Possible ice fishing tourney for Relay for Life.

[ParaPro]

I had a thought about a ice fishing tourney to benefit relay for Life to help fight cancer. I have sponsors and prize ideas lined up in my head, but also want to encourage youth involvement in this tourney. I'm looking for people to give me a few ideas, this wouldnt be a HUGE tourney like Brainerd's (if i got 50-100 ppl Id be thrilled) but I have some awesome prize ideas for the adults.. Need more help with kids prizes and the actual format of the tourney.. ANYONE PLEASE chime in with ideas/opinions!! thank you!!

[RiverChuckNorris]

Seems like format, prizes, logistics, etc would be secondary to aligning one or two primary sponsors first? Since you're targeting adults AND kids, my initial thoughts would be to "pitch" Cabela's/Gander Mtn/Joe's (as a retail sponsor) and then maybe Ronald McDonald house (as a kids/organizational sponsor).

Cabela's is building a store in the east metro next year, so I'm sure they wouldn't mind getting publicity as I'm sure Gander or Joe's wouldn't mind trumping them. Once you align sponsorship, details could play out from there.

[ParaPro]

This is where I'm torn a bit.. I want everyone to get involved helping Relay for life, but also want the contest to be for the kids. My idea was the actual fishing contest for the kids with a raffle for the adults.. Any suggestions?

[RiverChuckNorris]

How about combo entries (parent + child 12 and under) or single adult are the same price per entry. The benefit being, those with kids will have two lines down. Also, whether the kid or the parent catches the fish, they go on the board as a team. However, if people without kids still want to take part/support the cause, etc. they aren't left out and can still wet a line and win a great prize potentially.

I think you limit potential interest/scope/sponsorship/audience interest, if you make it only the kids fishing? Also, let's face it, esp with the small kids, we all know dad/mom will be doing the "work". Why not make it more of a team environment? Like the old pine box car derby builds, you could always tell who had a handy dad at home lol.

[Cicada]

Like an actual Relay event, it would be nice to have games for kids to play and food available. Each of those things could add a few bucks to the benefit. Ice golf, Wishy Wash game, water balloons (maybe that's not a good idea) etc. Simple foods like brats, chili, hot apple cider or hot chocolate. It would be nice if it was all about the fishing, but you know how fishing can be in the winter and you know how kids can be.

As far as prizes, can you set up a deal with a local business or businesses where they can come up with a list of prizes, say, for $20.00. You could then publicize that they are available for some people, say, members of this site to donate towards this cause. If you happen to get more prizes than you need, you could save them for next year or donate them to another charity that helps kids.

[Chad Holst]

A few things that helped us get started. "Fake it, till you make it". You either ARE or ARE NOT having the event. Decide. once you have, then start door knocking in your area. Dont limit yourself to gander/cabelas/etc...as they get a MILLION requests and a wishy washy "maybe we will possibly have this event at some time", just wont work. You need to be excited and then show them why they NEED to not miss out on the EVENT that is about to happen.

3/4th of our prizes last year came from small local shops...i told them ANYTHING helps. Make sure they know how yo are going to advertise their sponsorship. Everyone loves to help kids, but they have 1000 other kid organizations they can help besides yours. they need to know why your is going to be one of the ones they should pick. 50-100 is greta, if you have deep pockets and want to give away small things. To get it to cost you less and get more from sponsors, you need to get a large group if possible.

Suggestions: Do food, but make sure you have someone help that knows the food codes, so when (and they will) the inspector shows up, you have the right temps, spray cleaner, etc... They target first time events, as they know most people dont take care the first year to plan food to the codes the law says you should. (and people wont get sick)

Find cmpanies that have 10x10 easy up tents. they can be blocked together to make larger areas, to serve food, register, have prize tables, etc. (huge army tents work great for putting holes for the little kids, and they can be heated with jet heaters.

Find help. 1 person per 10 expected people would be great. Our event had 25-30 workers and they had a hard time keeping up with the 600 that came.

It sounds silly, but the bigger you make it, the cheaper for you individually it will be. Crowds draw sponsors, sponsors make it less expensive.

I would als obe careful about charging anything to enter. THose will to pay can donate, or buy raffle tickets. make it free and sell tickets to raise the money.

We didnt do a raffle, sell anything, and asked for nothing. Our event of 600 participants cost us around $500, when everything was said and done. We are doing it to simply get kids outdors, so if you want to use it to make funds for cancer...then i would go the route of a raffle, donation request.

did i mention...GET HELP. its alot more work than you think. The chamber is a great place to start, they will know people that may want to get involved. THIS site is also great. post a thread in the local forum for your area asking who would like to help and you will get replies. Set up a meeting time and sit down with them.

Lastly, plan early. Our event is in the middle of february, our board members started talking to sponsors in the middle of summer and several had already missed the deadline for donation requests for the year. Now would be a great time to plan for next years event..that being NEXT winter.

Good luck, its great to see people doing this. If you want to talk, pm me your number and ill give you whatever i can for advice and help. Joe Palermo (sp) is another great resource as he runs the 1 kid event larger than us...1,200 kids!!! and he is a great guy and offered us much advice last year.

Also, if we have a date and it works with our team, we will be there to assist if we can.

Tight lines.

PS, if your thinking feb 1st ish...then do it 10 days earlier, so you can advertise that they dont need a license. THey changed the law this year, so now the "free weekend" if you take a kid 15 or under is the middle of january. We are still doing FEB but thats because we had vendors set up for mid feb date and the legislation just changed the date to Jan for the next 4 years. We have to get a DNR permit now to make sure people dont need licenses for the event. This will help get new people and first timers.