There are only four days left until Relay for Life and today we got a bag full of goodies which included sunscreen, a programme, peanuts, chocolate and a t-shirt to wear on the day. We have decided to call our team Pfizer Pfiesta to try and get people a bit excited about the event because not a lot of us seemed to keen about the idea of running or walking for lengthy periods of time. It will be very interesting to see how people end up afterwards.

On a more serious note, I have had some sponsorship but not as much as I would have hoped for at this stage. It is for a good cause and all donations (click here for details on how to sponsor me) whether it be $1, $10 or $100 would be greatly appreciated and a thank you to those who have donated.

The time has come again to do some fundraising for a good cause. The New Zealand Cancer Society holds an annual fun fundraising event – Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research, prevention and early detection activities and patient services. It is an overnight event that goes on for about 24 hours where teams of 10 or more complete a relay-style walk or run to raise money. On the 29th and 30th of March it is Wellington’s turn to take part and my work colleagues and I have put together a team to do our bit. We are aiming to raise at least $100 per team member to really make it worthwhile.

Cancer is one of the major causes of death around the world and so many of us have been affected by it in one way or another. For me it was my best friend Riccardo De Angelis who passed away on the 7th of March 2007. His passing was something that shocked and caught me off guard because he had been fighting his form of cancer for a while and everyone including his doctors thought he was on the way to recovery. He took a turn for the worse and then one afternoon when I was home for lunch I got a txt message from a friend telling me that he had passed away. The news left me numb. I had known Riccardo since I was 6 years old and even though it has been a year since his passing I still can’t believe he is gone. But, I am glad that I had the pleasure of having him as a friend and sharing so much of our lives together.

Besides taking part in the Relay I will also be making a donation and I am inviting you to sponsor me. Donations of any amount whether it be $1, 5, $8.75, $100 would be most appreciated. In order for you to sponsor me I need to email an invitation out to you via the Relay for Life website – CLICK HERE to provide me with your details. If you have a blog/site, leave a comment and include your site details and I will put up a link to your site in a future post and the person who sponsors the highest amount will get a one month 125×125 ad spot on this blog.

Relay For Life is a celebration of remembrance, hope and thanks.

I was reading through Simon’s Money Notes the other day and noticed a widget (right) that caught my eye. It is a ChipIn widget which he is using to raise funds for a John Chow review.

I went to ChipIn’s site to see what they were all about. It is service that simplifies fundraising. To create a widget you just need to provide information on what you are fundraising for, how much you need to collect (optional), when you need the funds by and how you would like to receive it. You are then provided with an HTML code to paste to your site. If you don’t have a site they will provide you with pages to do your fundraising.

People can contribute via PayPal or any major credit card. Funds contributed are paid out via PayPal, direct deposit or cheque. PayPal seems to be the best option as funds are transferred as they are received.

If you are collecting money for a particular cause using a Buy Me A Beer Plugin/PayPal Donation Button, ChipIn may work a whole lot better. If you are trying to raise or planning on raising funds for something give ChipIn a try.