Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A Prayer Plan For Team Mercy!
Hello everyone!  Melanie Blair here.

I have something really exciting that I’d like to share with you this week! One of our fellow team members (and Mercy staff member) Trish Squittieri is running the full marathon and has come up with a prayer plan so that she can spend each mile of the race praying for Mercy. We have edited the plan to cater it for the half marathon as well, and I wanted to share both plans with you. Please see the specific information at the end of the email. I really want to encourage everyone to consider using this plan on race day to spend a few moments praying for specific areas of Mercy Ministries as you run the race for Mercy!

TEAM DINNER
I’d love to have the opportunity to meet some of you. If you have any interest in planning a team dinner during the month of March, please reply back and let me know what nights work best for you. This will be optional and just for fun. I will likely hold it in the Brentwood area on a week night around 5:30pm, but I’d love some insight on whether or not anyone is even interested before I plan it. Thanks!

SHIRTS
Don’t forget! If you plan to raise the minimum $100 required to earn the lululemon shirt and team dinner invitation, I need to know what shirt size to order for you. These shirts run in numerical sizes for women instead of S, M, L, XL, and they tend to run small and fitted. While the men’s are S, M, L, XL, I’d still like for you to confirm your size with me.

Men – you need to try on/look at the Metal Vent Tech.
Women – you need to try on/look at the Run Swiftly Tech.

I need you to email me with your size that you’d like me to order for you no later than March 1. It’s ok if you haven’t raised the $100 by that date; I will take your word that you will raise it by April 30th and order you a shirt. J

TRAINING/FUNDRAISING
Keep following your training plans and enjoy this awesome weather. If you ever have any questions about your training, please do not hesitate to contact me. I’m training for the half marathon myself and will be happy to do anything I can to help you get ready for race day! Don’t forget – if you haven’t already registered for the race, you need to do so at cmmarathon.com. The entry fee goes up soon!

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your fundraising. Many local businesses will allow you to hold evenings where you can earn a portion of their proceeds. Use your social media to promote your personal fundraising page. Let everyone know that not only are you running in one of the largest distance events in the country, but you’re doing it for a great cause and ask them to support you! We have some fantastic prizes that you can earn, and I’d love to see every single one of you raise enough to earn one of them. Please don’t be afraid to let me know if you need additional ideas for fundraising.

Please review the prayer plan below and consider making this part of your race day strategy. We are running together on April 30 to touch the lives of the young women at Mercy!

Marathon Prayer Plan
Mile 1 - Girls in the home
Mile 2 - Families of residents
Mile 3 - Girls on waiting list
Mile 4 - Families of girls on waiting list
Mile 5 - Monroe, LA
Mile 6 - Nashville, TN
Mile 7 - St Louis, MO
Mile 8 - Lincoln, CA
Mile 9 - Future Homes
Mile 10 - Volunteers
Mile 11 - Donors
Mile 12 - Events
Mile 13 - Programs/Counseling Staff
Mile 14 - Intake Staff
Mile 15 - Accounting/Treasury Staff
Mile 16 - Development Staff
Mile 17 - Marketing Staff
Mile 18 - Transitional Care Staff
Mile 19 - Human Resources Staff
Mile 20 - Home Staff
Mile 21 - Weekend/Night Staff
Mile 22 - Board Members
Mile 23 - Executive Leadership
Mile 24 - Freedom4One Campaign
Mile 25 - Nancy Alcorn
Mile 26 - Nancy Alcorn

Half Marathon Prayer Plan
Mile 1 - Girls in the homes and their families
Mile 2 - Girls on the waiting list and their families
Mile 3 - Future Homes
Mile 4 - Donors
Mile 5 - Events
Mile 6 - Volunteers
Mile 7 - Programs/Counseling Staff
Mile 8 - Corporate Office Staff
Mile 9 - Executive Leadership
Mile 10 - Board Members
Mile 11 - Freedom4One Campaign
Mile 12 - Nancy Alcorn
Mile 13 - Nancy Alcorn

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

A Word on Fundraising from Community Relations Manager Whitney Nall
Hey team!! I am SO excited about everyone who has signed up to RUN FOR MERCY in the Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon in April! This is always SUCH a fun event and a great way to spread the word about Mercy to your friends & family. It takes a special person to want to walk OR run in a marathon OR half marathon – so I know just by seeing your name on the list that you must be disciplined!! I also have a feeling that each one of you is passionate about the work of Mercy Ministries.

I can’t tell you enough how valuable you are to our ministry! It’s through people like you that MORE people hear about Mercy and choose to give – even one dollar makes a difference. As you probably know, the residents at Mercy Ministries come completely free-of-charge, but the cost of caring for one girl at Mercy is $175 per day. We decided at the beginning of this year to make it our goal to raise $40,000 with the marathon. This would cover the entire cost of one girl at Mercy for a little over the average 6 month stay. It’s going to take a TEAM effort to reach this goal – but just remember that every single dollar raised is a blessing. We currently have 51 people on our team. That would average out to each person raising around $800. Now of course we will have some people raise more and some people raise less, but this gives you a ballpark figure to work with. If you need ideas on how to go about fundraising (sending letters to your contacts, social media, etc), please feel free to contact your awesome coach, Melanie Blair. We have put together some resources to make this an enjoyable time for all!! Blessings to you as you prepare for this race!

If you’re interested in coming by the Nashville Mercy Home to take a tour and see the work being done firsthand to really understand what you’re running for, feel free to email me at Nashville@mercyministries.com and we’ll get that set up! Thanks again for ALL you do to help these hurting young girls come to Mercy!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

How To Make a RUN FOR MERCY Personal URL
To increase personal fundraising, it’s very important to direct your friends and family to your personal fundraising page on the Run for Mercy site. Below are steps to help you create a personal URL so that everyone will be directed right to your personal page with one click of the mouse!

To Make a Personal URL:
• Go to your Run for Mercy event site.
• Click on “Visit Your Participant Center”
• Enter user name and password
• You will be directed to your Participant Center. At the top, you will see the Mercy pink header that reads “Run for Mercy” – under that, there are tabs, under the tabs, you will see icons and under the icons, you will see a gold bar across the page.
• Just under the gold bar, on the right side of the page, find the “Update Goal” box. Just below that box click on the words “Update personal URLs”.
• There are simple instructions for creating a personal URL – using your name or your team name would be the simplest option.
• Once you have created the URL – click SAVE.
• Next to the words “Current URL” is a link that you can copy and paste wherever you need it.

There are many ways to use a personal URL – place it under your signature on your e-mails, put it on your blog or use it on Twitter and Facebook. Below are instructions on how to place your URL in a prominent place on your Facebook page.

How to Use Your Personal URL on Facebook
• Go to your Profile page
• Usually found under the profile picture is a box entitled “Information” and you can control the categories you list in this box.
• To add a URL to this box, click the “Info” tab at the top of your profile page.
• Scroll down the page until you come to the “Contact Information” section.
• Click “Edit” over on the right side of the section
• Under website, simply cut and paste your personal URL.
• Click “Save Changes”
• Now your URL should be showing on your profile page!
• You can list several sites like your blog address, www.runformercy.org, and your personal URL. The most I have seen listed is 3, but there might be room for more.
• Use your STATUS updates to direct your friends to this link and get the word out!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Note From The Coach
Hello team!

I have a few important pieces of info for you this week:

SHIRTS
If you plan to raise the minimum $100 required to earn the lululemon shirt and team dinner, I need to know what shirt size to order for you no later than March 1st. These shirts come in numerical sizes instead of S, M, L, XL, and they tend to run small and fitted - especially for the women. I recommend either visiting the lululemon athletica store (we have one in Nashville at The Hill Center in Green Hills) or their website www.lululemon.com and clicking on “Sizes and Fitting” to be sure of what size you need.

Men – you need to try on/look at the Metal Vent Tech.
Women – you need to try on/look at the Run Swiftly Tech.

The shirts are short-sleeved and will have the Run for Mercy logo on the front. I plan to have them in time for you to get a few workouts in with them before race day.

GROUP RUNS
I’ll be attending the East Nasty group run this Wednesday if you’d like to join me. The group meets at 6pm at the corner of 11th and Holly. The run this week is a little over 4 miles long, but you can cut it short if you need to by looking at the map and planning accordingly (Route #5 on www.eastnastyforlife.com).

I’ll also be attending the Nashville Striders Bongo-to-Bongo run this Saturday at 7am. This run will start at the Bongo Java located at 11th and Woodland in East Nashville. The Striders will be running 14-miles, but you can easily cut it short – it will be an out and back run to the Bongo Java on Belmont, so you’d simply turn around sooner to head back. (In the past, Bongo Java has put out coffee and bagels for us after the run.) Fluids will be provided along the course of the run by the Nashville Striders.

If you need to know what I look like in order to find me at the group runs, check out the “Meet the Coach” post below.

NUTRITION
Mercy supporter Dr. Josh Axe just published a FREE e-book called The Health Virus. I encourage you to look over it as it has some great information that will be helpful as you prepare for the event. You can find it at www.drjoshaxe.com and download it for free.

AND FINALLY…
If you’d like to help spread the word about joining the team, you can print the publicity flyer at www.runformercy.org/cmmarathon2011. We are still hoping to recruit some more team members in the next couple of weeks. We’ve already seen donations come in on your personal fundraising pages, and I encourage you to keep up the good work. Together we can reach the goal of raising $40,000 to help serve the young women who come to Mercy!

Please let me know if you have any questions at any time.

Thanks, and I hope to see some of you at the group runs Wednesday and/or Saturday!