#375: Casting Call for Actors' Guild Runners and Walkers

Do you love Actors' Guild of Lexington? Ever wish you could do more to support their work? Can you run or walk 1.8 miles? Do you like to show off by using phrases like "leverage your network," "viral marketing," and "grassroots philanthropy?" Here's the chance you've been waiting for.

After the success we enjoyed with One for the Five, Team Pennsy is launching a new fund raising effort on January 1 called Keeping the Dream Alive. We'll be training for the Shamrock Shuffle 3K on St Patrick's Day in downtown Lexington. This is a really fun race, an reachable distance, and the kind of lunatic, emerald-clad crowd you would expect on St Paddy's morning. Your registration fee (which is cheap - last year, early registration was $18)  supports Habitat for Humanity, a great cause here in the Bluegrass.

Our efforts will piggy-back on theirs. As a team member, you'll have your own page on Crowdrise.com, just like the one we used to raise $3555 for the Markey Cancer Foundation. Then you can contact your friends, family, or strangers on the street to solicit contributions that help Actors' Guild's work. It's fun. It's easy. And it's good for you. Can't beat that.

But before we start raising money, we need to put a team together. If you would like to join us on the street on March 17, 2012, all you have to do is...

• Go to the Keeping the Dream Alive and join Team Pennsy. Crowdrise has lots of tools to help you get started. And of course, I'm just full of sage advice that's absolutely free. 
• Registration for the 2012 race opens in December. Once we're all signed up and ready to go, we'll begin our campaign early next year. 

I'm really excited at the prospect of building on the generosity and energy or the Lexington theatre community. You were there when I needed you. Now we can be there for each other.

Peace

Pennsy

"Sugar" That Isn't So Sweet

In the language of the Bluegrass, people with Diabetes have "got the sugar". We recently learned that Mrs P has joined their ranks. It isn't as sweet as it sounds.

Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States. Since 1987 the death rate due to diabetes has increased by 45 percent, while the death rates due to heart disease, stroke, and cancer have declined...

There are 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease. The Dangerous Toll of Diabetes

You know someone living with diabetes. I do too. You know what this disease costs them and you know what it takes from them.

Based on death certificate data, diabetes contributed to 224,092 deaths in 2002. Studies indicate that diabetes in generally under-reported on death certificates, particularly in the cases of older persons with multiples chronic conditions such as heart disease and hypertension. Because of this, the toll of diabetes is believed to be much higher than officially reported. Dangerous Toll ...

We can do something together that will help. One week from today, on May 31, I will be walking with the folks at Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes. That is my goal - slow and steady. Please join me with your feet or with your pledge.

I want to raise $600. Thanks to Team Pennsy sponsors Paul, Debbie, Mark, Cathy, and Bev we're almost halfway there.

Please click the thermometer or the American Diabetes Association logo on this page and add your support to theirs. You can pledge using ADA's secure web site. You'll be doing a good thing AND I'll hoot your name on the next Team Pennsy video from the historic Keeneland race track.

Click. Pledge. Help.

Peace,
Pennsy