Texas Trekkers
Our family has fundraised for the Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation for the past 6 years, in honor of Ashton and all of his Pitt Hopkins brothers and sisters. We began our Texas Trekkers Walk 6 years ago. What started as a small event has grown even bigger now and we have now held 2 – 5K races along with our walk!
This has been a wonderful event each year and we have loved seeing our Texas Pitt Hopkins families come together for our big cause. We have been able to reach out to our communities and gain so much support. We utilize the connections that we each have and get many items for the event donated. This truly has helped us bring in so many more donations. There are many individuals as well as companies that are willing to help sponsor events such as ours. Do not be afraid to ask…reach out to friends and family members. We have learned after 6 years that there are so many people willing to help, they just need to be asked! We have a letter and event packet that we have readily available to email or personally deliver to individuals as well as potential sponsors for the event. It has been found over the years that we have held our event, the more you can personalize the letter the better response you have.
We set up the day to have the walk/5K at the beginning of the day. Donuts and bagels as well as coffee, water and Gatorade are all donated and available for breakfast. We sell raffle tickets for baskets and items that are donated. Raffle baskets bring in a big amount for us each year. Our baskets are all from friends, families, and the community. We reach out for donations every year that can be utilized to create theme baskets. We never turn down a donation because we know that it can be used somehow! Over the years we have learned where to look for donations, who to ask, as well as how to put baskets together to draw interest and gain more money from raffle ticket sales.
We also sell tickets for our cake/cookie walk which has become a huge crowd favorite, again, everything is donated from friends, families, and the community. We have a face painter and photo booth available for all the event guests, as well as a bounce house for even more fun!
At the end of each event we look back at the work we put in and always smile. There are days that you get told no when working on donations or sponsorship requests. When the event finally arrives and you see all the friends, families and the community come together for one huge purpose it pays off. The smiles you see all day and the total that comes in makes it all worthwhile. We will never give up…we continue to fight for the big cause…and this is one way that we have been able to do that!
If we can help you organize your own event, please contact phrf-fundraising@pitthopkins.org for more information.
