MMH One Year Anniversary Walk

January 1, 2011 will mark the one year anniversary of when Jimmy set out on his walk from Nashville to Phoenix, so let's all join in to try to walk 1700 miles on January 1 (or sometime that weekend) and show Jimmy and the kids our support and that we haven't forgotten this important cause! Pledge the number of miles you want to walk at http://bit.ly/MMHwalk.

Pass this link on to your friends and family and get them to pledge to walk with you!

I was so bummed there hadn't been more replies on the other topic for the anniv walk. I posted on the other topic and will duplicate that post here:
"My Anniv. Walk plans are developing and I'm kinda at a stand still waiting to see if anyone is able to make a Walk Flier and the Excel Sheet to sign up walkers. I want to post fliers at community centers, church and the youth orgs around the city to encourage peeps to walk. I have no skills with fliers and spreadsheets and was hoping someone who did would do it. Anyone??? (I'm going to copy and paste this on the other Topic.)"

Thanks to this awesome idea on the forum, here is what I am planning for Jan 1st. My family has decided to walk down at San Diego Bay for at least a mile. Then it evolved into spreading awareness. We plan to set up our pop-up and distribute MMH info, encourage peeps to sign up to commit to walk, offer a service project to sign up for here with the SD Youth Svcs., and of course, we'll have a loose change jar. I'm hoping to post fliers about the anniv walk around town and youth centers to get walkers to commit. Since they can commit to walk anywhere - we don't need a permit for an organized walk. Personally, I think it's a great way for families to get out walk a mile together (great family bonding time) and contemplate the homeless and needy in their area and maybe get them thinking about getting involved.
Other ideas I'm playing around with is getting Krispy Kreme or Starbucks to donate donuts or coffee/hot cocoa to give out (asking for donations of course) Jenni Hogate was very successful at getting alot donated by local business' for the WWF and I'm hoping she can give me advice on how she did that.
My family has actually now decided to camp down on the bay at Campland By the Bay (yes it will be cold at night - we have our redneck RV LOL) We plan to spend the whole weekend down there and will be enjoying the fireworks and campfires for New Years Eve. Anyone interested in coming to SD for New Years to join us, please msg me and I will try to help you figure out some accomodations

i can do a flier and spread sheet! i did one earlier this year and can just alter the info on it...keep an eye on your email! i'll send it soon!

The link in the first post that takes you to a fill in the blank form is attached to aspreadsheet Ela set up so we can keep all of the miles pledged in one place, it would be best if we all used it since some people have already started pledging miles through this. If there are any questions please let me know.

Felicia, Thanks Darlin'! You're awesome. Someday... I'll have to learn how to make those!

Admin, I agree. I was hoping for a spreadsheet that I could use to get peeps to sign up at work and for the info table on the 1st. That way, I can add them later. I just think alot of people would walk, but not go to the site to enter their info. I was also hoping to send them a thank you for walking after the 1st with links to MMH site and encouraging them to get involved.

Did you get your flyer and or spreadsheet? My apologies, commitment to family and a uncooperative laptop have kept me from doing too much on the internet (my phone has been my source lately) but if you still need any of that, I'll be more than happy to get something sorted. We only have just over 70 miles commited to....


Cheers,
Ela

Thanks Ela,

Felicia offered to work on them, I'm sure she's just busy too It is a crazy time of year. I think it would be great for ALL MMH members to have access to a flyer and spreadsheet so we could all post them at our work and churches, ect. Like I said, I don't think a whole lot of people would get on the site to commit but MMH members. They are busy too! But if they had something to look at - at break time, it might be something they might quickly jot their name down to. If we come up with something, maybe Kristy can shoot out an email to everyone since very few are actually on the forum. I've wanted to ask her, but thought it would be great if we had something to include like these sheets to make it easier for members. Also, if the internet pledge page link could be posted on everyone's facebook page. Once we have all of it lined up then it would be worth it to bug Kristy. Don't want to ask her to do it several times. Agree?
I've actually only had a bit of time these last few days because I have sick kiddos. Otherwise, I'd be busy, busy busy! LOL!

By the way, how can you tell how many miles are committed? And I can't remember if I actually went on and committed my family. Is there a way for me to check?

Teri,

So far 11 people have pledged 71 miles. And yes, you have pledged miles for your family (7).

Just a thought, but you could email the link to friends and family as well so others could pedge as well.

I've done some fliers in the past-if I can get my program to get workin again, I can make up a flier real quick with the basic walk info. If theres anything else that needs to go on it, let me know!

I've done up a quick flyer and sign up sheet but I don't know how to post on here. If anyone wants me to send it to them I will be more than happy to do so.

My email address is elaurias@gmail. com (remove the space between the . and the com - didn't add it there in case there is a spambot looking for email addresses)

I will get it out to you asap so you can take it with you to work or meeting your friends. Feel free to adjust what I said on it - they were just some random thoughts I wrote about 1am so I promise not to be offended.

Just to mention what I was thinking I might do is ask some friends/co workers to take a walk with me on new years weekend and explain all about MMH while we are walking. This is a good way to have a captive audience so to speak where I can relay stories and tell them how important a cause this is. I will have the cards printed up to direct them to the ProjectMMH.org site - thoughts??

Well back to work - Cheers all - we can still make this happen!!

Thank you Ela! It will be great to post that at work and then since the Kids are off work, we can post them elsewhere. I plan to post them also at places where people already walk like the lakes around here. They have walking paths around them and people bike and walk around them constantly. I'm going to add paper below with the walk link and ProjectMMH.org that can be tore off.

Another question I have is when people actually sign up on the link themselves, is someone going to send out an email reminder for them to walk and then a follow up thanking them for walking with a bit of info about Project MMH? When we had a raffle at the Balloon & Wine Fest, we took peeps addresses so we could notify the winner (and send out a thank you with info about MMH). We promised their email address would not be maintained to send unwanted emails. I'm wondering if anyone will be sending out a reminder and a thank you? Can we promise to not maintain their addresses? I won't be making any promises that I can't keep since this link isn't under my control. If no one is sending out a reminder or thank you. I'd want to do it for the peeps that I endourage to walk. But I couldn't if they signed up themselves online

Again, thank you so much Ela!!!

Thank you so much! I guess that means I'm not gonna have to dig thru my programs figurin out which is on what! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

I will be happy to send out a reminder if you think people want one...I can add a spot for that on the signup sheet, there is no spot on the web link self signup for a reminder.

My plan was to send a "Thank You" with the amount of final miles that were commited to. I just thought it was a nice way to let them know it was appreciated!

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Ela

I was mostly thinking about the peeps that sign up online. Then I enter peeps that sign up on my sheets, I wouldn't want to duplicate msgs. Who did the online sign up page? Can a reminder and thank you be done? I also like the idea of including the projectmmh link on the Thank You so peeps can get a reminder of why they walked while they are online. If they walk away with a card... they may never check it out online. If they get an email with the link, they just might. I don't think 2 emails are spam. Especially if we don't maintain their email addresses.

I'm using the email address to de-dup any entries in case they are entered twice. Makes it easier since there are so many differences in names. That will be done easily (since it's a spreadsheet and sorting should be fairly easy)

The 'Thank You' will definately have all the links on it since you are absolutely right, we want to drive traffic to the site and get them to sign on and join us in the message. I added the box to the signup sheet in the thought that we could send the list to a Street Team contact so they could contact them.

If you think of anything I will certainly do what I can. This week is crazy for most people, I'm off next week and can post updates.

Cheers.
Ela

So far, 104 miles have been pledged.

Is there anyway to let the whole MMH membership know about the walk? I can't help but think there would be more miles if everyone knew. I emailed Kristy, but she may be too busy. It's such a great awareness idea, but the membership needs to know so they have time to spread the word.

Hello all! I just heard from Jimmy Wayne and he had a fantastic idea and is excited about the 1 year anniversary walk. His request was this- for everyone participating to please video about 15 seconds in front of their city limit sign and then send the video to webmaster@projectmmh.org (Sharon Katzmann) and she will feed the videos together and post to our website. In order for this to work, please video you & your friends/family in front of the sign and say who you are (or if you want it anonymous, you don't have to say your name), where you are and that you are walking for Project Meet Me Halfway- and that's it! Should be fast and to the point.

Many thanks everyone!
~Kristy
Kristy@projectMMH.org

I love the idea of the video of peeps walking! Do you think it's okay to do it next to a SD Bay sign? If peeps commit to walk, can I ask them if they want me to video them and submit theirs as well? My following Jimmy started with winning a meet & greet with him and he asked if he could tweet a picture of us with him. I had to check it out! Well hearing his story and his genuine character really did it, but getting online to check that pic. started us following him I'd like to inspire others like that

Yes- in front of the Bay sign I'm sure would be fine- the idea is that when new ppl watch the video clips they will see how far and widespread the support for MMH is. Throughout his walk across America Jimmy Wayne took pictures/video with just about every city sign he came across- its makes for excellent documentation.