After months of planning for PurpleStride: now what? First, a little rest after all of your planning and a job well done. But what about activities that keep the buzz going? PanCAN Action Week is coming up in a few weeks.  Ask your family, friends, teammates, and coworkers to call or email our Congress members to let them know how important funding is to raise awareness to beat this dreaded disease.  We will not be in person this year on Capitol Hill, but we can still make our voices heard.  And the process is easy; PanCAN gives us scripts for calls and emails to take the guesswork out. 
 
How about a post-PurpleStride get-together with volunteers and team captains? Thank them for all of their hard work and let them socialize with one another.  Maybe this sparks a little competition for next year! Maybe it sparks friendships and they can exchange ideas on the best fundraising strategies. Or maybe it will bring on new volunteers to your Affiliate with new ideas and more event day help.  These could be held at a brewery, fun park, bowling alley or a restaurant.
 
Get out in the community! Find where health fairs are and ask to set up a table for a few hours.  Ask Minor League or Major League Baseball teams if there can be a PanCAN Night. One of the fun community events that we enjoy as the Raleigh-Durham Affiliate is attending Hockey Fights Cancer.  We are one of six organizations that have a table out on the concourse. Hearing the stories of people’s loved ones and their fights lets us know we are doing this for the right reasons – and how much more there is still to do. PurpleLight is another event to remember our loved ones. It’s a more somber occasion because we wish our loved ones were still here, but you never know who it could be helping.  My first PurpleLight was only a couple of months after I lost my mom and that’s where I started my volunteer journey.  I talked myself out of attending a couple of times before some friends convinced me to go and I’m so glad that I did.  I know how much it helped me and I hope to do the same for others.
 
Wear your PurpleStride t-shirt! It’s a conversation piece. I’m like a walking billboard on the weekends when I’m at the gym or out and about. People see the shirts and say, “I was at the walk too.” Or they had someone they love who is battling the disease.  And some may ask why I wear purple all the time or what is PurpleStride or PanCAN?  And I tell them my elevator stories. One being “I can’t give my mom a big bear hug any more so I volunteer in hopes that other people can hug their loved one just a little while longer.”  Another one is “PanCAN PurpleStride is our nationwide walk to raise awareness and money for pancreatic cancer because the 12% survival rate is not good enough.”