Less than two weeks...

Down to our last two weeks... and honestly I don't know what I'm going to do after the 1st. I am so used to Monday morning blogs and emails about DUCK Fiabetes that while I we take a break... I'm going to be a little lost. Oh well... I digress.

TODAY'S FUND RAISING TOTAL = $4,333.00

I have to tell you how proud I am that we've all gotten together to make this happen. So far, we have done a great job of getting people together, getting them joining the team, and getting them to donate to our cause. Once I include tee shirt money and some other donations I have via check, I think we'll be over $4500. If we could somehow slip into $5,000 that would be just awesome!

Keep up the good work...

THREE WEEKS AND COUNTING...

Early Monday Morning... and I wanted to make sure I got a note out to everybody. We are down to under three weeks, and we've done a FANTASTIC JOB on raising funds and getting ready for the event. As of this morning, we are really close (again) to our new goal! Right now we have raised $4,047.00 in total for the team! OVER FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!

So you think I'm going to quit harping on raising funds right... WRONG! It's time for the last big push.

1. If you haven't bought a shirt yet... go here now and buy a shirt. Shipping takes a little while, so you want to order today and make sure you have it by the event. http://www.cafepress.com/DUCKFiabetes

2. If you work for a large company, it's time to ask them about matching on funds raised. Some of them will cut you a check to match our teams amount, or your contribution, or a max amount. An email to HR should do...

3. A quick email to friends and family reminding them you are walking, raising funds, and the walk is in 3 weeks can help kick start some individuals that want to donate just haven't had time yet to sit down and do it yet.

Let me know if you need anything from me... and I'll do by best to help out this week!

The Beginning of The End

It's October 6th... and the website here says there are only 25 days and 20 hours until the walk. It's down to crunch time for our fund raising efforts. We've had a great season... and the good news is that we've officially raised more than I had hoped for. The original goal we had set was $3,000 total. As of this morning... we are at $3,222.!

Ok so the bad news is... I'M CHANGING THE GOAL! With over 20 members, I'm confident that we can make a last minute push to increase each of our donations! We are officially in 3rd place for personal teams behind "Charlies Angels" at $4,800 and "Adah's Rhodesters" at $3,650. If we get into second place... I think that'll be awesome.

So let me know what I can do to help you raise money for the rest of the 25 days... and let me know if you have any good ideas on how to raise money before the walk!

September 7th - OUTING ANNOUNCEMENT - Duck Riders in Grapevine

As many of you are undoubtedly getting ready for this afternoon's Cowboys game, I wanted to take a quick second and make inform everybody about our newest DUCK Fiabetes Outing.

What:
Grapevine's Amphibious Duck Tours
A tour around Grapevine and Lake Grapevine in a WWII Amphibious vehicle

When:
Sunday September 28th @ 4:00 pm

Where:
Grapevine Mills

Cost:
Members: $15.00
Non-Members: $18.00
(Tickets are usually $21.00 + tax)

Tickets:
There are currently 25 tickets available.
You can contact me, or any team member about tickets for more information.
Please pay with either cash or check. Contact me if you wish to pay via credit card.
Make checks out to: American Diabetes Association with "Step Out / Duck Fiabetes" on memo.

We are going to use this as a means to raise as much money as we can for the DUCK Fiabetes team, so I'm hoping that everybody on our team will (1) choose to attend and (2) get one or two non-members to come along with us.

It's my hope that every one of our team members will decide to come along, as I would also like to use this opportunity to get a couple team photo's for the website. I've also notified some local media outlets that we are going to be having this event, as well as the local ADA and I'm hoping that we can get alot of attention for our cause.

Don't forget to get your tee shirts and sell tee shirts to all the people planning on coming. How fantastic would it be to have a full boat of yellow shirts for the event!

I'll keep a note on the website up to date with the number of tickets available at that time.

September 2nd - The Gordon Keith Show Video

Well... for those of you that didn't stay up all night Saturday sitting by WFAA Channel 8 patiently waiting for the football game to get done, then the news to wrap up, and then uncomfortably watching "Entertainment Tonight" just to get to this 5 minute (?) clip of me at the Gordon Keith show... here you go.

I'm waiting for Jeff to get a clip together of the brief introduction Gordon gave us and the shot of all 6 of us in the audience which I'll post next.

August 28th - DUCK Fiabetes Does Gordon Keith

by Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes


Tonight was out first big outing, and most of you won't even know about it until Saturday. As we mentioned earlier... we went down to the weekly taping of The Gordon Keith show, and we decided to make a little "Team Event" out of it. So we jumped in the car, drove past the Cowboys final pre-season game, turned off the Democratic National Convention, and headed down to see Gordon Keith entertain us for an hour or so.

For more pictures... you can click on the slideshow on the right or just click here!

Everybody really enjoyed the show, but we are all curious if it wasn't because of the $5 you call it tequila margaritas we had before the show. Now I know the show is funny, but if Gordon sent everybody in there for a drink before the show - maybe all the audiences would be as rowdy as we were. (yes you heard it right - $5 you call it margs. Patron Margs = $5. Cabo Wabo Margs = $5. If I would have know that earlier - we would have been there earlier!)

The show was really great fun. We saw a preview of the RedNeck Tenors performance, as well as a funny clip of Gordon on the "Red Carpet." His young crushes bit was pretty funny too. As fans of the Ticket and the Gordon Keith Show, we've been looking for a good reason to go see the taping live, and enjoyed ourselves so much that we might even go again (if they'll still have us)

I like to think it was my exuberant personality over the fact that we were the only ones in the studio audience, but surprisingly enough as the Team Captain I was chosen as "Audience Member of the Week!" (I like to think Gordon was drawn to my personality and good looks...) I got to sit with Gordon and kill a segment making sand art and getting to say just enough about the DUCK Fiabetes cause to hopefully drive some attention to our team!

So I wanted to officially thank Gordon Keith and his producer Kerri Navarro for having us to the show. We really appreciate the opportunity and we had a blast. We'll get the word out about this weeks show (and the fact that it'll be 1/2 hour late) and I'm sure help you sell lost of Miller High Life. Thanks again...

August 26th - Shirt Order for the Family Arrive!

by Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

I finally got off my butt last week and ordered our shirts for the family (who also happen to be my core walkers!) They came in yesterday afternoon, which was a day or so earlier than I had anticipated! Broke them out of the shipping bag from CafePress and figured I'd take a quick picture or two of what the two different shirts (mens and womens) look like.

It's important to notice that there are two different colors of yellow on these shirts. Mens shirts only had one color of yellow, and the womens shirts only had a different color of yellow. So unfortunately, we won't all 100% match.

I knew we would have a problem with this once I created the womens shirts, but didn't really think I had any options. So you smile and you deal with it and life goes on. Don't sweat the small stuff right?

I'm not too concerned with the whole thing... a sea of slightly different color yellow shirts will still look great walking down the road at the walk and they are both such great quality it's hard to be mad. I'm really happy with the shirts... and I hope you are too!

August 22nd - NEXT WEEK'S GORDON KEITH SHOW

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

Wow... when I scheduled this it was so far away. Now it's next week!! It's going to be great fun, and great for awareness. I need to send an email on Monday to the show producer to tell her how many seats we'll need, so BUY YOUR SHIRT TODAY AND LETS GET READY TO GO!

Time is moving fast kiddos, and donations are not. It's time to hit up your friends and relatives and see if they can spare $10 for a donation. I know times are tough, the economy is way down, and pennies for donations are harder to come by... but I hope you'll try to get your donations in. At least buy a shirt... wear it with pride... and help promote the "waddle for a cure" theme!

August 17th - Gordon Keith Taping Information

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

Just a quick weekend post to announce the information about the Gordon Keith Taping. We'll work something out to carpool down there if that will help everybody out, but I wanted to get this information out there so you can put it on your calendar:

The Gordon Keith Show Taping
Thursday August 28, 2008
8:00PM-9:00PM
Channel 8 Studios Victory Park

Make sure you buy your shirts today, get them and have them ready for that Thursday. Should be a fun show, and Gordon is always entertaining. If you need to know more about Gordon, I recommend going to his show website! You can find it HERE! You can see past episodes and bits...

August 6th - TEAM OUTTING ANNOUCEMENT!

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

TODAY IS A GREAT DAY... as we officially announce our first team outing! I'm making arrangements to secure tickets to see a taping of the Gordon Keith show on August 28th. The show tapes at the studios right in front of American Airlines, and I believe the taping starts around 8:00 pm. I've requested 8 to 10 seats, and I'd like to fill them with people in yellow DUCK Fiabetes shirts. How great would it be to get our cause on TV!

Email me if you are interested in attending: DUCKFiabetes@gmail.com

(Note - I am working on some other opportunities as well. I'm hoping these are opportunities we can use to get people motivated into donating to the cause and helping us spread the word. Keep an eye out and please donate today to our team!)

August 3rd - New Images of Shirts in Slideshow!

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

Yup... if you see this in most cases you already see that nice little slideshow to the right of this post. We (finally) got the first tee shirt in, and my brother (and co-walker) Jeff helped me take some "real life" pictures of what the shirts look like. I think the shirts came out great, and I was pleasantly surprised to find them in high quality 100% cotton Hanes quality. I recommend you buy two... that's how great they are.

Yes - that's really me modeling the shirt. I hope the pictures help you decide to purchase one (or a whole handful) as soon as possible. It's already August and this is the month we kick off our big 3 month fundraising campaign. So lets get it started!

July 27th - New Items in the Storefront

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

Just got done updating the storefront with some new items. I've included a Women's tee shirt and an Infant / Toddlers tee shirt both in Yellow that you can purchase. I ordered a tee shirt about a week ago, and they aren't kidding about the shipping times. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU BUY YOUR SHIRT IN ADVANCE! My shirt is supposed to be here tomorrow. Once I get it, I'll model it for everybody and take some pictures so you can see really what you are getting.

NOTE: it's about time to get really going on this. If anybody reading this has some suggestions on how to spread the word please let me know. GOALS: 20 registered walkers, $3,000 in donations directly to the team site, 100 sold tee shirts.

July 22nd - Trying to get "Official" Walkers

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

OK everybody... just a quick note. I have quite a few interested parties that have said they want to walk with us. THAT'S GREAT NEWS - The more the merrier. What I need you to do if you want to walk with us is click on the link up there on the right that says "DUCK Fiabetes Team Page" and register as a walker. It'll take you like 10 seconds. I'd really appreciate the help... and I look forward to walking with everybody.

In other news - the shirts are finalized for now and the link there on the right is active. You can go to our site and purchase the tee shirt officially. If you are on the registered walk list I can get you one at a slight discount but those shirts have no proceeds... so it's up to you how / when you want to buy one.

FYI - tomorrow will be 100 days until the walk. Better start practicing!

July 17th - Trying To Finish the Tee Shirt Logo

By Brad Koettel - Team Captain of DUCK Fiabetes

I'm working on the final touches to the tee shirt logo today, and hopefully will have it done by tonight. The front has been finalized with our DUCK Fiabetes logo, but the back is presenting a slight problem. Working on a design that will include the website URL, as well as the walk information, and playing with the tag line "Waddle For A Cure." Hopefully we'll have the shirt setup by the weekend, and then start to promote the shirt to anybody that will buy one.