How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream. A goal. You have to be willing to work for it. Jim Valvano 1993 ESPY Speech Show Your Spirit! March 15 April 5, 2011 How To Get Started And lead your team to a successful and spirited Show Your Spirit Day!
The Inspiration for Show Your Spirit The Most Spirited Man We Knew! When tournament brackets go up on office walls around the country, we are reminded of 1983 when Jim Valvano led his underdog North Carolina State Wolfpack to an upset win in the NCAA Baskeball National Championship. Jim's spirit, drive, and determination carried him through his brief but illustrious life. Jim never gave up on his dreams. His final triumph came toward the end of his glorious life when he announced the formation of The V Foundation for Cancer Research at the 1993 ESPY Awards. Founded by ESPN and Jim Valvano, The V Foundation was established to carry out Jim's final, unmet dream to soundly defeat cancer. The success of The V Foundation is built upon Jim s ability to personally touch the lives of others. Jim's spirit lives on through his family, friends, and the numerous supporters and fans who remember him. His famous words, "Don't give up don't ever give up," are not only a motivation to those battling cancer, but also serve as encouragement for those who want to help in the fight against this terrible disease. WELCOME! Thank you for registering for The V Foundation for Cancer Research s annual Show Your Spirit! campaign. Haven t registered? Click Here (www.jimmyv.org/showyourspirit). Show Your Spirit is an easy and fun way for everyone to participate in the fight against cancer. Select a Show Your Spirit Day and publicize it to your colleagues and friends. On your Day, encourage everyone to pay a minimum $5 donation to The V Foundation, earning them the opportunity to blatantly support their favorite sports team by wearing team apparel to work or school. Every $5 donation, combined with contributions from participants across the country, will make a difference. And, while we are all celebrating the national college basketball play-offs and supporting our favorite teams and schools in the fight against cancer, we all play on the same team! If you are not part of a group and would like to participate as an individual, see Build Your Own Online Fundraising Page under the COLLECT section of this document. Now that you ve joined Jimmy V s team, let s get started! SELECT YOUR DAY Select which day during the playoffs (March 15 April 5 are the official NCAA tournament dates) you want to hold your day. If spring break or other conflicts affect the campaign s national dates, you may select an alternate date, perhaps during conference play-offs. Pick a day when everyone is comfortable dressing casually and will participate in any other activities you decide to create, to enhance your Show Your Spirit Day experience.
PROMOTE Poster Download materials from the Show Your Spirit Download Center. The poster template can be e-mailed to any copy center and be re-sized (blow it up!!!) for your needs. Customize the posters to include your contact information and Show Your Spirit Day. Hang posters in visible locations such as lunchroom, hallway, restroom doors, main entrance. Encourage others in the office to display them. The poster is designed so that following your Show Your Spirit Day, you can cut off the bottom and have a Jimmy V Poster for your office or school. Download Center Support: 2011 Show Your Spirit Poster (also available in Spanish) E-Mail & Company Publications Personalize the sample e-mails from the download center to remind your colleagues and encourage them to participate in Show Your Spirit. Use the SYS banners in company e-mails and publications (simple black and white ad also available for company publications). Download Center Support: Sample E-mails Download Center Support: Show Your Spirit Banner Ad (also available in Spanish) Download Center Support: Simple Black and White Show Your Spirit Ad Download Center Support: Show Your Spirit Logos (multiple versions/colors) Press Release Share with your local media why your company is showing its spirit in the fight against cancer. Download the sample press release and personalize. Download Center Support: Press Release Template One-on-One Encourage managers within your organization to get their team involved. Hold a friendly competition between departments/floors/etc. Advocate and Challenge Increase your efforts by encouraging your friends and family members to enroll their own companies or schools. Challenge your employees to help sign up additional companies with friendly internal competition. Contact companies with whom you do business (or even your competitors remember, in the fight against cancer, we all play on the same team!) to join in. Challenge their efforts to top your own! Download Center Support: Invitation to Join/Challenge E-Mail Download Center Support: Show Your Spirit Information Card (also available in Spanish) COLLECT Encourage Start to encourage participants to turn in their donation the week of Show Your Spirit. Organize You can easily keep track of donations by creating donation collection envelopes for your team captains. There is a template in the download center that will fit on the front of any envelope 8 x10 or larger. Download Center Support: Donation Envelope Template Receipts The V Foundation will automatically acknowledge in writing any credit card or check (provided name and address information is on the check) for an individual donation of $75 or above. For all others, you may copy the receipts in the download center to provide to your donors. Download Center Support: Donation Receipt Template
Distribute A Visible Show of Support; Don t Give Up...Don t Ever Give Up! Stickers Everybody said don t print buttons and use the money for cancer research, so we did. If you still want visible signs of support, download the Don t Give Up...Don t Ever Give Up! sticker templates and print your own motivational stickers. Avery circular stickers come in two sizes and are available at many local office supply stores, online from major office supply stores and avery.com. Smaller stickers (Avery #5293) are 1 2/3 and contain 600 to a package. Larger stickers (Avery #5294) are 2 ½ and contain 300 per package. Download Center Support: Don t Give Up...Don t Ever Give Up! Sticker Template 1 2/3 Avery #5293 (also available in Spanish) Download Center Support: Don t Give Up...Don t Ever Give Up! Sticker Template 2 ½ Avery #5294 (also available in Spanish) Educate About the Cause Why support cancer research and why support The V Foundation? Two good questions! Find those answers and much more on the V Foundation/Cancer Facts Information Sheet. Educate yourself to answer questions and motivate others. Distribute copies to each employee so that everyone knows that cancer will affect us all, research will cure cancer, and that The V Foundation is a good steward of each and every donation, with 100% of every donation directly funding research. Download Center Support: V Foundation/Cancer Facts Information Sheet (also in Spanish) Build Your Own Online Fundraising Page If you are an individual who wants to participate by soliciting donations from family and friends, or if you are a company that wants to encourage online donations, you are invited to create a Show Your Spirit V Foundation First Giving page. Download Center Support: Build Your Own Online Fundraising Page WEAR Dress the Part On your designated Show Your Spirit day, be a leader and show your support in the fight against cancer by wearing your favorite team apparel. It s as simple as wearing a team jersey, pin, tie, or simply the team colors. Support the bottom line -- it s all about funding research! If company policy prohibits wearing team apparel, or if employees are strictly required to wear uniforms, participants may still be permitted to wear the Don t Give Up...Don t Ever Give Up! sticker as a visible sign of support for cancer research. The button and the team apparel are not as important as participating to fund cancer research! SEND Donations Collect all final donations from participants. Download and complete the Group Donation Form it s marked **IMPORTANT** in the download center, so you can t miss it!! Complete the information on the donation form and mail with donations to: The V Foundation for Cancer Research Show Your Spirit 106 Towerview Court Cary, NC 27513 Download Center Support: Group Donation Form **IMPORTANT**
Checks All checks should be made payable to The V Foundation. Please do not send cash. Exchange cash for a check, cashier s check or money order payable to The V Foundation. Credit Cards The V Foundation will accept Show Your Spirit credit card donations for any contribution of $25 or above. Download the credit card form from the Download Center. Return the completed form with your checks. Download Center Support: Credit Card Form Match Your company may match participants donations. Please check with your human resources director to complete the appropriate documentation. Please remind them to earmark the donation for Show Your Spirit with check made payable to The V Foundation. Matching gift directions are available in the download center. The V Foundation Tax ID Number is 13-3705951. Download Center Support: Corporate Match Instructions UPLOAD Share We all have a reason to team up in the fight against cancer. Tell us why your office is participating in Show Your Spirit. Share your ideas, pictures and stories with us by sending an e-mail to showyourspirit@jimmyv.org. We may use your materials to expand this guide for next year! All photos, letters and stories become the property of The V Foundation and may be used in future Show Your Spirit promotional materials. We LOVE pictures! WRAP UP Thank You Send an e-mail thanking those who participated in Show Your Spirit and share the results of your event. Download an e-mail template or compose your own. Thank your boss/company for allowing everyone to participate. Make sure everyone knows if your company has generously chosen to match (and double) their contributions. Download Center Support: Sample E-mails Participation Certificate Your company will receive a certificate thanking them for participating in Show Your Spirit. Remember to write the name of the company on your Group Donation Return Form exactly how you want it to be personalized on the appreciation certificate. If you would like to recognize individual participants, or special contributors in your organization, you may download the certificate template from the website. Download Center Support: Appreciation Certificate (available in Spanish) WANT TO DO MORE? Download the Basketball! For those who would like to build a memorial/tribute/support wall, there is a basketball template (as well as a more traditional building block template) in the download center. Some folks sell the basketball/blocks to raise additional funds; other use them simply as a way to honor a survivor or memorialize one who has been lost to cancer. Download Center Support: Visual Tribute/Construct a Tribute Donation Display (Basketball) Download Center Support: Visual Tribute/Construct a Tribute Donation Display (Traditional)
Advocate, Advocate, Advocate Show Your Spirit is a grassroots effort, meaning The V Foundation does not spend funds for expensive magazine, newspaper or on-air advertising. The program grows thanks to the dedicated participants who recruit friends, relatives, and other companies and schools to participate. Spread The Word! Be a Show Your Spirit advocate in your area to help us grow the program. Forward our e-mail blasts, tweet, post on Facebook. You will make a major difference in the fight against cancer and help us ensure that 100% of every single donation that comes to The V Foundation pays for nothing but CANCER RESEARCH! FOR TEACHERS: We understand that many schools want to teach youngsters about the joy of giving, but we also understand that schools and families are in financial crisis in many parts of the country; The V Foundation does not advocate raising money off of students. In many cases, the teachers and staff of a school will actively participate in the Show Your Spirit campaign and engage the students in other ways. Encourage them to talk about people they know who have had cancer. Invite a cancer survivor to speak to the students. Encourage them to build a wall of hope with basketballs (see download center) that they can color in their favorite school colors and add names of people they know, including celebrities, who have fought cancer. Download Center Support: Basketball Templates for Kids to Color Download Center Support: V Foundation/Cancer Facts Information Sheet (available in Spanish) V Foundation Website Support: Jim Valvano ESPY Speech Text (drop down box About Us Sub-title Remembering Jim ) AN IDEA WE LOVE! Jim Valvano s 1993 ESPY Speech continues to motivate and inspire others in their fight against cancer, and to support cancer research. Show your students the speech (view it from the V Foundation website, or call us and request a DVD for classroom use). Ask students who inspires you have them write an essay, build a display, or do an oral presentation. SCHOOL FUNDRAISING for JIMMY V If a student club, team or organization, or an individual student would like to fundraise through relatives, neighbors and friends, we suggest an online fundraising page to avoid the need for students and school officials to handle money. Individuals (or groups) can design their own online fundraising page to collect donations on The V Foundation First Giving site. Download Center Support: Build Your Own Online Fundraising Page FOUR MESSAGE TOPICS The V Foundation suggests the following message-topics for children and young adults to know about cancer: 1) You are not alone. No one should feel alone in the fight against cancer, be it someone fighting the disease, or family members and friends who are affected when a loved one has the disease. Ask for help. Be a friend. 2) Impact of your choices. Many cancers can be prevented with healthy lifestyle (nutrition, exercise, no tobacco use, limited sun exposure). 3) Don t Ever Give Up! Jim Valvano s never give up message delivered in the 1993 speech at the ESPY Awards weeks prior to his death still resounds today research, treatment, progress, survival! 4) You can make a difference. Everyone can make a difference in the fight against cancer; volunteer, raise money, be a friend to someone fighting the disease.
TEACHERS LOVE TO SHARE! Please let us know how you engage your students or how they chose to participate in Show Your Spirit so that we can build a handbook and/or share your ideas with others in the future. A grant from Nike, Inc. has generously covered expenses for the 2011 Show Your Spirit campaign to help assure you that 100% of every donation will directly fund cancer research! Thank you to Nike Chairman Phil Knight for his continued support of the Show Your Spirit program. THANK YOU! From the Board of Directors and staff of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, the Valvano family, and the more than 12 million Americans living today as cancer survivors, thank you for your support of The V Foundation s 2011 Show Your Spirit campaign! Your donations, combined with those of friends across the country, will continue to help make a difference in the fight against cancer. When it comes to fighting cancer, we all play on the same team thanks for joining Jimmy V s team! QUESTIONS? We are grateful for your participation and advocacy for our Show Your Spirit campaign. Please feel free to contact us at any time with questions or to request help with materials. The V Foundation for Cancer Research 106 Towerview Court Cary, NC 27513 Phone: 919-380-9505 or 1-800-4JimmyV (1-800-454-6698) Fax: 919-380-0025 showyourspirit@jimmyv.org Thank you to our friends at Team ESPN for their continued support of Show Your Spirit! ESPN employees not only participate in Show Your Spirit annually, but also advocate the program to friends and family. The V Foundation spends no funds on expensive advertising in magazines or other publications Show Your Spirit grows annually thanks to exposure and advocacy by friends like those at Team ESPN. For The V Foundation: Program Coordinator: Joyce Aschenbrenner (jaschenbrenner@jimmyv.org) Media Contact: Sherrie Mazur (smazur@jimmyv.org) Thank you to Michaela Johnson Tena for Spanish translation assistance.