A World without Cancer would be Sweet!

(prepare for picture and story overload)
You may have thought we had a candy overload for Alana's birthday the weekend before but Relay for Life is something we've been planning since April of last year! Last year we were Jenny's pennies in Murrieta. This year since Jenny was busy being all pregnant I decided to step up and be team captain and form "Another Lap for Pat". Victor came up with the name. I thought it would be perfect for us! After all, relay is really just walking laps and we were all started there because of Pat. Great team name! I signed my team up in Corona this year because I wanted to walk in Corona, be in Corona and have the support of Corona behind us. After all, that's where my mom lived for 30 years and that's where she died!
I got really involved with the planning of the Relay for Life in Corona this year. Because I started to form my team before we could even sign up a team, I joined the planning committee. I was on the board! I was excited to be part of the planning and see it go from our first meeting to the day of. They sure pulled it off really well! In my planning of my team I wanted a team banner this year. I was going to order one online and pay $100 for it, but I would have because I really wanted one! I asked a girl at work to check around to see how much our banner printing company for EPL would charge me and they ended up donating not one, but TWO banners to our team! They knew it was a great cause! That MADE MY DAY!!! The last week before Relay we had some of the team over to my house and we modified the decor from Alana's sweet birthday the weekend before.... yes, I planned it that way! 2 in 1 with only the work of 1!!
During the day at Relay you get a campsite and you are supposed to have a fundraiser there. We chose to have a raffle! It all started when I won a PS3 at work back several months ago. We already have one at home so why not raffle off this one? I thought it was one of the best ideas EVER!! Days leading up to Relay my cousin really came through and made all kinds of awesome baskets for us. She pulled stuff out in boxes that she had and made the best baskets ever! Some of my team members also pulled in favors with friends, bosses, or family and contributed some baskets as well. I even had one vendor give me a basket from her hubby who worked with Jiffy Lube! It came out amazing! Not only did we have great prized but we had a few talented team members that could decorate REALLY well and be very creative! So not only did we have an awesome raffle of prizes but it looked amazing too! Some other campsites had raffles but we were hands down the best and the best looking! People told us that as they walked by ALL DAY!

A WORLD WITHOUT CANCER WOULD BE SWEET!!!


Here were some of the prizes we had for our raffle. My team put the tables together like pro's!

After setting up (or in the middle of) we headed to the front of the park for the opening ceremony's.

They let Doves go which of course brought me to tears. What didn't bring me to tears that day or any other time I think of my mom?

I knew this day was going to be emotional for me and all of the team. It was a day to Celebrate, Remember and Fight back! I was doing a little bit of all of those that day!

As Relay starts, the first lap is the survivor lap. Everyone in a purple shirt is a survivor and as they walk the first lap everyone stands for them and claps and we celebrate they are alive and have survived this crazy horrible Cancer.

My reason to celebrate, My dad and my sister. 10 years ago my dad had cancer and he fought back and won! We celebrate him! My sister also had Cervical cancer about 5 years ago. She fought back and won too! There is reason to celebrate on a day that makes me sad! The fact that my dad got out and walked an entire lap around made me so happy! I celebrate having people in my life that are survivors!

After getting everything up and decorated at the campsite it turned out amazing! I have to thank my cousin Amber, her mom Joyce, Crystal, Susan and everyone else who helped to decorate and pull our campsite together. It would not have looked like this without them!!! Thank you ladies! You are an amazing part of my team and I am thankful that you are part of Another Lap for Pat.

More awesome raffle items to drop tickets in for!

There was a campsite there that sold these fun things!! Crazy girls!

This was my table to remember my mom. She is our reason to Relay! On the right I created a sign for every single person who donated even just a dollar to our team. If you donated money to our team then your name is on this sign. THANK YOU!! Our original goal was $1500 but then we had a few team members that kicked some butt and helped us to raise over $3,300!!!!! Before we even showed up for the day! Every single penny of this money goes to the American Cancer Society for so many good reasons!!! Research is my favorite reason!!! If they could do more research into the cancer's that are rare, like my moms.... more people will be survivors!!!

We moved our sign to behind the table because or raffle got so big we had to double up the tables of prizes!

Lexers and her papa!

This tree was one of my favorite things of the day! One of the campsites built this tree. The leaves were all of the donors to their team. The leaves with butterflies are the survivors. The bark of the tree has names of people who have died because of cancer! It was so smart and I just loved it!!!

Another of the campsites had a "jail". You could pay $1 to put someone in jail and they had to pay $2 to get out. 3 bucks to the team for doing nothing already!! So SMART!!! So we put Jacquie in jail and some random person paid to get her out! But that was after we paid to keep her in jail longer!!

My friend Susan from EPL joined our team and walked for my mom! She was also an amazing help with Ellie and Lexie! She's so loveable!!

Me and my survivor!! My pops! Love you daddy!

Hailey and grandpa!

Team picture!!!! Best team EVER!!! Thank you to each one of you for being part of our team and no matter what your reason to Relay, it all goes to the best cause EVER!!! I love you guys so much for your love and support!!

Me and Rosemarie!!! So glad that she came out for a few hours!

As the afternoon hit it was going to be my favorite part of Relay for Life!!! Luminaria bags!!!! There are two special ladies at work that I just adore! One of them remind me so much of my mother! She is sweet and loving like my mom was. She always cares about what is going on in my life, she even has the same look as my mom did. Short hair, bright eyes! She makes my day when I see her at work! Her and I bonded last year when I started because she had just lost her mother to cancer as well. So last year and again this year i made her mama a Luminaria bag!

Same thing with another lady I work with. So sweet and caring! She remembers every Holiday and leaves me little presents! I can't tell you how lucky I am to work with such amazing women! She also lost her mother to cancer! So I made her a bag as well!

Hailey and the girls playing around in our campsite.

After a LONG day of selling raffle tickets, which my whole team did a great job of, it was finally time to pull names out of the bags! I was really excited to see the crowd of people that came back to see if they won! It was fun to have everyone surround our campsite! Can you guess how much we made the day of the raffle just from raffle tickets alone???? $700 in raffle tickets and all together with donations and raffle tickets over $800!!!! Yes, $800 is amazing!!! I'm SO PROUD of my team and the support of my team members! All in the name of my mother! I couldn't have ever been so proud!

The night time hit and they lit the Luminaria bags!! The track was BIG and they had over 2.000 bags, some celebrating, some remembering, and some for those whose are fighting back! They had a bag piper start everyone off for a lap to look at the bags and spend some time remembering why we were all there!!

The bag I made for my mom from our family!

The bag that my moms best friend Debbie and Jenna made for her! I can't tell you how happy I am that my mom's best friend still cares so much for our family that she is so involved with us. It's like she is just part of our family and we couldn't be happier about it! She's an amazing woman and was the bestest friend to my mom for years!!

This bag is for Donovan's dad. I'm sure Donovan remembers him daily like we remember our mom!

The slide show came and went and we had tons of pictures in it of my mom, of my dad and of our family and friends!

Remembering Grandpa Shultz for my friend Jen and Kris!

At 11pm our team came up with a "glow" themed lap. We may have been the only team with glow on but we kicked butt and had fun!!! Walking for PAT!!!!

Thank you, thank you to my awesome team. To each one of you, one's who came up with great ideas, one's who dealt with my stress and my day to day craziness with Relay. Those who just showed up the day of and did as much as they could or even just walking. For those of you who helped with anything. Every tiny bit helps me pull this together. I couldn't have done it without everyone's help! Here's to planning next year! Another year, another theme, another goal, Another Lap for Pat! xoxo - J