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!