PanCAN PurpleStride is in our rearview for a short period, and (at least in Portland, OR) we have a few months of amazing weather to take advantage of. How are you and your affiliates building off the momentum of PurpleStride to strengthen your sense of community?

I used to consider summer and early fall as sort of a lull for PanCAN efforts, but I’ve come to realize it is a critical time to build on connections made during the PurpleStride season. The first few weeks post-PurpleStride can be filled with coffee meetups and getting to know some prospective new volunteers or building on some relationships we’ve already established with folks in our community. Finding tangible ways to connect more affiliate members with our community efforts can only strengthen the connections made during those coffee meetups; I highly recommend finding some events to attend as a group throughout your summers in lieu of the standard, all-business affiliate meetings. Lose the agendas and just spend some time socializing and getting to know your purple family.

So, how can you come up with some ideas for engagement opportunities? Think about existing partnerships and what types of organizations in your community already support our mission efforts:

• What community connections/PurpleStride partnerships can we leverage to show continued mutual support?
• Are there any in-kind donor businesses which could serve as a meet-up spot?
• Are there any sponsors open to hosting or co-hosting a talk?
• Are there any local sports teams who host cancer awareness or healthcare nights?
• What kind of activities can make it easy/less pressure for Striders, prospective volunteers, etc. to join?

Some of the post-walk activities the Portland affiliate have hosted/scheduled are as follows:

• Post-walk celebration.
• Cancer Awareness weekend for local baseball team.
  • We hosted a table and attended games throughout the weekend.
• Educational talk via Zoom in partnership with one of our sponsors in the healthcare space. A provider gave a presentation on MRI Guided Radiation treatments related to pancreatic cancer.
• We will host our third annual Survivor/Thriver/Affiliate picnic. Affiliate leaders will host a drop-in event in a park. People can come and go as they please and spend some time hearing about our volunteer efforts and get to know each other.

These are just a few of the ideas that have worked for us. Some activities gain more traction than others. I’d love to hear some ideas from you! Please feel free to share them with me (hdillen@pancanvolunteer.org) so maybe we can start a running list of ideas to share across affiliates!