ATAC – Gaining Momentum!
If you are a Mass. AT and you read our daily per diem emails or newsletters… you know by now that we’ve got big things going on up in here. It was important to me that Precision AT did something for National Athletic Training Month (NATM). I decided on ATs Against Cancer (ATAC) because in my life, I’ve had way too many friends and family members diagnosed with or affected by cancer. I think we all feel this way. While not everyone has been able to conquer the terrible disease, I am fortunate to know many survivors and this is in very large part due to cancer research and funds raised by everyday people like us.
I had this crazy ATAC idea on a Sunday morning in early February. After allowing myself a cup of coffee, the first cup in a long time, the wheels in my brain started to maniacally spin and come up with ideas. Some artists rely on drugs for their inspiration; I just need a little caffeine. (Ugg… it’s a drug too, I know) I called my colleagues Meghan, one of our event planners and Jeff, a PAT board member and more importantly, my voices of logic and reason. They assured me that this was a good idea and we had enough time to pull it off. I spent about 4 hours that morning, frantically making lists and getting ideas on paper. Eventually the caffeine buzz wore off but the excitement did not. The phone calls to potential locations and running the idea by Athletic Trainers of Mass, began the next morning. I was pumped and on a mission to get as many ATs together as possible with goals of raising $10,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Due to technical difficulties, we launched a day later than I hoped, March 2nd, and no one bought a single ticket. A few days went by… still nothing and I started to panic. What if no one comes? We had sponsors who I didn’t want to disappoint. (Shout out to The Micheli Center!) We’d booked the whole patio at the Miller’s Boston Ale House! Finally though, we started selling tickets, and I started sleeping again. Thank goodness, lots of people are most definitely coming. It’s all happening!
Anyways, we are half way through NATM and this is shaping up to be an awesome event. We’ve got numbers now! We’ve got a ton sweet raffle prizes! People are coming and they are bringing their friends and families. I’m going ahead with a large t-shirt order with high hopes that we’ll sell even more tickets and raise more money. If you are sad that you can’t make it to the event, but you hate cancer; make a tax deductible donation! Every little bit helps. You can even send friends and family to our page so that they can help our cause. All ATs are encouraged to participate. Lastly if you live or work anywhere near Boston or Watertown, The Ale House is doing a kick-back program for us for the ENTIRE month of March. Print a flyer, go there, have food and drinks and they’ll donate 10% of you bill to the American Cancer Society. Eating and drinking helps beat cancer! How AWESOME! So there you have it: 4 ways to get involved! Pick 1 or all 4. Just to recap:
1. Come to our event on March 29th, and bring all you pals and family. It’s a great way to start a Saturday night!
3. Send a donation letter to friends, family, athletes, coaches, AD, sports media crew, teachers.. etc!
4. Bring this flyer to the Ale House for a 10% kick-back of your food and/or drink order to be donated to the ACS during March 2014!
Lastly (sorry this has been a long post) over the years, Precision AT has become a community for me and hopefully many of you as well! If you have come to any of our past events, then you have certainly made friends with a nice, diverse, intelligent, fun loving, award winning, and multi-talented group of ATs.
We try to provide opportunities for you all to get to know each other because it is my belief that when any group of professionals get together… that profession becomes a little stronger, a little smarter and a lot more united. Athletic trainers need more opportunities to meet up to advance our profession.
Well that’s it for this blog. I hope to see and meet you on March 29th. Please, please pass the links above on to your friends and family. Every penny counts and people are usually happy to donate and help good causes. Thank you in advance and Happy National Athletic Training Month!
