St. Baldrick's - A Great Cause, A Great Day

Saturday was an amazing day. I started by going to the pub to support The Magellan Charter school because there were some children who were shaving in honor of Colleen. This was shortly after noon.

I was worried that I would cry when I had my own head shaved. I actually ended up shedding the most tears while watching Elizabeth, one of our neighbors, have her long hair cut (for locks of love) and then her head shaved in honor of Colleen. She was actually the top fund raiser for the school by raising over $2,000 for the event. I was really proud of her and touched by her act of love and kindness.

My nephew, Matthew and his friend Ray were up next at 3:30. They were part of the Bayleaf Fire Department (aka Firefighters for Kids team). Matthew was the top fundraiser for his team raising $1400 for the team and Ray sacrificed this huge head of hair and raised $400 for the cause. It is great to see college kids participating to help such a great cause. This was Matt's second year and the reason that I am even involved. Thanks so much Matt. I love you for being the man that you are.

My Mom and my friend Karen were long haulers with me. Staying for most of the day for support. I really appreciated that. It was a long day but Napper Tandy's and the event organizers (The Redwoods Group) did a great job with the event and we certainly had a beautiful day. At around 5pm, my friends started showing up in droves to support me. People were showing up all the way up until the last minute when I looked down from the stage and spotted a few people from church that I did not even know were there. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated all of the moral support.

The Striving for More Team was amazing. Our team of only 9 people raised over $10,200 and the final numbers are not even in yet because cash donations were made during the event. I made new friends, became competitive for a good cause, had a blast, discovered that I don't have such a bad looking head and love the fact that I don't have to blow dry my hair anymore!

Tons of pictures were taken and some video too thanks to my good friends Chris (Nutt) Marshall, Derek Carawan, and Kim Petty. Check them all out at the links at the bottom of the page. Check out the great video uploaded because it tells the amazing story of how involved my friend (and Hawthorne's friend), the emcee, Collin got when the Striving for More team took the stage. It was fantastic. He was amazing. Thanks Collin.

Now, I will set my sights back onto Striving for More and what I need to get done for that. Indeed, there is a lot to be done.

Until next time, good night and thank you again.

Read more...

Tomorrow is Shave Day!

Tomorrow (Saturday, March 7th at 6:30pm), the Striving for More team, which is now nine participants strong, is having their head shaved to raise money for Childhood Cancer Research during the St. Baldrick's Foundation Event at Napper Tandy's Pub in downtown Raleigh.

It is very exciting for me because our team is currently in second place behind a team of more than 70 kids from Magellan Charter School and I am pretty sure we won't catch up to them. (Who wants to? Little boys and girls shaving their heads - how great is that!).

However, I am currently the second place individual fund raiser and I am a very close second. Right now, I am less than $400 from being the top fund raiser in an event of more than 250 shavees. The interesting thing is that I am not typically a competitive person. However, I see a huge opportunity for Striving for More to get a big PR push if I do win as the first place winner. I am doing everything I can to get the biggest PR push regardless. I purchased 30 Striving for More t-shirts and I distributed them this week hoping that most of our supporters who are attending will be wear them to the event. I hope to get my new business cards in the mail today and hand out stacks to the people wearing t-shirts so they can hand them to anyone who asks about Striving for More. My generous web developer is working hard to try to get the web site into an initial state that is ready for some visitors even though he has a full time job and a full time life of his own. The pressure is mounting.

The Striving4More Team is being featured on the home page of the St. Baldrick's site in the 'head'lines section which you can see on the home page but it cycles through several different stories. I have also been approached by some PR/media people as well (nothing too big at this point, but I can see the surge starting to swell).

There are people coming to me asking to be part of the board. Exciting people. The type of people we need on the board... coming to me... not me hunting them... stalking them... begging them... it is all starting to change and it is very exciting for me.

From the first day I made this decision, it was clear to me that this is the path God chose for me. It is very exciting that other people are starting to see that now too.

So if I could ask you today, please...

1. Pray for the Striving For More team and that the event goes well tomorrow. Pray that many people see our t-shirts and ask about Striving for More and that general awareness is raised within our community. Pray start thinking about the issue that we have in this community and elsewhere and are moved by it. So moved that they talk about it at the dinner table and tell their friends. Pray that we start a groundswell of public awareness.
2. Pray for the success of the event as a whole. It is an amazing event and a fantastic cause. Raising money to help childhood cancer research is important. The National Cancer Institute's federal budget was $4.6 billion. Of that money, pediatric cancers combined received less than 3%.
   
3. If you have thought about donating to support my shave and have not, please consider it in these last hours. Even if it is only $5. It may put me over the edge to be the winner of the event and bring some really positive PR to Striving for More which will lead to bigger and better things down the road. Just click here and then click on my head!

Thanks so much to everyone, for everything!

Read more...

Finished my first day at Duke

Well I just finished my first class at Duke. It is exciting to be able to say that especially after only spending 4 hours in a classroom. I attended a Strategies for Fund Raising class. There was an excellent instructor who had a lot of practical experience and I took away a lot of good tips, and a folder full of great examples of things that I will need in my work (grant proposal, letters of interest, corporate proposal, etc.). He was a strong believer that fund raising success is 99% relationship building. With that comment, my confidence grew stronger in my abilities to be successful for the kids I am working for.

I woke up this morning with my (soon to be) bald head on my mind. I am not sure why, but I had renewed momentum to get moving on the St. Baldrick's event. I created a Facebook Event and will work on an Evite this weekend as well (for the people that are not on Facebook). I would love to get as many people to the event as possible to support us.

If I miss you for some reason, check out the details of the event at either My St. Baldrick's Pledge Page or Vince's Pledge Page. It is crazy, but right now, I am not the least bit nervous about shaving my head. When I think of all that Colleen went through, this is nothing. It is only hair and it grows back! I think it will also be a way for me to open up conversation with people to tell them about Striving for More.

It is 20 degrees in NC today. I wore a hat to bring Mackenna to Middle School Prayer group (I don't usually wear hats but I was really cold). I told Mackenna to get used to it, it would probably look a lot worse when I am bald. She said "OK, new rule! You are not allowed to pick me up from school when you are bald!"

Days at Nortel continue to be an nervous ride for Vince. Many of my friends from my Sony Ericsson family are beginning to move away for new jobs in other cities. Moves out of my neighborhood for new jobs seem to be at a higher rate as well. I guess for the first time in my lifetime, I am being directly impacted and seeing direct evidence of the difficult economic times.

I am trying my best to get out of my slump but it is a conscious thought process that I need to go through every few hours. I have to force myself not to be down and to continue to be productive and grateful for my life. It is sort of like when they say if you force yourself to smile, you will eventually feel happy.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and messages of encouragement. Please continue praying. I am a strong believer in the power of prayer.

Read more...