Janesville Representin'

 

WOW

WOW! This is amazing...I am so impressed by MMS!
Read the message below from Ms Sullivan one of the teachers orchestrating this movement!
_______________________________________
Not to bother you with updates.... but I'm impressed with the amount of
pancakes we've sold so far! :) The students also came up with an idea to
have a movie after school some day. It would cost $3 to get in and it
would cover the movie and popcorn. The money we make will be going
towards Haiti as well! :)

Pictures

 

Monday, February 1st

Here are your updates:

• Over $400 raised for Haiti at Milton Wrestling Fundraiser
• T-shirts continue to sell
• FB group goes over 900!
• Coverage expected in this Wednesday's Milton Courier and Edgerton Reporter
• Over 100 lbs of breakfast sausage purchased for pancake dinner

An open letter to the wrestling community

Just over 5 years ago a few college wrestlers and some friends got frustrated that every organization they talked to about going to help with recovery from the tsunami told them no.

Than a day came when they all looked at each other and immediately knew what each other was thinking...

If no one is going to help us, than we are going to do it by ourselves.

You see tho, that they didn't end up doing it themselves; instead hundreds of friends and friends of friends joined in to create an organization they named Wrestling the World.

Wrestling taught that original group of people that through hard work, dedication, and teamwork goals can be reached.  In a unique way wrestling is about the individual but also very much about the team...and that is the same about the organization called Wrestling the World.

5 years later...
2 trips to Sri Lanka later...
3 aid packages to Hurricane survivors later...
3+ trips to Kenya later...
thousands of people later...
over $150,000 later...

Wrestling the World has once committed itself to help another group of people, the people of Haiti.

We set a goal to have 100 pancake dinners on Tuesday, February 23rd 2010
About 4 weeks away we have reached hundreds of people and feel very happy about having 10 confirmed dinners, but stating a goal and not doing everything you can do to reach it is...anti-wrestling.

Here is our call to you:
It is the week of the state tournament- WE KNOW
YES- It is the most important week of the year for our sport in Wisconsin

We need your help, unite with us and reach this goal...
Can you plan a pancake dinner (of any size) in your town and let us know so that we can record it on our way to 100?  Whether it be just your family, your wrestling team, or your entire town...that doesn't matter, what does is that we are uniting on this day to help the people in Haiti. Sell tickets, pass an envelope, or whatever you want to do to collect money to help-just have a pancake dinner and let us know about it!

Don't forget to watch our celebrity endorser Ben Askren here
For questions please email me

I hope to hear from you and
I hope to see you in Madison

Phill

Our first celebrity endorsement!!!

Our first celebrity endorsement! Ben "Funky" Askren Click on his name to see the video

Friday, January 29th

Here are today's updates:

• T-shirts look GREAT!  The first order will be delivered today or Monday
• If you would like to order your T-shirt you can pre-order by emailing me or purchase your T-shirt direct here 
• Pancake the Quake dinners are up to 10
• Edgerton
• Milton
• East Koshkonong
• Green Bay
• Walworth
• LaCrosse
• Sauk City/Middleton
• Montello
• Morrison, IL
• Janesville

Milton Middle School Update!

Thursday, January 28th

Here is the latest:

• The first pre-order of T-shirts will be here today
• If you are interested in orchestrating a pre-sale in your community contact me
• If you are interested in order a T-shirt-purchase one here
• Milton is ROCKING!
• Milton Middle School has a Pancake the Quake Wall (see previous post)
• Milton HS Girls Basketball team took donations & ran a 50/50 auction that netted over $200!
• Milton is pre-selling their T-shirts right now, if you are in Milton you have until Friday to purchase a pre-sale
• International Pancake Dinners are up to 9!
• Edgerton, Milton, Montello, Janesville, East Koshkonong, Green Bay, LaCrosse, Sauk Prairie, and Walworth
• These communities are still considering dinners: Morrison, IL, Burlington, WI, and Whitewater, WI
• If you are having a dinner please post on this blog, call me with the link on the right, or email me here
• The Piggly Wiggly in Edgerton is donating the supplies needed to host the Edgerton PTQ
• Jones Dairy Farm is selling us breakfast sausage
• Lexy.com continues to impress us with the ability to reach both established followers and new people.  The leadership team at Lexy is top notch
• To subscribe to our Lexy casts, text: add haiti to: 69848

Im sure I have forgotten many things...thank you for your support of the Pancake the Quake movement

Great ideas!

• Milton Middle School Teachers create a "Pancake the Quake" wall to help students be aware of how they are able to help.  For every dollar donated another pancake goes on the wall!  WTG MMS!!!

Friday, January 22nd

Here are tonights updates:

• Had a good 15 minute conversation with Anish from Lexy.com Lexy is an official partner of "Pancake the Quake"! 
• Get up to the minute audios from "Pancake the Quake" sent right to your phone!  Text: Add Haiti to 68948
• In addition we will be receiving our own phone number so people can call at anytime and find out the latest on "Pancake the Quake"
• ALSO, we will soon be working with Lexy to host sales and possibly even donations via opt in text...if you are looking to promote your business or group, you definitely want to look at and put time and effort into Lexy
• T-shirt sales are going well...we will be calling in the first pre-sale on Monday at 11am, if you have a shirt ordered than you will have a shirt on your back next week thanks to Midwest Sports Apparel
• 
  Buy your T-shirt here
  
• In Edgerton news, the Kotwitz family and Piggly Wiggly has joined Pancake the Quake in a pledge to help with food stuffs needed for the Edgerton PTQ
  
• Special thanks goes out to Hana Marino for the great work selling T-shirts and talking with Mr Kotwitz
  
  

Janesville Gazette article online - with comments

Here is the online version of the Janesville Gazette article with comments. (Click title)

Wednesday, January 20th

Here are today's updates:

• Janesville Gazette article was written well and can be seen on this blog
• Edgerton Reporter has an article about local people helping Haiti and we were the first group mentioned (and made the front page!)
• Two more groups have joined up to host pancake dinners welcome to the group UW-Lacrosse and Sauk Prairie, WI
• A few more groups have contacted us and are working to finalize things: (Montello, Burlington, and Whitewater)
• We are also getting pledges of support from area businesses
• Matt and I met with Matt Harvey today at the BK in Milton...Matt was in Haiti and left the day of the quake.  Matt has a huge heart and really wants to go back to Haiti and help some more...he has pictures and stories-we couldve talked all night
• Lexy followers are increasing and a comment was posted today
• T-shirt pre-sales are zooming through the roof!  Make sure to get your T-shirt pre-ordered, there are 2 designs and 2 different colors to choose from
• We also have a celebrity that is about to endorse us...watch out 'cuz things are abot to get Funky!

Janesville Gazette Article

Another T-Shirt Design!

Tuesday, January 19th

Lots of news today:

• Matt and I met with Stacy Vogel from the Janesville Gazette
• We have 2 T-shirt designs that will be available, I will be getting the second scanned one in the morning
• T-shirt pre-sale starts tomorrow, Internet sales will start on Thursday
• Camille from Lexy.com called and told me that our Lexy cast is now featured on the homepage, I will be updating this at least daily
• Our Facebook group has grown to almost 500, if you are not on the group yet, join tonight!
• If you are already part of our group, please take a few minutes and invite all your friends
• Edgerton location is official! A & W Restaurant - Check out the google map on the right side of this blog
• 2 new locations!  Big Foot National Honor Society in Walworth, WI and UWGB Social Work Club in Green Bay, WI are hosting pancake dinners! AWESOME! Please check the map!
• Thanks for all of the hard work!

Good night everyone!

Monday Night, January 18th

Here is the latest:

• Facebook group has gone over 300 people in 30 hours
• Tomorrow Matt and Phill will be interviewed by the Janesville Gazette's Stacy Vogel
• We have been communicating with a T-shirt company and will have a T-shirt order sheet for pre-orders on Thursday
• There will be an online store that will be released on Thursday-the company has agreed to give all the profits to Haiti
• Pre-ordered shirts will be less expensive than the ones on the internet, so pre-order quickly
• Milton and Edgerton's locations are about to be finalized, hopefully by tomorrow
• Other possible locations are in the works including but not limited to: Janesville, Montello, and Burlington

Good night everyone and lets continue to make this thing roll

Monday January, 18th

Good Morning...

Here are the updates as of this morning.

• The Haiti Project trip has been postponed until February 3rd.  More details to come
• There are a growing number of people contacting Wrestling the World that want to travel and at this time the WTW travelers are leaning towards the first week of April for their trip
• We are hoping to hear from more people today in regards to T-shirt designs, Pancake dinners (February 23rd), and YouTube videos

Dont forget to check Ross' video on the right!

Meeting and a Facebook Group

Here is the latest update:

• Met with Jan Byrd the director of The Haiti Project.  Jan has a lot of contacts both on the ground in Haiti and supporting her in the US.  Jan is very excited to have help and we are considering traveling as early as this week.  There are still some details to be arranged.  We will be working out of the city of Leogane-working at a Nursing School and hospital.
• Today we started an official Pancake the Quake Facebook Group - come join us and invite your friends
• Today we revised the Pancake the Quake effort to include: Pancake dinners of ALL sizes on February 23rd, 2010 as a fundraiser for Haiti.  We want people to let us know of their events no matter how big or how small so we can keep track of the events of Feb 23. 
• Plan a big one and get your school or church involved.
• Plan a medium sized one and invite over some friends and family to have a pancake dinner at your house...than have everyone put their donation to Haiti into the envelope.
• Plan a small one with just your family or a few friends.  Make a donation and send it in.
• Remember donations can be sent to Wrestling the World, 502 Blaine St, Edgerton, WI 53534 or any other reputable aid organization working to help Haiti.

First T-shirt designs in

Start!

I just wanted to let you all know that Wrestling the World decided last night to mobilize for the people of Haiti. In the past we have had lots of support for: Taking down the tsunami, Headlock the hurricane, and Cradling Kenya. As you know we are still working in Kenya, but feel strongly that we can help Haiti.


Pancake the 'Quake: Will be a multifaceted approach to raise support for the people of Haiti. We are working with a few local organizations to find the best place to help that works with our mission-but wanted to start getting the awareness out now.

At this point we have three things that we will be doing:

February 23rd, is International Pancake Day. We will be having local pancake dinners in communities around the country to raise funds for Pancake the 'Quake.

T-shirts, we have a few people working on a design for a T-shirt, if you or someone you know likes to design shirts we are open to designs but need this no later than Monday morning.

YouTube, We are going to raise awareness on YouTube with Pancake Videos. Some of you know that there is a Pancake Block in football, there is a Pancake move in Wrestling, and we all know about the Pancakes in the kitchen...so, we will be announcing a YouTube contest to: "Show us your pancake" there will be pancake themed prizes...

If you or anyone else wants to help with these or another project we would love to work together on this. If you have an idea to get your students involved that would be great too. If you are interested in helping please let me know via a reply to this email. The biggest thing that we can do TODAY, is spread the word...talk about it, forward this email, post it on your Facebook...We have an ambitious goal to have 100 communities having pancake dinners on February 23rd...that means we really have to spread this quickly.

Thanks for your time and support...

Phill