Email received from Debbie: Hi there Cumberland Relay! Although I have met many of you in person, I would like to introduce myself to the entire group at once. My name is Debbie Cooney and I am the Senior Manager for Relay For Life for South West New Jersey. As you all know, Kristen Evans, your most recent ACS Specialist, has transferred to our Pennsylvania office in order to be close to her family. I am working very hard to find a qualified Specialist to take her place. I am in the final phases of interviews and hope to make a job offer sometime within the next few weeks. I will keep you updated as I learn more. In the meantime, I am working hard to help your team in getting the Cumberland Relay off to a great start. As you are aware, your 2014 Relay was a huge success showing growth in team numbers and money raised. We would like to keep this momentum going and with your help I believe we can accomplish this! We have a few changes to the Relay this year with the location being one of them. Cumberland County College is undergoing construction therefore we cannot return to that venue for 2015. Through the help of some of the committee members I have been able to secure Vineland HS as a possible host. The only challenge with that location is that the stadium does not have lights which would require us to rent them for the event. This would be an added expense to our budget unless of course we could find a company who is willing to donate lighting. Another option that was brought up was the possible use of Lakeside Middle School in Millville which has lighted soccer fields with outdoor restrooms on site along with a concession stand. The soccer fields, concession stand and restrooms are owned by the township. I have been in touch with the middle school and they would be happy to allow us to use the school for inclement weather and they would be able to request the use of the soccer fields from the township. We would have to contact the township directly for use of the restrooms and concession stand. I have left a message for the head of Parks and Recreation to make this request and am awaiting a return call. Another change that will affect our Relay is the fact that Cumberland Regional HS will be merging with Pittsgrove/Shalick Relay to create a combined community Relay to be hosted at Cumberland Regional HS. As you may be aware, the Cumberland HS Relay was considered a feeder event to your Relay last year and the $18,000 they raised was added to your Relay’s total. The Shalick HS Relay saw a significant decline last year but had a large returning committee, while Cumberland HS saw significant growth but only had one person returning to their committee. With their close geographic proximity and large student participation at each event, combining the strengths of each Relay to create one successful event in that geographic area made sense. The two schools plan on alternating the location of their Relay between their two schools every other year. Although this will now mean that there are two Relays in Cumberland County in 2015, I believe that the move of your Relay to either Lakeside Middle School in Milllvillle or Vineland HS will allow your Relay to reach out and engage communities that will not otherwise be engaged in the Relay at Cumberland HS. I also believe that the growth your Relay experienced last year will compensate for the revenue that the Cumberland HS Relay brought in last year. Although change can be scary I truly believe that the changes I mentioned above will not affect the success of the Cumberland Relay. I have been to your committee meetings, attended your event and met and talked with your participants and team captains. I have been involved with Relay For Life for over 14 years and I can truthfully say that I have never met a more committed and passionate group of people in the fight against cancer. By working together as a team I believe that we can make this year’s Cumberland Relay the best yet. But I need your help to make this happen! The Cumberland Relay is in dire need of at least two people who will take the lead roles as event Chairs. Having these chair positions filled is imperative to the success of your Relay in 2015. Although every committee member plays a key role in the success of the event, there needs to be at least two people who lead the committee and act as the point person to the ACS Specialist. With the help of the entire committee and the support from the ACS Specialist the position of Event Chair can be very manageable and not as overwhelming as it may sound. With all of that being said and knowing that every position on the committee is key to your Relay’s success, please review the following positions and hit “Reply All”, then fill in your name next to the Committee position you would like to hold for our 2015 Relay, and then hit “send”. Please include your telephone number as well. Our next committee meeting is scheduled for Thurs. Nov. 20th at 7pm in the 2nd floor Board room of Inspira Fitness Connection, 1430 W. Sherman Ave. Vineland. This was originally scheduled for Nov 12th but Inspira did not have any rooms available on that date. Please make every effort to attend this meeting so that we can finalize our committee positions, finalize our new location and get started in the planning of another successful event! Event Chair--- Event Co-Chair--- Luminaria--- Logistics--- Marketing/publicity--- On-line--- Registration/Accounting--- Survivor---BJ Community Champion/Recruitment---- Team ambassador/Team Development----- Activities & entertainment----- Fundraiser/sponsorship---- Mission------ Hospitality--- Thank you all for everything you do in the fight against cancer! I look forward to hearing from you. Debbie Deborah Cooney | Senior Manager, Relay For Life Eastern Division | American Cancer Society, Inc. 1851 Old Cuthbert Rd Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 Phone: 856.616.1651, ext. 3116
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:19:03 +0000
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