September 29 letter to Team!

Good morning my fellow Team Challengers!

Hope you are all having a fantastic day! The weather in Montana this morning is just spectacular, though our long summer is supposedly ending as early as this afternoon. It’s been such a wonderful Fall so far. The other night on my long run (75 minutes) I felt like I might just be in heaven…the sun setting in the mountains, a gentle breeze, my golden retriever darting in and out of the ditches…birds chirping. I think that is about as good as it gets!

How are you all doing? I’ve been in touch with most of you, but haven’t been able to connect with a few others. If we haven’t visited on the phone yet, will you please drop me a note and let me know when would be a good time to call you? (make sure you include your time zone!) I don’t want to bug you – just chat for a few minutes and lend my support. This little group is my personal team – Team Jodie - and I want to be sure that you feel truly supported in every way as you prepare for this experience. I’m here for the good and the bad! Even if you have a non-race related reason to just need a friend, that’s what I’m for!

Also, if you have a Facebook page, please consider adding me as your friend (Jodie Farmer DeLay)…it is such an easy way for me to communicate! Any of you can feel free to call me anytime, too. If I don’t answer, leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. (406-209-0277)

So I think the biggest stressor for some of us is probably the commit date, coming up mid-October. My fundraising was on hold up until this past weekend because my sister had signed up for a JDRF fundraiser before I decided to do this race and I agreed to help her up until that event passed. It was this last weekend and let me tell you, it was AWESOME!!! I’m even more pumped for this race now. There is something about thousands of people coming together for a good cause that really gets me inspired! The families and friends all coming together to help kids was just a phenomenal feeling. VEGAS will be the same, I promise.

Anyway, because of the JDRF walk, I haven’t even begun to fundraise, so if any of you are feeling like you don’t have time…I hear ya! However, this is a great time to really put on the full court press, send a blitz, etc! Here is what I’ll be doing this week….

Issuing the following challenge to all my friends and family…If I get 10 donations of $100.00 or more OR hit a total of $2,500 by October 15, I will run the half with an Elvis wig… I’ll be photoshopping a wig on my pretty little head and putting it as my profile picture on Facebook… I know a few of my so called friends will find this pretty compelling!

I’m going to offer anyone who makes a donation of $3.00/mile ($39.30) or more before October 15th a set of 8 hand designed note cards. These can be used as Thank you cards or whatever – and the back will have in small letters, my fundraising site and the CCFA web page. My kids and my daughter’s boyfriend are really talented artists. I know I’m their mom, but they really are…: ;-)

I’m going to have a tailgate party at my house during the AWAY football game this weekend and ask my guests to make a donation.

Does anyone else have any ideas that they wish to share with the group? We are so geographically diverse that I think we can help each other a lot! Most of all, I don’t want anyone feeling alone in this journey! We have each other and I KNOW we can all be successful! Drop me a note, okay?

Oh, and I have a blog too…kodyandjodie.blogspot.com. I haven’t been keeping it up very good so far but will be doing better J )

Have a great day!
jd