I'm Tired

I'm a tired puppy as I know Joe is as well.  I'm playing hooky from church just trying to sit here in thought while Joe is at Volunteer Landing removing the docks and steps from the landing.  Yesterday was the Sixteenth Annual Eskimo Escapades Shut Up & Ski!  We are an all volunteer 501(c)(3), and we put a lot of hard work into organizing this event.  I know the economy is a scary thing for a lot of people and a lot of businesses, but I hear other organizations raise hundreds of thousands of dollars by holding a walk.  I know they have paid staff whose job it is to solicit sponsors for the event, and that the bulk of their fund raising for the event comes from sponsor contributions. 

We've lost sponsors because of the economy, and we've lost participants although I am not sure why.  We only had 60 participants, the lowest number since I've been keeping track.  Although we did raise $14000 yesterday.  The most we've ever raised the day of the event is $20000, and we had 151 participants.  Now that was hard work for all of our great volunteers.  The first year at the Landing, there were 82 participants.  The water was 38 degrees, and the air temperature was 23 degrees.  My hair froze, solid.  Last year was the monsoon, we had TVs floating down the river and stopped the event at 1:30 p.m.  Yet, we had 72 participants.  Usually, we have a lot of people signing up between 1 and 3, but this year we only had a few.   A lot of these participants pay $50 bucks to ski, but 60 more people means $3000.  The weather wasn't sunny, but it was high 40's low 50's. I will say the water was cold at 42 degrees.  Imagine getting into your shower (where the air temperature is around 70 degrees) and turning the water on as cold as you can get it.  The skiers get peppered with spray the whole time they are on the water, and they have to plunge in at the start and again at the end. 

If only we could have had Friday's sunny weather, it would have made a difference.  We had a fair number of new participants.  It is funny to see moms and dads who used to participate bringing their kids, and it is the kids who are skiing in the event now.  I know that several people, Joe included, did not put the effort into raising money like they can.  Steve Cox was the biggest fund raiser (again) with $2700.  A lot of his money comes from co-workers and friends --$1 here, $5 there, $10 from over there and it adds up to big bucks.  So I want to challenge my best friends to go out there next year and ask every one you know to sponsor you.  Carry around your registration form.  Steve had a good idea to get prints of pictures of him skiing (he goes in his swim shorts and life jacket every year), and carry it with him.  If you have ideas for businesses that might sponsor us, please share them with me.  I hope we get all the sponsor money that has been promised, and if we do, we should be able to give $20000 to our three charities.  But that is a far cry from the $35000 to $39000 we were giving from 2005 through 2008.  I was hoping and praying that some one would come up and give us a big check. But the funny thing is I'm not sure what a "big" check would be because we had lots of generous people give money. One day, we will reach our goal of giving our charities $40000. I would love to see the day when we raise $100000 because we could help a lot of people and benefit some more charities. 

We have three great charities that we support.  The Dream Connection which provides dreams to seriously ill children.  The Patricia Neal IRC is near and dear to most of us at EEF.  The IRC provides recreational opportunities, including water ski clinics, to people with disabilities, primarily spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and amputees.  The summer water ski clinics are a source of joy and inspiration for all of the volunteers.  We repeatedly are told how much what we do means to the people we teach to ski.  But they don't realize how much it means to us to share something we love to do with some one who otherwise would not be able to have that opportunity.  The kids, in particular, just tug at your heart.  To teach an 8 year old who is confined to a wheelchair to water ski sets him free and lots of times gives him some bragging rights because a lot of his able bodied friends can't do it.  We added the Adventure Amputee Camp as an official benefactor of our event last year, but we've all been volunteering and having fun with these kids since 2000.  Last year, without our contribution, a fair number of kids would not have been able to go to the camp.  The Camp is open to amputee kids from across the country, and they just have to pay a registration fee of $25 (if they can), although the camp costs between $500-700 per kid.  There are usually around 30 or so kids.   So we paid for the costs of camp for 10-12 kids last year.  We've been volunteering since 2000 to provide the fun water day on Fontana Lake which is the last day of camp.  Just imagine you are an 8 year old child who was born missing part of an arm or a leg or sometimes both.  Or imagine you are 16 year old girl who lost a leg in a boating accident.  Most amputees live in a world where they are unique.  They usually know no one else who they can relate to from a disability stand point.  Then, throw 30 other kids into the mix who are in the same boat so to speak.  Some of them have never been on a lake or in a boat.  Then, again, it was most amazing to have the teenager injured in a boating accident -- and who was dreading the last day of camp -- come away smiling and having fun at the end of the day.  You have never seen anything until you see a grocery cart full of various prosthetic arms and legs -- and some of them quite colorful and individualized -- because most of the kids have to leave their limbs on the dock before we head out on the water.  Most prosthetics don't float and they are expensive, so they stay on the dock.  I get a unique perk from the camp because my birthday usually is within days of the camp day -- twice it has fallen on my birthday.  So every year the kids sing me "Happy Birthday" and it makes me want to cry.

Eskimo Escapades is a dedicated group of people who love the water and want to help.  If you look deeper, you just might learn we try to operate as a ministry because our faith is important to those that organize the event.  So if you think that Shut Up & Ski! is a bunch of crazy people, that might be accurate.  But they are crazy people who care and want to make a difference in people's lives.  I just hope we can continue, re-build, grow and make a difference in East Tennessee.  If you have ideas on how we can grow, raise money or if you want to help, please let me know.