Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you all are enjoying the long weekend and celebrating a holiday dedicated to those who served for our country. For the last 7 years, we have raised money for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund by competing in the Cap Tex Triathlon, which was held today. You may be thinking you missed your chance to donate this year, but you haven't!

This year we still participated, but not as a key fundraiser. The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund has some new and exciting plans for the years ahead and our team has been working hard in those efforts. Many of you donate annually around this time, purchase a t-shirt, or participate in the triathlons; and for that we thank you.

We would still love your support as we focus on new projects. To donate online or by mail please click on the link for more information. Follow us on Facebook to see our latest efforts and events to come!

To Donate Visit: http://www.markfelice.org/donate/

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-Felice-Childhood-Cancer-Fund/269196166547484

Thanks to YOU We Are Making a Difference!

We want to thank you for all you did to make this year a success! We exceeded our goal of $8,000 and raised $9,080 for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund! 

For those that donated, purchased a t-shirt, participated in the triathlon and to those who were spectators at the race, we love all that you did for our great cause!  It was truly a great time for all, but most of all for the children that will benefit from our efforts. Thanks to your donations, the Children’s Blood & Cancer Center at Dell Children’s Hospital was able to hire a Pediatric Oncology Social Worker, Carmen Gattis, to begin assisting families during their hospital stay, instead of waiting until they are able to go home.

"Helping families along the journey of childhood cancer and blood disorders is a special opportunity. Families face such difficult circumstances and my job is to help make that a little easier and allow them to focus on the care and love of their child. The philanthropic support that allowed my position to be created is a gift that has a ripple effect. Thank you for your support." – Carmen Gattis

We look forward to many years to come and growing the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund!

Thank you,

Mark Felice TRI-ing For A Cause Team

Challenge Yourself to Go the Distance

The past 6 years we have competed in triathlons, we have raised over $34,000! Our goal for this triathlon season is to raise $8,000! This year we will be competing in the Cap Tex Triathlon on May 26, 2014. We hope you will join us as a competitor, fundraiser, and/or supporter.

This year is going to be different from previous years as we raise money for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund by TRI-ing For A Cause! The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund is growing in people, support and donations. This year we will be raising money year round with a variety of community events. We are selling TRI-ing For A Cause and Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund t-shirts this year online. Be sure to like the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund Facebook page so you don't miss a thing!

As we challenge ourselves to go the distance I challenge you to read Mark's story, donate to the cause, participate in fundraising, buy a t-shirt and cheer us on at the race!

Thank You for Helping Us Make A Difference!

To all of our supporters of the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund and TRI-ing For A Cause:

We want to thank you for all you did to make this year a success! We exceeded our goal of $8,000! 

For those that got flocked and donated money to get those pesky little flamingos out of your yards, to those that followed on Facebook and responded to the call to donate, and to those that participated in the triathlon along with those that were spectators in their TRI-ing For A Cause t-shirts (still for sale), we love all that you did for our great cause!  It was truly a great time for all, but most of all for the children that will benefit from our efforts.

We look forward to many years to come and growing the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund.

Thank you,

Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund

2013 Post Race Celebration: May 27th!

 We are less than 1 week from race day and couldn't be more excited! As of TODAY we have raised $6,700!

Come cheer on the triathletes on Monday, May 27th at the Cap Tex Triathlon at Auditorium Shores. We would love all the support we can get. If you have a TRI-ing For A Cause t-shirt (from any year) please feel free to wear it so the racers can find you in the crowd. Before the race begins we will gather by the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue so be on the look out for us!

Triathletes to look for:

Triathlete	Distance	Start Time
Ann Francese	Olympic	8:02
Robin Dickson	Olympic	8:02
Jeana Lowry	Sprint	9:22
Megan Brindley	Sprint	9:22
Renee Bain	Sprint	9:22
Chris Lowry	Sprint	9:58
Christopher Cannata	Olympic	8:30
Robert Bain	Sprint	9:58

POST RACE CELEBRATION
After the triathlon we will be celebrating our triathletes victories, another great year of fundraising for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund, and to thank you for all of your support while training and fundraising!

 For more details about the after party and to RSVP please click here!

For more details on watching the Cap Tex Tri please click here!
(Includes race times, race day parking, race course, and more!)

We hope to see you at the race and/or after party! Thank you for all of your support and helping us to reach towards our goal!

TRI-ing For A Cause in 2013

This year is our 6th year to raise money for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund by TRI-ing For A Cause. Over the past 5 years we have raised over $26,000 and it continues to grow!

Our goal this year is to raise $8,000!

The Mark Felice Triathlon Team will be competing in the Cap Tex Triathlon on May 27, 2013! This year our tri team is growing, our goal has increased to $8,000, and a few of us are raising the bar by competing in the Olympic distance triathlon (double the Sprint distance)!

As we challenge ourselves to go the distance I challenge you to read Mark's story, donate to the cause, participate in fundraising, buy a t-shirt and cheer us on at the race!

Happy 27th Birthday Mark!

As you probably know by now, this blog is dedicated to raising money for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund. We often talk about the cause, fighting for cancer, and why we TRI but today is different.

Today would have been Mark's 27th Birthday! Birthdays are a special occasion because they commemorate the day someone dear to us was born. That doesn’t have to stop just because they passed on. I was Googling ways to remember Mark on his birthday and here are a few they recommend:

• Write a birthday card
• Visit his grave (Click here for Austin Memorial Park Cemetery information, map to grave site location)
• Donate
• Say a prayer! (Prayer from Mark's celebration of life)
• and Celebrate! 

So I plan to celebrate! If you want to join me, please do!

For more information about Mark Felice, click here!

"You've Been Flocked!"

This year we have a unique and fun fundraiser that we need your support for! We will be placing flocks of hot pink plastic flamingos in the yards of Austin homes asking for support. The yards that get "flocked" are elected by anyone who donates and fills out the form below or selected by our team (could be you!). The person that has been "flocked" can either donate, select another person to be "flocked", or choose not to donate. The idea is to spread the word, expand our reach to the community, and raise as much money as we can!

If you would like to elect a yard to be "flocked" we would appreciate a small donation and to fill out the document below and email it to AnnMarieFrancese@gmail.com.

"You've Been Flocked" Order Form: Flamingo Flocking Word Order

New and Improved!

Big things are happening for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund! Check out the new and improved website by clicking here or on the image below! The site gives you a personal insight to the foundation, fundraising projects, the cause, how to donate, and contact information.

New this year is the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund Facebook page! To get the latest information and updates click on the link or image below and "like" the page!

TRI-ing For A Cause 2012 = $8,000!!

I want to personally thank you for your support helping children and families affected by childhood cancer. This year we not only reached our goal of $5,000, but we surpassed it and raised $8,000! This year the Felice's matched every dollar we raised, donating a total of $16,000! Thanks to your generous donations to the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund, you made this possible.

Mark Felice was a close friend to many. He saw the difficulties in patients unable to pay for medications and he wanted to help them as he battled cancer himself. The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund has been used to help families deal with costs not covered by insurance. This includes medication costs, providing beds for families sleeping on the floor, helping a single mother get her GED and obtain a better paying job, and many other items as they go through the painful day-to-day struggles. 

My sister couldn't have said it better and I couldn't agree more:

I want to say the biggest thank you from the bottom of my heart. Whether you wrote a check, wore a t-shirt, cheered us on at the race, called to say "good-luck" or even just took the time to read Mark's story...you helped us and it truly made an impact. And will make an impact to the many many families in need of a little help.  (A Thompson Family Update: $8,000)

We have had many of you join us, if not to swim, bike and run then to fundraise and spread the word. We appreciate everything you do to help and are looking forward to next year.

2012 Post Race Celebration: May 28th!

 We are less than 1 week from race day and couldn't be more excited! As of TODAY we have raised over $5,500!

Come cheer on the triathletes on Monday, May 28th at the Cap Tex Triathlon at Auditorium Shores. We would love all the support we can get. If you have a TRI-ing For A Cause t-shirt (from any year) please feel free to wear it so the racers can find you in the crowd. Before the race begins we will gather by the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue so be on the look out for us!

Triathletes to look for:

Triathlete	Distance	Start Time
Ann Francese	Olympic	8:02
Ann Marie Francese	Sprint	9:22
Christina Thompson	Sprint	9:26
Hudson East	Sprint	9:38
Jaki Lockwood	Sprint	9:22
Laurie East	First Tri	10:26
Matt Lockwood	Sprint	9:58
Meghan Brindley	Sprint	9:22
Renee Bain	Sprint	9:22
Robert Bain	Sprint	9:58
Suzanne East	First Tri	10:26
Tara Riley	First Tri	10:26

POST RACE CELEBRATION
After the triathlon we will be celebrating the finish of the race, reaching our fundraising goal and would like to thank you for all of your support while training and fundraising for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund!

For more details about the after party and to RSVP please click here!

For more details on watching the Cap Tex Tri please click here!
(Includes race times, race day parking, race course, and more!)

We hope to see you at the race and/or after party! Thank you for all of your support and helping us to reach our goal!

2012 Triathlon Season is HERE!

Welcome to the start of the 2012 Triathlon season and most importantly our 5th year of fundraising for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund!

The past 4 years have been amazing and we have raised over $18,000!
This year our goal is to raise $5,000! This year the Felice family will be matching every dollar we raise!!

Our TRI-ing For A Cause team will compete in the Cap Tex Tri on May 28th (Memorial Day) as our main TRI. If you can't do that one we will also be participating in the Austin Triathlon (Labor Day) and/or the Kerrville Triathlon (late September)!

Each year we have asked for donations and support as we competed in triathlons; for this we are truly grateful. This year we hope to have the same support as well as more participants and volunteers. I understand many of you can't fathom doing a triathlon (or another one), but you don't have to do a triathlon to help with the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund.

We plan to move from a seasonal fundraising time frame to a yearly effort. With this there are many job roles and ways to help raise funds. We could use your help to come up with some other fundraising ideas (dinners, golf event, karaoke fundraiser, party for a cause, raffles, auction, insert your amazing idea here)! It doesn't have to be just for the triathlon. If you do want to participate in a triathlon, then that is great!


SAVE THE DATES: 
Fundraising Happy Hour: March 21st! TBD
Cap Tex Tri and After Party: May 28th! We will have the triathlon after party at the Felice's home for swimming, burgers and just some good fun!

Thank You!

Thanks to you, we reached our goal and raised $5,565 for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund!

We want to personally thank you for your continued support for this very worthy cause in helping children and families faced with childhood cancer. The funds have been used to help families deal with costs not covered by insurance. This includes costs of medications, providing beds for families sleeping on the floor, helping a single mother get her GED and obtain a better paying job, and many other items as they go through the painful day-to-day costs of childhood cancer. (For more stories about how your donation makes a difference click here!)

Mark Felice was a child who saw the difficulties in patients unable to pay for medications and he wanted to help them as he battled cancer himself. He was a very brave and mature teenager when he died at 17 years of age.

This year, we competed in the Captial of Texas Triathlon to help raise money for this very worthy cause. Thank you for supporting us as I know many of you know the Felice Family and knew Mark personally.

We have had many of you join us, if not to swim, bike and run then to fundraise and help spread the word. We do appreciate all that you do to help!

We look forward to many years to come and growing the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund. Your support will go a long way to helping other children and their families.

Thanks so much,

	The Mark Felice Triathlon Team

Donations Make A Difference!

Every donation, small or big, makes an impact! Below are some examples from St. David's of how the families have been directly impacted by your gifts from The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund.

1.  We had one family of five we discovered was sleeping on the floor.  With the help of a generous community member and the funds from The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund, we were able to purchase beds at cost and get the family off the floor.  The social worker told me that when the patient was in the clinic, she was so excited because she had her own bed!

2.  A single mother with two kids was unable to make ends meet financially.  Because she did not have her high school diploma, she was unable to get a good paying job.  With support from The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund, she was able to get her GED and obtained a better job allowing her to support her family.

3.  We have had several families who were unable to obtain medications due to the cost. Several families were caught between paying a copay for medication and purchasing food.  With the grant we were able to help the family with the copayments for medication and were able to help them purchase food.

4. One family needed a thermometer and a heating pad but did not have money to purchase them.  The grant from The Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund allowed the treatment team to purchase the much needed supplies and was able to send them home with the family. 

5. The social worker came to me and told me that one patient was having terrible leg pain.  It was discovered the child was wearing shoes that were too small for him and his mother was unable to purchase new ones.  With the grant, we were able to purchase new shoes for the family. The leg pain is gone and the child is so happy with his new shoes!

Thank you for those that donated and helped us to reach our goal!

$5,000 and Still Going!

Monday was the big race!! I can't believe it has already come and gone in such a quick time, but more importantly I can't believe we raised over $5,000! I am still receiving donations so I will be sure to update y'all on the total amount soon!

Congratulations to everyone who raced and thank you to all of the supporters who came out to cheer us on! The day couldn't have been more amazing! My mom was the first of the group to start and then we quickly followed. The swim and the bike was a bit rough with the wind but we all pushed through. Then came the run which went by pretty fast and wasn't too hot like years past. One of the best things about the race was the supporters. It felt great when you caught a glimpse of the blue TRI-ing For A Cause t-shirts or heard your name being yelled by someone on the side. The Felice family had been out of the country for the past years so getting to see them along the course lifted all of our spirits. The race came to an end as we all one by one crossed the finish line. To read more details about the race you can click here to visit my sisters blog.

After the race we went to the Felice's to celebrate reaching our fundraising goal and the race! It was an amazing day and I can't wait for next year!

TRI-ing For A Cause AFTER PARTY!

Only 1 week until the Cap Tex Triathlon! As of TODAY we have raised $4,200!! With only $800 more to go to reach our goal of $5,000 its amazing to see how far we have come and the fabulous support we have received!

Come Monday, May 30th, we would love all the support we can get if you would like to come out and cheer us on at the race. The race for the Sprint distance will begin around 9am. If you have a TRI-ing For A Cause t-shirt (from any year) please feel free to wear it. Before the race we usually gather by the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue so be on the look out for us!

Triathletes to look for:

Triathlete	Start Time
Lauren Felice	9:06 AM
Ann Francese	9:06 AM
Ann Marie Francese	9:10 AM
Renee Francese	9:10 AM
Christina Thompson	9:14 AM
Tom Francese	9:26 AM
Matt Lockwood Jamie Lim	9:46 AM  9:46 AM
Collin Baker	9:46 AM

AFTER PARTY
After the triathlon we will be celebrating and would like to thank you for all of your support while training and fundraising for the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund.

For more details on the after party please click here!

For more details on watching the Cap Tex Tri please click here!

We hope to see you at the race or at the after party! Thank you for all of your support! We couldn't have done this without you!

Skeese Greets Wrap Up

To begin I would like to say as of today we have raised: $3,000!

This past Sunday we competed in the Skeese Greets Triathlon! It was a beautiful day thanks to the cloud coverage and we all had a great race! This race is always a fun one but the anxiety and nerves really get pumping since it's the first race of the season for us. The past 3 years we have had mixed feelings about it (smelly well water, rough terrain, unpredictable heat) but this year was the first year we just took it for what it is...a fun short race to get you excited about the next one! My mom and dad had biked 100 miles the day before in the Ride to Shiner so no need to push it considering it was Mother's Day and my mom's birthday!

The past 4 years my sister and I have been in the same age group for this race so we always get to start together. The first year was a bit emotional as we walked into the water on the verge of a panic attack saying, "This is for Mark," causing us to begin the swim with tears in our eyes looking back at our mom on the shoreline. Every year we start the race acknowledging Mark and the fact that I won't see my sister until the very last mile on the run (because she is a rock star swimmer and cyclist). Each year we have competed together in the Skeese Greets Triathlon we have started and finished together which is an amazing feeling getting to cross the finish line together. This year is the last year we got to do this as she will be moving up to the next age group. Now I mentioned how my mom had biked 100 miles the day before...well even though she was exhausted she was still able to get 3rd place in her age group! She truly is Super Mom!

We all had a great time and can't wait for the Cap Tex Tri on May 30th! We are well on our way to reaching our fundraising goal and appreciate the support and donations along the way!

Splash and Dash

Pure Austin and Jack and Adam's puts on Splash and Dash during the months of April through September. It is like a mini triathlon minus the cycling. You get to experience swimming 750m with a large group of people and then the quick transition to the 3km run.

Dates: May 17th, June 21st, July 16th, and September 20th
Cost: $10 (Pure Austin membership not required)
Registration: Only available online. There is no registration at the race site. This generally sells out. Refunds are not available. Sign up online at www.myraceregistration.com

Top 10 Ways To Get Yourself Ready For A Monday

Top Ten Ways to Get Yourself Ready for a Monday

By Mark Felice

1. Look in the mirror and yell "Someone has a case of the Mondays!"

2. Jump in a bathtub full of ice; cure your hypothermia, then go to school

3. Eat ten bowls of sugar

4. Create a time machine and move backward or forward through time. It's definitely easier than handling another Monday

5. Sleep in until Tuesday

6. Move to Paraguay, they don't have Mondays

7. Catch a Leprechaun; they always know how to handle those Mondays

8. Hey Monday you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind...

9. Make up your own religion where Monday is the Sabbath

10. Create a peition to change the name to "Funday"

Now that you are motivated get training and/or fundraising!

Mini Triathlons

Each year to get ready for the Cap Tex Tri we do a mini triathlon to prepare us. There are several in the Austin area that are great! 

Mini triathlons helps you to calm some nerves, practice swimming with a group of people around you, understand how to transition, and prepares your body for all 3 events put together. You don't have to be fully trained and ready, but it will give you an idea of what you need to focus on in your training.

We do the Skeese Greets Tri at the Texas Ski Ranch in New Braunfels, TX (sorry guys...its ladies only). This year it is on May 8th and consists of a 300 m swim, 11 mile bike, and 2 mile run! Below is a video from the race a few years ago (you might see some ladies you recognize...the blue hat person is me...ha!). 

Other Mini Triathlons:

The Rookie

Skeese Greets Women's Tri

Rockin' R Toobin Tri

Other triathlons after Cap Tex Tri:

Couples Tri

Jack's Generic Tri

Sweet & Twisted Tri

AVIA Austin Tri