Run A Thon for Red Cross

Hi Ladies -

My cousin-in-law has a good friend at BYU who is organizing a run-a-thon for the American Red Cross. He is looking for people east of Utah to fill up spots on a core team of 50 runners. It sounds like a pretty cool experience. I've included his email to me, so you can decide if it is something you want to do. If you are interested (even if you are west of Utah), email him at bswanson@byu.net. Hope you ladies are all doing well! I'm going to be in Utah the first week of August - anyone else around?

We are going to have a "core team" of 50 runners. We will get
businesses to sponsor the core team on a per-mile basis. The goal of
the core team will be to run 10,000 miles from August 1 to November .
We will also invite anyone who wants to run with us to come to our
website and register as a runner. They will join subsidiary teams
outside of the core team (i.e. Run For Amrerica Team I, Team II,
etc.). We expect to have 150-200 of these runners.

All runners will download a sponsorship kit, which will have an
information sheet and a pre-written letter that they can use to find
local sponsorships. We expect people to look to friends, family, and
local business owners and say, "My goal is to run xxx miles during
the 100 day period. Will you sponsor me at $.50, $1, $2, etc. per
mile?" (Of course, that will all be included in the sponsorship kit).
Thus we will not only earn donations through our corporate sponsors,
but through the personal sponsors of all our runners.

Oh, the coolest thing about the whole event is that we're going to
use the new technology that Apple and Nike will be releasing in July
to track the whole thing. iPods, sensors, and cool shoes. I'd go into
detail about that part, but I'll save that for later. I will say that
we are looking to get the equipment donated for the members of the
core team. Any runners that sign up for the additional teams will
have to purchase their own equipment. We're trying to get Apple and
Nike to agree that for anyone who purchases the equipment to use in
this event, they will donate a portion of the profits back to our
cause. (Also, if a runner wants to participate, but can't afford the
equipment, they could probably find a local business to sponsor them
and get the equipment)

Our goal is to raise at least $100,000 to donate to the Red Cross
Hurricane Relief Fund.

You just got the very watered down version of our official
proposal :) My question for you is this: do you know of any runners
on the east coast that would like to run as a part of our core team?
I have enough interest to fill the core team already, but for
publicity purposes, I'd like to make sure that our core team has
representation from all over the US. I currently have core team
runners from WA, CA, ID, UT, TX, and IL. Nathan mentioned that you
have some friends from Harvard that might like to run. Could you
spread the word? I have about 10-15 slots that I'm holding open for
"east coasters".

If you could spread the word to any of your friends back east that
would like to run (and when I say east, I basically mean anything
east of Utah), pass along this email and have them email me saying
they'd like to run. These slots are filling up quickly, so have them
email right away to ensure they get a spot on the core team.

Just as an added emphasis...we're filling up the core team as
fast as we can, so have them email me back as soon as they decide
they'd like to participate. Once the core team fills up, we'll start
adding names to the first subsidiary team.

As soon as the core team fills up, we'll send out the official
Information Sheet for all the Core Runners, and we'll invite all the
core runners to spread the word to all their friends. I know that
runners know other runners, who know other runners. I figure once the
core team is created, we'll use the "grassroots" effect to gather the
body of 150-200 other runners to join the effort.

Thanks for bearing with the information overload. Let me know what
you think of all this and if you'll be able to contact anyone.