Prayers for Kasey

One of our Cancer Warriors is Kasey Radford and he is 11 years old. He has been fighting a brain tumor called Glioblastoma since he was 8 years old. His teams are "Kasey's Crew", "Kasey's Crew II" and "Kasey's Cruisers". Kasey is also our "Honorary Committee Member" and he is the one who draws the tickets at our meetings for door prizes. Kasey and his mom Amy were unable to come to the meeting on Monday. At the start of the meeting, we found out that Kasey had 2 strokes and was having bleeding in his right temporal lobe. As of this morning, it seems that Kasey will be having surgery on Friday, I believe to try and stop the bleeding. Please keep Kasey and his family in your prayers. I am linking the Caring Bridge site below where Kasey's mom shares about updates of Kasey. Their is a guestbook on the website and Kasey enjoys hearing all the messages left by everyone. If you can leave a message for Kasey, I'm sure he would enjoy hearing from you. Again, please keep Kasey in your prayers. Thank you.

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewHome.do

Jen Caine
Event Chair

Next meeting Monday January 26th!

The next meeting is Monday January 26th at the Camas Public Library! It will be the 2nd Kickoff and an opportunity for BRAND NEW teams to register for half price at the meeting! 5:30 - 6:30pm is the Committee Meeting and 7:00 - 8:00pm is the Team Captain/Public meeting! See you then!

Happy Relaying!
Jen Caine

Monday meetings are canceled!

We are canceling the Relay For Life meetings tomorrow, Monday the 15th, because of the current weather conditions. Safety is our top priority and we don't want anyone traveling in these conditions. We will have our next meeting on Monday, January 26th, 2009.

If you have money that you want to turn in before our next meeting, please mail to the address below. Please ensure that the money is in a money envelope and your team name and number are listed.

ECC RFL
PO Box 693
Camas, WA 98607

Please have a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year! See you in 2009!!!

Happy Relaying!
Jen Caine
Event Chair

The 1st Committee & Team Captain Meeting of the year!!!

Tonight was simply amazing!!! We had our 1st official Committee meeting and then Team Captain/Public meeting! We had a great turnout with 42 attendees! Thank you to everyone who came and I hope you enjoyed yourselves and learned some new things!

It is Lung Cancer awareness month, so I shared some facts about Lung Cancer. I also shared a blog of Doreen Schmidt, a woman fighting lung cancer that hasn't smoked a day in her life! To check it out, go to http://cancersurvivor2006.blogspot.com.

Congratulations to the Heathman Lodge for being the first team to register 15 participants! You are AWESOME!!!

The "Team Captain Challenge" that I have put forth this month is.......the first Team Captain that gets 15 team members registered online, will receive a $20 gift card to Best Buy! Each Team Captain thereafter that gets 15 team members registered, will receive some type of prize! The prizes will be awarded at the next meeting on Monday, December 15th!!! So get those team members registered!!!

If you want to be part of the "$1000 Club", you simply have to raise $1000 as an individual! We had 9 participants that made the $1000 Club last year!!! The total amount raised between the 9 participants......$21,064.06!!! YOU ARE RELAY ROCKSTARS!!!

Well, it is 10:30pm and I should probably get to bed! I will leave you with a quote that I listed on the agenda tonight!

"The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side." So remember that all of us are working together for one reason...to find a cure for cancer. Have a nice evening and sleep tight!

Happy Relaying!
Jen Caine

Relay University!!!

It was Relay University today in Portland and we had close to 300 participants attend! We had 16 attend from our East Clark County Relay Committee! Relay University was training for our Committee members and I think they all came away energized and excited about this year!!! The better trained that the Committee is, the more ideas they have, and the better our Relay is!!!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that our very own Relay came in 2nd place for amount raised by a Relay in our Region! If I am correct, that is approximately 25 Relays! That is awesome and I was extremely excited to accept our banner! I will be sure to bring it to the next meeting, as well as have it hung up at our Relay! Great job to all of you that worked very hard last year and helped us come in 2nd place!!! You are awesome!!!

Our next meeting is on Monday November 17th at the Camas Public Library! If you are on the Committee, or interested in being on the Committee, our meeting is from 5:30pm - 6:30pm. Team Captain & Public Meeting is from 7:00pm - 8:00pm. It is Lung Cancer Awareness month and we will be sharing some information as well! We hope to see you there!!!

Happy Relaying!
Jen Caine
Event Chair

We're ropin' in more teams!

Kickoff was a success and I want to thank everyone who attended and helped! You are all awesome!!! We had 38 teams sign up at Kickoff and almost $6000 turned in! Our goal is 74 teams, so we surpassed our halfway goal at Kickoff! That night, we also acquired 6 brand new teams to Relay and I'm excited to have them join our growing Relay! Since Kickoff, we have added 3 new teams for a total of 41 TEAMS!!! I'm excited that we are starting this year out with a wonderful turnout and everyone excited to start fund-raising!

Speaking of fundraisers, Our first one of the year was on Sunday November 2nd and it was Caralinda's Crew Bunco Bash! It was a hit with total funds raised of $1459!!! Great job Caralinda's Crew! I enjoyed coming and had tons of fun as always! If you missed out, they will be having one again next year!!!

If you are looking for gifts for Christmas, you should check out the 1st annual "Hope for the Holiday's" bazaar that will be held on Sunday November 16th at the Red Lion in Jantzen Beach. Teams from Relays from Salem to Longview will have tables at the bazaar selling all kinds of items! So come start your Christmas shopping, and know that your money if going back to Relay For Life! It will be from 9:00am - 4:00pm.

Don't forget! If you have a fundraiser coming up for your team, please let me know as soon as possible! I will advertise it on the blog, and our local, Portland/Vancouver region, www.relayrumble.org website will advertise it as well!

Our first meeting will be on Monday November 17th at the Camas Public Library in the upstairs meeting rooms. Committee Members meet from 5:30 - 6:30pm and Team Captains or people interested in learning about Relay meet from 7:00 - 8:00pm. As a reminder, if you haven't registered yet, you can do it at our meeting. Please remember to bring your registration fee of $100 for a team, or $50 for a youth team. You must pay your registration fee at the time you register.

Happy Relaying!
Jen Caine
Event Chair

Fighting Cancer with Food!

Did you know that on any given day in the United States, 1.8 billion calories are consumed­­­­­­—one-half million more than are needed? Overweight and obesity may account for 14 percent of all cancer deaths in men and 20 percent of all cancer deaths in women.

Maintaining a healthy weight throughout your life, adopting a physically active lifestyle, consuming a healthy diet with an emphasis of plant sources and limiting alcoholic beverages are all ways to limit your risk to cancer, says Colleen Doyle, American Cancer Society’s nutrition expert.

Several bodies of research have shown that becoming overweight increases the likelihood of developing six different types of cancer.

Eating right becomes increasingly challenging for many people during the holiday season. However, Doyle says those holiday meals don’t have to be filled with many extra calories. She suggests good planning with choice ingredients can help skinny down holiday meals without compromising taste.

“Sweet potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin, acorn squash are must-have fruits and vegetables at many a family feast, and they just happen to be loaded with cancer-fighting beta carotene, phytochemicals and fiber,” says Doyle.

Maintaining your optimum weight reduces your risk for cancer. For great pointers how to stock your grocery cart cancer-fighting food, check out Colleen Doyle’s fun and healthy tips video.

Want to get started now? Here are some healthy recipes to try. Learn to eat right with ACS Virtual Dietitian.