Nothing to do with DC, but completely made my day!

Alright, so I'm sorry that this has nothing to do with Washington, or my travels or my experiences. But I just got this e-mail and it completely made my day. This gives me so much hope!

It was sent to me by Mary LaPrairie who chairs the Woodbury Relay For Life, but it was written by Reuel Johnson, the National Vice President for Relay For Life. Please read if you have the time.

"Two years ago, in April 2007, Virginia Tech was the center of the world's attention ...and Relayers worldwide felt a great deal of pride and admiration when the university president and the student Relay For Life leaders decided to go ahead with the planned Relay just days after the tragic deaths of 32 students and faculty ...showing that Virginia Tech was indeed a very special place...

The students and the university community followed up the next year (2008) with solid increases in teams and dollars raised …coming in at $294,000 ... second only to Georgetown University...but they had only just begun. I had the privilege of being there and speaking at the opening ceremony and just wanted to share a few observations with you ... you may have heard some of the numbers but I wanted to share some additional things as well…

The story of the 2009 Virginia Tech RFL is just incredible...here it is, but it won't do it justice ... you really had to be there!!

- 484 Teams
- 5300 Team members
- $482,500 raised....$188,000 increase over last year

- the RFL was held in the most visible and central location - the drill field - not an easy thing to do !!
- the production company did an outstanding job with the stage, sound system - it was almost like a mini-Celebration On the Hill set-up with the screens around the track, etc
- the event co-chairs - Chris Armstrong and Alice Wagner -- were outstanding !! They have attended and helped to lead sessions at the nationwide and South Atlantic Division Collegiate Leadership Summits
- the student newspaper did a special Relay insert on Friday morning
- Chris and Alice had a total of 120 committee members
- the event had a live video that could be viewed from a connection on RFL.org
- all the trash cans throughout the campus were wrapped with Relay stage wrap ... you could not be on campus and not know that RFL was coming
- the Relay was held on Alumni and Spring football game weekend
- the University President, Dr Charles Steger is very supportive .. and in spite of having to be at a number of functions on Friday still came down to the opening ceremony
- Doctor Steger also requested that the VT Alumni Board stop down and visit the RFL after their formal (tux) dinner ... and a number of them did just that
- I had the opportunity to talk with probably 20-25 committee members during the evening ... can't recall a single committee member who had not been involved in Relay for a number of years .. some with 6-8+ years of Relay experience
- another 5-7 that I talked with would love to work with the ACS !!
- Teams were still signing up the day of the event
- a bunch of VT football players came to the event .. high-fiving the Relayers around the track
- Both Chris and Alice had very personal reasons to Relay (and to lead)...Chris' mom is a 10 cancer survivor and Alice's mom is fighting a very tough on-going battle with cancer...she is fighting to get to the Relay and Alice's graduation in a couple of weeks!!
- Chris' family hosted a tent and invited the parents of any committee member who would be attending to stop by so they would have a place to gather/meet
- There was a big 'Why Do You Relay' board that students could write on ... it was full!!
- the number of survivors was impressive for a university Relay...lots of community and university/faculty represented
- ACS staff support was great...Stephen Milleson has been the primary staff support for years, he recently moved to a new position in the SA Div so Jessica Huff, State RFL director, stepped in…and clearly they did not miss a beat...Stephen didn't miss the event...he was there running the live video feed among other things
- the support of the university is exceptional...they provide for some of the basics that make the event happen
- by having it on Alumni weekend there were lots of folks who came down to see what was going on
- 5000+ students participating in a Relay is an amazing sight!!
- Chris and Alice are exceptional leaders...the event was nearly flawless…the committees all did their jobs...should remind us that this a lot more about developing young leaders as it is about putting on an event !!