned in to the lady organizing our tour for us. That list will be posted at each gate. Your name must be on the list to enter the gates. This is a security precaution to protect the children at the hospital. You will be asked for your driver license, so be prepared. Please allow time for the gate check in process, depending on how many are trying to get through the gate at the same time, it can take a few minutes. We need to meet in the main hospital lobby no later than 12:45. Make sure that you are in the main hospital and not in the lobby of the Chili's building, this can be a little confusing if you are not familiar with the hospital. I will meet you in the lobby, and I have name tags already prepared that you will need to pick up. Our tour will begin promptly at 1:00 pm. Our tour "lady" has another appointment at 2 pm so we must be on time and ready to go to get our full tour in.
For those at the team hotel, the hotel is hosting a Welcome Reception at 5:00 pm on Friday afternoon. Just meet in the lobby of the hotel. Again, we have name tags for everyone so come on down and get to know your teammates or have a reunion with the ones you may already know.
We will move from the hotel to Macaroni Grill for our dinner reservations at 6:30. Just let them know at the reservations desk that you are a part of St Jude, Team Ethan. Just to recap, dinner will include: bread, salad, main entree, tea, coke etc. and we will have that wonderful delish cake that we had last year. So a full meal for our special price of $10.00 per person. We will have a limited menu available to us at that price, but there will be 3 choices and each choice is one of Macaroni Grill's signature dishes. I promise it's all good!! Final count for the dinner will be turned in today to the restaurant.
We will be joined at the dinner by a few extra guest. Some of you followed Sully along with Ethan, his parents and Hannah plan to join us as well as another patient that some of you followed too, Natalie Cravens. Natalie, her twin sister and parents plan to join us for dinner too. Each of these families have their own hero teams, but did want to join us for dinner to meet many of you who supported them and prayed for them.
Don't forget to pack your t-shirts! Let's show Memphis exactly who Team Ethan is!!! I hope to get a team picture at some point. We'll have to work on that one! Please bring your team shirt to Macaroni Grill with you, we might have to slip them on and try to get a group picture at that time. I'd like to get it before the run starts, but since we will not all be doing the same run, that might be impossible to get everyone together before or after... we'll see!
Ok, enough for today! do you realize it is FINALLY here! WooHoo!! This will be a life changing experience for you. I am so excited about what we as a group are able to do for this wonderful hospital. Keep up the good work!
Oh yea.. I do have one more thing... there will be door prizes at the dinner!! You must be present to win, but there will be prizes for a) who traveled the farest b) who raised the most money for the team and other prizes to.
If you need anything, you can email me and I'll try to help.
Have a great week! See you this weekend!!!
Mardecia
rebelmom528@aol.com
It's a very cool morning in Memphis this morning. I am looking at the forecast for the weekend at this very moment, at this point it is forecasting partly sunny (no rain) with a low of 30 for Friday night and a high of 52 for Saturday. No rain is what we are looking for! One thing you have to love about Memphis... if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes...it'll change. Hopefully this forecast will hold. Last year it was pretty brisk when we got started, but warmed up to a very comfortable temp by the time we got going good.
A few things to keep in mind. First of all, and very important, I need to touch base with you about the St Jude Hospital tour. Just a reminder, no children under the age of 16 are allowed on the tours. They are very strict regarding this. Also, if you are sick, please for the sake of the children whose immune systems are very low, do not participate in the tour as you will be coming in contact with some of the patients.
***If you have RSVP'd that you will be attending, I have your name on a list that has been turned in to the lady organizing our tour for us. That list will be posted at each gate. Your name must be on the list to enter the gates. This is a security precaution to protect the children at the hospital. You will be asked for your driver license, so be prepared. Please allow time for the gate check in process, depending on how many are trying to get through the gate at the same time, it can take a few minutes. We need to meet in the main hospital lobby no later than 12:45. Make sure that you are in the main hospital and not in the lobby of the Chili's building, this can be a little confusing if you are not familiar with the hospital. I will meet you in the lobby, and I have name tags already prepared that you will need to pick up. Our tour will begin promptly at 1:00 pm. Our tour "lady" has another appointment at 2 pm so we must be on time and ready to go to get our full tour in.
For those at the team hotel, the hotel is hosting a Welcome Reception at 5:00 pm on Friday afternoon. Just meet in the lobby of the hotel. Again, we have name tags for everyone so come on down and get to know your teammates or have a reunion with the ones you may already know.
We will move from the hotel to Macaroni Grill for our dinner reservations at 6:30. Just let them know at the reservations desk that you are a part of St Jude, Team Ethan. Just to recap, dinner will include: bread, salad, main entree, tea, coke etc. and we will have that wonderful delish cake that we had last year. So a full meal for our special price of $10.00 per person. We will have a limited menu available to us at that price, but there will be 3 choices and each choice is one of Macaroni Grill's signature dishes. I promise it's all good!! Final count for the dinner will be turned in today to the restaurant.
We will be joined at the dinner by a few extra guest. Some of you followed Sully along with Ethan, his parents and Hannah plan to join us as well as another patient that some of you followed too, Natalie Cravens. Natalie, her twin sister and parents plan to join us for dinner too. Each of these families have their own hero teams, but did want to join us for dinner to meet many of you who supported them and prayed for them.
Don't forget to pack your t-shirts! Let's show Memphis exactly who Team Ethan is!!! I hope to get a team picture at some point. We'll have to work on that one! Please bring your team shirt to Macaroni Grill with you, we might have to slip them on and try to get a group picture at that time. I'd like to get it before the run starts, but since we will not all be doing the same run, that might be impossible to get everyone together before or after... we'll see!
Ok, enough for today! do you realize it is FINALLY here! WooHoo!! This will be a life changing experience for you. I am so excited about what we as a group are able to do for this wonderful hospital. Keep up the good work!
Oh yea.. I do have one more thing... there will be door prizes at the dinner!! You must be present to win, but there will be prizes for a) who traveled the farest b) who raised the most money for the team and other prizes to.
If you need anything, you can email me and I'll try to help.
Have a great week! See you this weekend!!!
Mardecia
rebelmom528@aol.com
Thursday, November 20, 2008
All shirts have been shipped out. I have one that has not, but that person has been notified. There are some others who have not yet received theirs, I guess this is the true definition of "snail mail". Sorry that it is taking a little longer for some to get to you, but hopefully it will arrive soon, and you will find it was "worth the wait". Again, thank you for your support.
Just a reminder, online donations are still open, you can go to www.stjudeheroes.org and look up Team Ethan if you would like to make a donation either personal or business to this great cause. You can go directly to a team member or just make an overall team donation. Thank you again.
Team Members... more info regarding the marathon weekend will be coming, plans are all coming together and we are looking forward to being together and "taking our steps for a cure"!!!!!
We were $5 short of $7,000.00 last night. I have not looked today, but if as Ben suggested, everyone who goes to the site would donate just $5.00, look where we could be. There are 40+ of us this year, last year 20+ of us raised over $25,000.00 for St Jude... I KNOW WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!!!
Just a reminder, online donations are still open, you can go to www.stjudeheroes.org and look up Team Ethan if you would like to make a donation either personal or business to this great cause. You can go directly to a team member or just make an overall team donation. Thank you again.
Team Members... more info regarding the marathon weekend will be coming, plans are all coming together and we are looking forward to being together and "taking our steps for a cure"!!!!!
We were $5 short of $7,000.00 last night. I have not looked today, but if as Ben suggested, everyone who goes to the site would donate just $5.00, look where we could be. There are 40+ of us this year, last year 20+ of us raised over $25,000.00 for St Jude... I KNOW WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!!!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
T-Shirts are on their way! Some got theirs today. Post a comment and let us hear from you, tell us what you think about the shirts!!
Our goal... Taking Steps For A Cure, one mile at a time!
Don't forget to get your donations turned in soon if you have checks. It is taking about 2 weeks for the checks to be posted on your goals page. Every dollar means so much to St Jude and to these families.
I am so excited that we have such a good turn out for the hospital tour. This is something that you will never forget. You will see what this whole weekend is really about. The families at St Jude.
Our goal... Taking Steps For A Cure, one mile at a time!
Don't forget to get your donations turned in soon if you have checks. It is taking about 2 weeks for the checks to be posted on your goals page. Every dollar means so much to St Jude and to these families.
I am so excited that we have such a good turn out for the hospital tour. This is something that you will never forget. You will see what this whole weekend is really about. The families at St Jude.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Hello,
Exciting news: The t-shirts are in the mail!! So be watching your mailbox.
Also, I wanted to remind you that we need RSVP's for the events scheduled on Friday, December 5th. Please email to rebelmom528@aol.com by tomorrow. Thank you for doing this for us. It is important to get these numbers turned in to the hospital for them to make sure they have the tour set up with a manageable number of people in each group. The restaurant needs a number to, that goes without saying. LOL Eric, who is bending over backwards for us, needs a number to prepare for the "goodies" he is planning at the hotel Welcome Reception.
Thank You for helping us with this.
Kick in your fundraising here in the last few weeks, and let's show St Jude that Team Ethan loves and supports this hospital.
Exciting news: The t-shirts are in the mail!! So be watching your mailbox.
Also, I wanted to remind you that we need RSVP's for the events scheduled on Friday, December 5th. Please email to rebelmom528@aol.com by tomorrow. Thank you for doing this for us. It is important to get these numbers turned in to the hospital for them to make sure they have the tour set up with a manageable number of people in each group. The restaurant needs a number to, that goes without saying. LOL Eric, who is bending over backwards for us, needs a number to prepare for the "goodies" he is planning at the hotel Welcome Reception.
Thank You for helping us with this.
Kick in your fundraising here in the last few weeks, and let's show St Jude that Team Ethan loves and supports this hospital.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO CONFIRM HOTEL ROOM WITH TEAM ETHAN AT THE DISCOUNTED TEAM RATE
After today, any rooms remaining in our reserved block of rooms will be returned to Hotel inventory to be rented out by the hotel. You can still call for a reservation, however it will be on space available and at the standard rate of the hotel at time of booking.
FAIRFIELD INN & SUITES BY MARRIOTT
MEMPHIS EAST
MEMPHIS,TN 38133
901-381-0085 Please ask for Eric, let him know you are with St Jude Team Ethan.
* Welcome Reception to be held at the hotel for all team members at 5:00 pm on December 5, 2008
After today, any rooms remaining in our reserved block of rooms will be returned to Hotel inventory to be rented out by the hotel. You can still call for a reservation, however it will be on space available and at the standard rate of the hotel at time of booking.
FAIRFIELD INN & SUITES BY MARRIOTT
MEMPHIS EAST
MEMPHIS,TN 38133
901-381-0085 Please ask for Eric, let him know you are with St Jude Team Ethan.
* Welcome Reception to be held at the hotel for all team members at 5:00 pm on December 5, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
We have another important deadline coming up this week I need to remind you of.
We are only about a month away from the Marathon Weekend. I am so excited. I need to let you know that the deadline date for reserving a room in the Team Ethan block of rooms at our team discounted rate is November 5, 2008. After this date, any remaining rooms being blocked will be returned to hotel inventory and the rooms will be on space available and at the current standard room rate. If you know you are coming, please go on and call Eric at the hotel, tell him your with the St Jude Team Ethan and make sure you get in our block of rooms and get our discounted rate. Eric is doing a great job for us. He is hosting a Welcome Reception for us around 5:00p.m. on Friday evening, and is accommodating us with an early breakfast since we must leave so early to get the the marathon. I really appreciate all of the help he is giving us.
A few other reminders... St Jude tour is planned for Friday, Dec. 5th at 1:00 pm, this is our private tour for just our group. I will need an email to get your name on the list as soon as you know if you will be a part of this tour.
When making arrival arrangements into Memphis, make sure you allow time to pick up registration packets.
Dinner plans to eat together are still underway... not sure on this one yet.
More to come, if you are not already, start checking the site pretty often, we will keep you posted on upcoming dates/deadlines and info.
Have a great week!
We are only about a month away from the Marathon Weekend. I am so excited. I need to let you know that the deadline date for reserving a room in the Team Ethan block of rooms at our team discounted rate is November 5, 2008. After this date, any remaining rooms being blocked will be returned to hotel inventory and the rooms will be on space available and at the current standard room rate. If you know you are coming, please go on and call Eric at the hotel, tell him your with the St Jude Team Ethan and make sure you get in our block of rooms and get our discounted rate. Eric is doing a great job for us. He is hosting a Welcome Reception for us around 5:00p.m. on Friday evening, and is accommodating us with an early breakfast since we must leave so early to get the the marathon. I really appreciate all of the help he is giving us.
A few other reminders... St Jude tour is planned for Friday, Dec. 5th at 1:00 pm, this is our private tour for just our group. I will need an email to get your name on the list as soon as you know if you will be a part of this tour.
When making arrival arrangements into Memphis, make sure you allow time to pick up registration packets.
Dinner plans to eat together are still underway... not sure on this one yet.
More to come, if you are not already, start checking the site pretty often, we will keep you posted on upcoming dates/deadlines and info.
Have a great week!
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