Day 157 - $6,764

Working on editing some videos. Working on sending out some emails. Planning a meeting on Thursday at the library to get some other people involved with specific responsibilities. Have a lead on a possibility for next Thursday to go around asking for donations at "Bike Night" here in Blue Springs. We have a big Potato Sale coming up with all the proceeds to Give One Million. Let me know what you're working on... I'll post about it.

Also... if you're here for the fist time - remember - The most important fundraising tool we have at Give One Million is the "individual donation". If you can donate today - Help us reach one million for the kids at St. Jude.

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 154 - $6,764


So yesterday was the last day of month 5! I can't believe we are already approaching the half way point. I'm not going to lie... I was hoping we'd be further along at this point. But that's OK. We still have 7 months to make some magic happen. We are still working as hard as we were on day one - and I'm hoping that eventually something will happen, and all of our hard work will pay off. Just remember, everything we do is going to the kids at St. Jude. Kids that are fighting for their life. We've been so blessed in our life with J and Tiny, I think all the time that this the least we can do to help those people out there that aren't as fortunate as us, and have sick kids.
So we earned $1,758 in month 5. Not too bad if I do say so myself. It was nowhere near our goal, but we're trying, and that's all we can do. If you're out there I need your help now more than ever. The main thing to do is actually donate some money. The next best thing is to tell your friends. Email someone and ask them directly if they will donate. Add a button to your blog, and blog about Give One Million. Follow this blog, and encourage other to do the same, and last, but not least, follow us on facebook! If we get one million fans, and everyone donates just one dollar.... WE MAKE OUR GOAL!!!
Talk Soon,
David

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 152 - $6,764

Tomorrow will be the last day of Month 5. I'll talk more about that tomorrow. Today - I just want to say... Please DONATE! Especially if you haven't donated yet. Or have visited multiple times and haven't donated yet. It doesn't have to be much. It's just that fact that you donated that counts. It could be a dollar. Every little bit helps!!! It's just nice to know that there are people out there supporting Give One Million, and people that want to be part of what we're doing here. It's really easy. It only takes maybe 2 minutes to donate. It's on St. Jude's secure website - so you don't need to worry about that. So... if you are reading this right now, don't leave without donating today! Thanks.

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 149 - $6,764

Success! Tonight we had the Give One Million Bowl-A-Thon for St. Jude at Lunar Bowl. A HUGE thanks to everyone that came out tonight. I know everyone had a great time. Especially Mr. Johnson who rolled out of there with a $80 tool set from Lowe's and two sweet tickets to the Royals/Twins game. Another funny winner was Steve. He won a weight watchers cookbook and a Blue Springs Fitness membership in the raffle. We promise Steve! It was just coincidence! We weren't trying to imply anything!

So I know you're all dying to know how much we made... And the grand total for money raised from the Bowl-A-Thon is...

$1,449!

We were very happy with that. I was getting pretty nervous these last few days - hoping people would even show up. I think we ended up with around 60 people attending. We pretty much filled up 12 of the 14 lanes we rented. The raffle is what really saved our bacon. It was a hit! We sold tickets for $5, and we sold a lot. Way more than we expected. We had some sweet prizes, and lots of them - so most people that bought a ticket won something.

The silent auction didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I figured that the silent auction would be a little harder of a sell. We had some pretty big ticket items for auction, and were asking for quite a bit of money for the minimum bids. I.E. Diamond Necklace - minimum bid $250. A few items I had originally as silent auction, I ended up just throwing into the raffle, because nobody bid on them. That's OK though. We earned enough money from the raffle to make us feel good about that move.

Melissa and Danielle deserve a round of applause. It was getting pretty busy checking everyone in online and setting everyone up with their lanes, etc. But they pulled it off. Danielle had her laptop there so we could accept donations right there on the spot as payment. That worked out well.

The guys at Lunar Bowl were great too. They really did a great job of helping us get this set up and helping us during the event with whatever we needed.

I think that covers most everything. I'll be posting pics and video from the event soon. Thanks again to everyone that came out. We put a lot of time into getting this set up. for the last month or so I've been spending every lunch break, and a couple hours after work going business to business or doing something to get this event pulled together. Plus the time every night after the kids go to bed. Now it's on to the next one. Stay tuned! This is only the beginning!!!

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 146 - $5,500


Remember the 5k in Provo earlier this month? My friend Caleb Scoville put that on and donated the proceeds to Give One Million for St. Jude. Well... I mainly focused on the fact that he was raising money for Give One Million - but a cool aspect of the race, I didn't tell you too much about was that that fact that it was a barefoot race! And guess what?? The Barefoot Runners Society did a write up on the race!!! Check it out!


You know what the funny thing is... I was in D.C. last week on a business trip - and as I was walking past the Washington Monument - I say a guy running barefoot. I wonder if he's a member of the Barefoot Runners Society D.C. Chapter? :) They have one you know.


Well, good for Caleb - that's awesome what he's doing - and awesome that he's teaming up with us as well to help the kids at St. Jude.


Now... a special note for everyone in the Blue Springs area reading this:


SIGN UP FOR THE BOWL-A-THON!!!!


It's going to be a blast, and there will be tons of prizes! You're not going to find anything else better to spend $12 on this Saturday - so RSVP now! Remember to do it by Friday - because it's $15 if you pay at the door.


See everyone there!

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 144 - $5,450

Don't forget... the tickets for the Give One Million Bowl-A-Thon for St. Jude are now

ONLY $12!!!

When you pay in advance. They are $15 at the door. It looks like there are a bunch of people planning on coming (according to facebook). We had a few pay to reserve their spot. Don't forget to pay before Friday so you get your $12 price. I submitted some press releases today. I hope they help. If you're on facebook please invite your friends to attend. If you're not on facebook - send out a couple emails. This is ALL going to St. Jude and toward our million dollar goal. So don't be afraid to send a few emails for a good cause!

It's almost time for school to start, if it hasn't already for you/your kids. Is there a fundraiser you can do at your local school? Is there a way you can get some students involved in reaching our goal of one million in one year for St. Jude?

That's my plan. I am going to approach some of the clubs at the local High Schools to see what they can do.

We are over 300 fans now on facebook! Way to go everyone! If we can get one million fans on facebook just think of the good we can do. Keep sending those invites, and if you haven't already... Follow Give One Million on facebook!!! (P.S. Also, if you have a google account - don't forget to become a follower of this blog.) This is going to take some serious grass roots campaigning to get that many followers - so help me if you can.

We're coming up on 5 months down, and I'm still going 1000% I haven't given up in the least. I'll admit - I have my down days where I think nobody is even paying attention to me, but overall my spirits are up. I still believe we can do this. It will just take one stroke of luck, and we could go from $5,450 to $545,000. You never know. So keep doing those little fundraisers. Keep telling your friends. Keep following and reposting Give One Million info.

We can do this people! We can do this!

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 142 - $5,364

I've spent a lot of time advertising for the Bowl-A-Thon. I basically walked up the entire hwy 7 placing flyers in businesses. Sonic is putting flyers in their to-go bags. So I'm getting the word out. Lunar Bowl is making announcements to all their bowling leagues. Melissa and I went to Lunar Bowl last night, and went lane to lane asking people to sign up for the event... I've been putting a lot of time into this.

Well... here's why I'm worried. I gave the bowling alley A LOT of money to reserve the 14 lanes. And as of now... Nobody has RSVP'd and paid.... :( I'm getting worried. Really worried. At this point, I hope I can recoup the money I invested in this. Now maybe I'm getting worried too soon... I don't know. But this blog is suppose to be a outlet for everyone to understand my feelings and thoughts as I go through this whole process... so I'm just being honest and telling you what I'm thinking. I'm worried! It scares me to think that after all the effort and time I put into this bowl-A-Thon only a few people will show up and I will lose money as apposed to earn money for St. Jude.

So I have one week left before the Bowl-A-Thon and I have to get people signed up ASAP. So this is what I'm doing. The price for the Bowl-A-Thon is no longer $25. it's...

$12!!!

Yep, that's right. Only $12! It normally cost $22.50 for two games and shoes on cosmic bowling night. But next Saturday anyone that wants to will be able to cosmic bowl for 3 HOURS (you can fit more than two games in!) with shoes included for less that half the normal cost. $12!!! Since I've received zero response in my first week of advertising, I'm hoping that by making this too good of a deal for everyone to pass up... I can fill the spots I reserved. What do you all think? You think it will work? I sure as heck hope so.

I'm working other avenues as well too. I spent some time tonight with my niece working on SEO for the blog. SEO is search engine optimization for those of you that don't know. I'm trying to do what I can to generate traffic. The more people that know what we're doing here the better right?!?! So a big thanks to my neice for helping with that. We have some other "marketing" things we are working on as well. I'm making a video for the 2x2 campaign I'm going to launch here in the next couple weeks. (Once the bowl-a-thon is over, that will free up a lot of time to work other items) So those are just a few of the many things we have coming your way.

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 137 - $5,364

The time has finally come! Here it is... the official announcement of the Give One Million Bowl-A-Thon for St. Jude. Click on the RSVP button above to reserve your spot today!

It will be August 21st at Lunar Bowl in Blue Springs. If you are in the area, you won't want to miss this! Reserve your spot today, and let's raise some serious cash for the kids at St. Jude! 1,000,000 here we come!

If you can... post this on your facebook and twitter. Tell everyone on your blog. Let's get the word out: on August 21, 2010 - the Give One Million Bowl-A-Thon for St. Jude is the place to be!

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 135 - $5,152

August is going great so far. A big thanks to Caleb at Run Fearless for putting on the 5K in Provo! They earned $200 all by running a few miles! My mom/dad/aunt/uncle set up a Give One Million booth at a local market in Ogden, UT. They earned $212 today! The best part of these fundraisers today was that they took care of everything while I was off doing other Give One Million stuff- and that's really what we need if this is ever going to work. I need people all over the country "joining" with me in this goal. I'm doing the absolute best I can to do everything I can possibly do... But there's only one of me, and there's only 24 hours in a day. I need like a thousand of me! ...and that's where you come in :)

So we have an official name for the bowling event:

The Give One Million Bowl-A-Thon for St. Jude

it will be in two weeks, and I am doing my darndest to get this all worked out. Today was going to be the day to get all the marketing material out "on the town". Since I was in D.C. all week on business travel (yes, I do have a full-time job other than GOM... unfortunately) It threw a wrench in my schedule, and I'm working furiously to get all the advertising out there so I can have a good two weeks of marketing for the event. I met with Lunar Bowl this morning for an hour or so, and finalized the plans. I was then headed home to create the flyers/posters to take to Office Depot for printing. Well a nail in my tire changed those plans (I type that sentence with anger!!!). It was actually more like a bolt. Well, I really needed a complete new set of tires anyway - so I spent the afternoon at the tire shop.

That put me a few hours behind.

By the time I finished making the flyers and posters for printing - Office Depot was closed.

For those of you that have a GPS device - you'll know what I'm talking about. You know how when you're following your GPS, and you miss a turn, or make a wrong turn it says, "Recalculating - please wait..."

Well, It seems like Give One Million works kind of the same way. I think I'm on track with my plans, and something just doesn't work out like it should, or something goes wrong - and I can almost hear the GPS voice in my head, "Recalculating, please wait..." Then I have to figure out the new path to take to my goal. No worries though. I'm still headed toward $1,000,000!

Thanks for the help everyone. Please keep supporting me.

Good night all,

David

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 131 - $5,137

The I.F. garage sale brought in $107! I reserved 14 lanes at Lunar Bowl for the Give One Million Cosmic Bowling Bash on August 21st. I'm off to D.C. to see what I can so to spread the word there. As soon as I get back, I'll be focusing on marketing for the Bowling Event - and you'll see more details on that.

By the way, I'm looking for people that can organize a Give One Million fundraising event in their city. Any volunteers? If you just volunteer, I can help you brainstorm, and give you a few ideas. I'm just so busy doing all the events and ideas I have, and I don't have time to do all the good ideas that I have and other people keep sending me. I need some help, because time's a tickin... Now's the time to start thinking about Christmas fundraising events... So if you can help, please email me at giveonemillion@hotmail.com

Thanks everyone. Talk Soon.

David

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!