2008 Skate to Freeze Cancer

The 2008 Skate to Freeze Cancer was a hit! The event received a ton of press, and even more importantly, Hillary, Sarah and I raised $4,093.00 for the Claudia Adams Barr Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute! I spent the morning of the event at the office, and the "Farber Girls" met me there at 3pm. They were armed with an "event kit," registration forms, signage, and enough homemade cupcakes to feed a small army (or a marathon runner in training). It turns out that the girls stayed up half the night baking cupcakes for the big day!

We brought everything down to the car and balanced twelve or so dishes of cupcakes on our laps while Hillary drove to the arena. We arrived around 4pm and immediately began setting up. I wrote numbers on all of the wrist bands until Lynnette showed up to discuss the format of the event. The Disney skaters arrived around 5:30pm to kickoff the event just past 6pm. Owen and Katy Barrett handled registration as participants came through the door. I was told to lace up my skates because the Disney skaters wanted to present me with a "Star Dazzle Award" for coordinating the event.

Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour took to the ice. I hobbled out there in my rental skates to thank them. Jade Esposito performed a routine to the music from the show, and the skaters welcomed everyone out onto the ice. I was thrilled with our turnout! While we were unable to "pack the place," I was quite pleased to see representatives from North Star Figure Skating Club, the Skating Club of Boston, the Wallace Figure Skating Club, Disney on Ice, and Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge!

I took questions from the press and distributed items from our drawing. Among some of the items that we gave away were Disney on Ice Goody Bags, a Ted Williams photograph, a Coco Krisp autographed baseball and a gift certificate to Cheers.

Hillary and Sarah laced up their skates at one point in the evening to take some photos for the newspapers. After the event, we gave two tickets to Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour (including a backstage Meet and Greet with the cast at the TD Banknorth Garden) to the top ten fundraisers. Our top fundraiser raised $2,100.00!! We also received a surprise performance by Manni and Daisy Hutter. Despite a couple of minor issues with the sound system, everyone seemed to have a wonderful time at the skate-a-thon! A very special thank you goes out to FMC Arenas for donating the cost of the ice and skate rentals, and to my friends at Disney on Ice. Hillary and Sarah deserve a special thank you for choosing to participate in one of my "crazy ideas," and I would also like to thank our volunteers because the event couldn't have happened without them! Feel free to check out a couple of articles about the event below:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/homepage/x1973325948
http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2008/02/18/a_cool_cause/