Every year for the past 17 years thousands of Albuquerque residents filed into the South Valley to stand knee high in muddy water and play volleyball. Teams come dressed in themes and there is a contest for 'Best Camp', 'Best Costumes', 'Best Fundraising', and of course 'Mudd Volleyball Champion'. All of the proceeds go to benefit the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation.
I worked for a company a few years ago that was a sponsor so we had the VIP tent and everything was taken care of. All I had to do was show up and play. It was amazingly fun.
This was our first complete Mudd Volleyball experience. My husband and I had decided to buy a team because the registration is 100% tax deductible and as small business owners we had to increase our charitable giving for the tax incentive. The reason we chose this charity is for the fact that a few months prior, by the recommendation of our 4 year old's physical therapist, the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation bought Lily a $2500 adaptable tricycle that enables her to ride alongside her cousins even though she is partially paralyzed on the left side of her body. All they asked from us was a $100 donation to the foundation, if we felt like it, to keep good faith. This year, they bought Lily an Ipad which has been amazing for developing her language and reading skills.And they do all of this with a short interview with a social worker named John Chimarusti and they do it fast (about a week)! They provide New Mexico kids with special needs with things that insurance doesn't cover but that can greatly improve quality of life.
We chose the name "Coca Cola McDonald's Day" at first because that was our daughters way of saying it was a perfect day. My husband chickened out and made me change it to "Coca Cowa Donals Day" which was what it sounded like when she said it. It did not win an award for best name.
So, it didn't go as perfectly as planned. First, the basic registration runs $550 which is a huge commitment for our tiny business. I first asked people to contribute $50 to me so that we could bank it and take some of the edge off of the sting of how much money we had just spent. But, a few days later, I got guilty. We were going to be able to write off of the full amount so I decided to ask our team members to donate to our fundraising efforts.
Second, about a month before the event and a few days after we had purchased the team, my husband realized that he had already registered and payed for a seminar that he had to take for as a requirement to maintain his license as a Doctor of Oriental Medicine (DOM) so he would not be able to participate.
Third, I was blown away by how many people didn't want to get muddy. I was belligerent when friends would say "no way!". I never counted on having to work so hard to find team members. I emailed everyone I knew and eventually was able to recruit from my daughters preschool, from friends, and mostly friends of friends rounded out the team. I also had one person drop out the week before the event after she volunteered to make an over-sized paper mache tea set. I got the honor of making that tea set completely surrounded in smoke from the record breaking Arizona fire that summer.Another player texted me that morning that they couldn't play but we went on without them.
Despite all of that, I can't tell you what perfection this group of people turned out to be. Everyone dressed up, everyone brought some food, everyone played and it was one of my fondest days. We won a VIP tent for 2012 because of our tea party theme. We wound up coming in 5th for fundraising collecting an incredible $1300 in 5 weeks.
So this year we are "Hello Muddy" and we are gonna bring it so Hello Kitty hard we are gonna make heads spin! I'm saying costumes, decorations, maybe even some Hello Kitty cupcakes! We might even play some volleyball! If you would like to join the team, we still have 7 spaces. Again, I am asking $50 donation to our teams fundraising, a willingness to dress up, decorate, and we will sign up to bring food the day of. If you don't want to play, you can donate to our team and support an amazing organization at:
http://www.active.com/donate/abqmuddvolleyball/hellomuddy
If you are not on our team, please don't bite our style!Game on!
I worked for a company a few years ago that was a sponsor so we had the VIP tent and everything was taken care of. All I had to do was show up and play. It was amazingly fun.
This was our first complete Mudd Volleyball experience. My husband and I had decided to buy a team because the registration is 100% tax deductible and as small business owners we had to increase our charitable giving for the tax incentive. The reason we chose this charity is for the fact that a few months prior, by the recommendation of our 4 year old's physical therapist, the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation bought Lily a $2500 adaptable tricycle that enables her to ride alongside her cousins even though she is partially paralyzed on the left side of her body. All they asked from us was a $100 donation to the foundation, if we felt like it, to keep good faith. This year, they bought Lily an Ipad which has been amazing for developing her language and reading skills.And they do all of this with a short interview with a social worker named John Chimarusti and they do it fast (about a week)! They provide New Mexico kids with special needs with things that insurance doesn't cover but that can greatly improve quality of life.
We chose the name "Coca Cola McDonald's Day" at first because that was our daughters way of saying it was a perfect day. My husband chickened out and made me change it to "Coca Cowa Donals Day" which was what it sounded like when she said it. It did not win an award for best name.
So, it didn't go as perfectly as planned. First, the basic registration runs $550 which is a huge commitment for our tiny business. I first asked people to contribute $50 to me so that we could bank it and take some of the edge off of the sting of how much money we had just spent. But, a few days later, I got guilty. We were going to be able to write off of the full amount so I decided to ask our team members to donate to our fundraising efforts.
Second, about a month before the event and a few days after we had purchased the team, my husband realized that he had already registered and payed for a seminar that he had to take for as a requirement to maintain his license as a Doctor of Oriental Medicine (DOM) so he would not be able to participate.
Third, I was blown away by how many people didn't want to get muddy. I was belligerent when friends would say "no way!". I never counted on having to work so hard to find team members. I emailed everyone I knew and eventually was able to recruit from my daughters preschool, from friends, and mostly friends of friends rounded out the team. I also had one person drop out the week before the event after she volunteered to make an over-sized paper mache tea set. I got the honor of making that tea set completely surrounded in smoke from the record breaking Arizona fire that summer.Another player texted me that morning that they couldn't play but we went on without them.
Despite all of that, I can't tell you what perfection this group of people turned out to be. Everyone dressed up, everyone brought some food, everyone played and it was one of my fondest days. We won a VIP tent for 2012 because of our tea party theme. We wound up coming in 5th for fundraising collecting an incredible $1300 in 5 weeks.
http://www.active.com/donate/abqmuddvolleyball/hellomuddy
If you are not on our team, please don't bite our style!Game on!
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