That’s the inspirational theme of the 2011 Safeway Father’s Day Walk / Run. This run is for the tens of thousands of Canadian men living courageously with prostate cancer and their families. It’s for all the men who have died from this disease, and the families who have lost loved ones. It’s for the roughly 25,000 men who will be diagnosed in 2011 and everyone who cares about them.

This run is for all of us, wherever we find our inspiration.

And whether your personal connection is through your father, your brother, your uncle, your son or a friend, we want you to remember one more thing:

Just by taking part, you are an inspiration.

Signing up for the Father’s Day Walk/Run and raising funds for support, awareness, early detection and life-saving research provides inspiration for thousands of others to do the same, from Victoria to Charlottetown and sites in between. Together, we can all give this disease the attention it deserves and put prostate cancer on the national health agenda. Through this event we can celebrate how far we have come and honour the men we love.

On Father’s Day, it doesn’t get any better than that.
 

So you’ve taken that first step and signed up for the Run. Now it’s time to empower your personal network to help you succeed.

Your network can help you in two ways: by pledging for your efforts and by joining you on event day. To get them to do either, you only need to do one thing: Ask.

The most common reason why people don’t contribute to a cause? Nobody asked them.

So go ahead and ask them all – and understand there might be more of ‘them’ than you first imagine. Everyone has a network and we want you to discover how big yours really is.

Look at your life as a circle – your inner circle is made up of people closest to you. Start out by listing all your family members, friends, neighbours, coworkers. Now look at your outer circle: your doctor, dentist, mechanic, maybe your hairdresser, friends at your place of worship….the list can go on and on.

When you make your ask for support, make sure you tell them your story. Tell them why this cause is so important to you. Empower your people to make a difference and see how good it feels. If 20 contacts support you with just $20 each, suddenly you’ve raised $400!

Now let’s try something else. Out of those 20 contacts, pick five who you think will truly be your champions. Ask them to join you on event day and fundraise to their own network. Your five friends asking 20 contacts for $20 becomes $2000! You’ll be amazed how many people will offer their support.

It all starts when you tell your story and make your ask. Are you ready?

 

Every part of your network needs to be approached in the right way. Your closest circle should be a personal ask; let them know why you picked Prostate Cancer Canada as your charity of choice. The online fundraising toolkit not only lets you showcase your personal stories, but it also gives you the opportunity to add pictures and video.

You can also use our tool kit to work with your Facebook network and spread awareness about the event and the cause. Send out the Facebook badge and ask your network to like the Prostate Cancer Canada web page and link to us on Facebook.

LinkedIn is another great online networking vehicle and a terrific way to connect with a broader corporate audience. You can encourage colleagues and peers to sign up a corporate team while showcasing your charitable life to your business network.

You can also use Twitter to highlight your fundraising goals and help your network connect back to the Run. We have created a number of #hashtag suggestions to get you started.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL KIT

Or take it a step further and spread the word through your local community. Local newspapers are always looking for motivational stories. We’ve created a personal press release template just for you. Send it to your local papers, call them and let them know why this is an important day for everyone. Let them know prostate cancer is the most common cancer to afflict Canadians, period, and it’s time we start treating it that way. This is a story and an event that is deserving of all the coverage you can get.

The two most important words in fundraising are thank you. A small note of thanks when you receive a donation or when someone signs up to join your team goes a long way.

 

On that note, thank you for being part of the Safeway Father’s Day Walk / Run. It’s because of you that we’re all going to beat this disease. This run’s for you.