Walkathon Maven

thanks to nptechforgood for creating the calendar

Here it is! The calendar that shows ALL of the cause awareness days for 2016.

The folks at Non Profit Tech for Good created this resource for the curious minds that want to be aware of all the great causes around us.

Since the month of January is almost over, I’ll offer the designated days starting in February. To be honest, I’ve never heard of most of these.  I’m not even sure how an organization goes about squatting on their ‘official’ day.  My birthday falls on the International Day for Street Children.  Or should I say that they have chosen my birthday for the Street Children of the World?

I visited their website and found: The International Day for Street Children is a platform for the millions of street children around the world – and their champions – to speak out so that their rights cannot be ignored. They are based in London and have a walk!

The event is called Just Walk.  It is on June 19 and they welcome everyone to walk and raise money for the cause of their choice. They provide several options for route length so you can walk as long and as far as you like.

Here is the list for the rest of the year..Enjoy!

February

2: World Wetlands Day — #WorldWetlandsDay
4: World Cancer Day — #WorldCancerDay
13: World Radio Day — #WorldRadioDay
13: World Whale Day — #WorldWhaleDay
14: V-Day — #1BillionRising
17: Digital Learning Day — #DLDay
20: World Day of Social Justice — #SocialJusticeDay
23: World Spay Day — #WorldSpayDay
27: International Polar Bear Day — #PolarBearDay
29: Rare Disease Day — #RareDiseaseDay

March

3: World Wildlife Day — #WorldWildlifeDay
8: International Women’s Day — #WomensDay
10: World Kidney Day — #WorldKidneyDay
19: Earth Hour — #EarthHour
21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination — #EndRacism
21: International Day of Forests — #ForestsDay
21: World Down Syndrome Day — #DownSyndromeDay
21: World Poetry Day — #WorldPoetryDay
22: World Water Day — #WorldWaterDay
24: World Tuberculosis Day — #WorldTBDay

April

2: World Autism Awareness Day — #WorldAustismDay
7: World Health Day — #WorldHealthDay
12: International Day for Street Children — #StreetChildrenDay
16: World Dolphin Day — #DolphinDay
22: Earth Day — #EarthDay
23: World Book Day — #WorldBookDay
25: World Malaria Day — #WorldMalariaDay
25: World Penguin Day — #WorldPenguinDay
30: International Jazz Day — #JazzDay

May

1: International Workers’ Day — #LaborDay
3: World Press Freedom Day — #WorldPressFreedomDay
3: Give Local America Day — #GiveLocal16
7: World Migratory Bird Day — #WorldMigratoryBirdDay
10: World Lupus Day — #WorldLupusDay
14: World Fair Trade Day — #FairTradeDay
17: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia — #IDAHOT
18: International Museum Day — #MuseumDay
22: International Day for Biological Diversity — #BiologicalDiversityDay
23: World Turtle Day — #WorldTurtleDay
31: World No Tobacco Day — #WorldNoTobaccoDay

June

5: World Environment Day — #WorldEnvironmentDay
8: World Oceans Day — #WorldOceansDay
12: World Day Against Child Labor — #WDACL
14: World Blood Donor Day — #WorldBloodDonorDay
20: World Refugee Day — #WorldRefugeeDay
21: International Day of Yoga — #YogaDay

July

11: WorldPopulationDay — #WorldPopulationDay
18: Nelson Mandela International Day — #MandelaDay
28: World Hepatitis Day — #WorldHepatitisDay
29: International Tiger Day — #TigerDay
30: World Day Against Trafficking in Persons — #WorldDayAgainstTrafficking

August

8: International Cat Day — #CatDay
9: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples — #IndigenousDay
12: International Youth Day — #YouthDay
12: World Elephant Day — #WorldElephantDay
19: World Humanitarian Day — #WorldHumanitarianDay
26: International Dog Day — #DogDay
29: International Day Against Nuclear Tests — #AgainstNuclearTestsDay

September

5: International Day of Charity — #CharityDay
8: International Literacy Day — #LiteracyDay
10: World Suicide Prevention Day — #WSPD
15: International Day of Democracy — #DemocracyDay
21: International Day of Peace — #PeaceDay
22: World Rhino Day — #WorldRhinoDay
25: World Rivers Day — #WorldRiversDay
27: World Tourism Day — #WorldTourismDay

October

4: World Animal Day — #WorldAnimalDay
5: World Cerebral Palsy Day — #WorldCPDay
5: World Habitat Day — #WorldHabitatDay
5: World Teachers Day — #WorldTeachersDay
10: World Mental Health Day — #WorldMentalHealthDay
11: International Day of the Girl — #DayOfTheGirl
12: World Arthritis Day — #WorldArthritisDay
15: International Day of Rural Women — #RuralWomenDay
16: World Food Day — #WorldFoodDay
17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty — #EndPoveryDay
29: World Internet Day — #WorldInternetDay
31: World Cities Day — #WorldCitiesDay

November

13: World Kindness Day — #WorldKindnessDay
14: World Diabetes Day — #WorldDiabetesDay
16: International Day for Tolerance — #ToleranceDay
19: World Philosophy Day — #WorldPhilosophyDay
19: World Toilet Day — #WorldToiletDay
20: Universal Children’s Day — #ChildrensDay
21: World Television Day — #WorldTVDay
25: International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women — #EndViolenceAgainstWomen
29: Giving Tuesday — #GivingTuesday

December

1: World AIDS Day — #WorldAIDSDay
3: International Day of People with Disabilities — #IDPwD
5: International Volunteer Day — #VolunteerDay
5: World Soil Day — #WorldSoilDay
9: International Anti-Corruption Day — #AntiCorruptionDay
10: International Human Rights Day — #HumanRightsDay
11: International Mountain Day — #MountainDay
18: International Migrants Day — #MigrantsDay

How do you weight your tent so it does not fly away?  Let’s find out.

I was visiting my mom last weekend and we checked out the Cape Coral Festival of the Arts happening downtown. Over 300 exhibitors were there and they all had tents. 10x10s. Side by side for blocks. Awesome.

This Art Fest was a crack den for my mom and she made it rain purchasing all kinds of yard art. I loved accompanying her and since I am an event junkie, I took photos of different tent weights (no stakes allowed since it was on a street) during our stroll. I had no idea that these photos would come in handy later that evening, when an F2 tornado blew through the area around 7pm that night. This blog writes itself sometimes!!

I looked on the Facebook page of the art fest Sunday morning and read that there was some damage done by the tornado, and the Rotary volunteers worked all night to clean up.

We went back to the art fest Sunday morning, so Mom could pick up “just one more thing.”  Some of the tents and exhibitors were missing, and we asked about them. Turns out one of the tents that was weighted, collected a lot of water on the roof which then dipped down into the center. The wind came under and picked the whole thing up and carried it about 20 feet.  It landed onto another exhibitor tent.  A few other unweighted tents were also lifted up from the wind. No idea how much they lost. We saw a few vacant spots on the pavement. Sad.

While walking around on Sunday morning. many exhibitors had their front tent flaps down and were drying off their merchandise.  I’ll call them lucky since they had a tent and some merchandise left. Some of the exhibitors I spoke to said they did take down their artwork and packed it at night.  Others told me they left some heavy items hanging on the walls and put away the rest.

hunka hunka cement

So what to do when you have tents at your walkathon and there is potential for inclement weather?

The weather forecast on Saturday had a significant potential for rain that night. They certainly did not expect a tornado. I’m not sure that staking a tent into the ground would have worked here. I’m not sure attaching weights would keep a tent from flying away that night either.

PVC pipe filled with cement and a sandbag

cement-filled PVC pipe with caps and screw-eyes

This tornado touched down few blocks north of the art fest.  If an EF2 tornadowind is up to 135 MPH, then something close to that must have been blowing near this event. I’m can only imagine if this was a direct hit.

barbell

When I was a walkathon manager, we would always setup as much as possible the night before (tents, tables, chairs, merchandise) so that we could show up in the weeeee hours the next morning to finish preparing for the walk.

The lesson I learned here for night-before-setup is to place important things low to the ground (on a tarp) under the tent. Surround this with the flat tables and chairs. If you rented tent flaps, then put them down for the evening. This should help prevent too much damage if heavy winds or rain comes that night.  Your tent company may have some suggestions since they do not want to lose their merchandise either.

The good news is that there were no injuries from the tornado and my Mom is giddy with her new yard art purchases.