Week 1

THANKS to everyone who bought a block in our first annual Mel's Maniacs "Relay for Life" football pool.

By now you should have received an email with the numbers for the 17 regular season games. The numbers for the post season will come to you each week, as the teams are chosen.

Unfortunately, we were unable to sell all the blocks, so the open blocks will be taken by our Relay team.Those blocks have the Relay for Life logo in them. We have decided that instead of the Relay team keeping all $50.00, we will keep $25.00 and we will put $25.00 in a pot to be paid to the next winner. The next winner will get the $25.00 in the pot in addition to the regular payout for that block. For instance if a block with the logo in it wins the first half in this Sunday's game, then the winner of the final will receive $75.00. If a logo block should win 2 or 3 times in a row, the cash in the pot will continue to grow until we get a winner.

GOOD LUCK and THANKS again.

Football Pool Update

To everyone who has bought blocks, sold blocks or done both, I can't thank you enough.  I knew this was going to be a hard job the first year.   We currently have 65 sold, which means there are 35 blocks remaining.  Gary & I have a few ideas of what to do with blocks that don't sell, but we still have a couple days to sell them, so if you can think of anyone who might like to join in our football pool it's not too late.  I hope to mail the finished pool out to all the participants on Friday evening, the 7th.  So I'm willing to add people until then.
Once again, thanks for all your help.  I couldn't do it without you.

Mel

See below for details on the pool and how it works this year! Two days left to sign up!!

Mel's Maniacs are selling blocks in a season long Steeler football pool for our Relay for Life team.

We charge $50 per block. We take ½ for the team and we give out the other half. 

The numbers on the block change every week so you won't be stuck with "bad numbers" for the whole season.  

We pay out for the 17 regular season Steeler games and the 3 play-off games at $50 at the half and $50 at the end of the game.

We pay out each quarter in the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl (1st - $75, 2nd - $150, 3rd - $75, 4th - $150). 

Leave a comment if you are interested. We will sell as long as we have blocks available.  If the Steelers are not in all the playoff games we will use one of the other games.  I will also use the blog again to announce weekly the game blocks and previous winners.

Here We Go Steelers!!!!

3 days left!

Its only 3 days away!!  Come out to relay and join us at the circus!!

Relay Under the Bigtop: A Carnival for a Cure
Shaler Titan Stadium
10am-10pm

Its almost here! Join us for games, fun, live entertainment, funnel cakes, pizza, bounce house, face painting and so much more!!

Don't forget your camera and sunscreen!!

50/50 RAFFLE TICKETS

The North Hills Relay 50/50 tickets sell for $5.00 each, and our team gets $2.50 credit for each one we sell.  Since this is a site wide raffle, not just a team raffle, the pot gets pretty big.  Last year’s total was $1600.00 for ACS & $1600.00 for the winner.   No guarantees, but I would think the take would be at least a  couple hundred dollars.  Currently only a few team members are selling tickets, but we can have as many tickets as we’d like.  So just let Melita know if you are welling to try to sell some.

Relay is almost here!

Relay will be here in about 10 weeks so please turn in the following paperwork...

Participation form - that I need each person who wants to be part of relay ,to complete and return to me.  If you attended the dance there is no need to pay the $10.00 participation fee.

Luminary form - which you will notice are a little different than in years past.  You must now specify weather you would like your luminary in memory, honor or in tribute to.  The memorial picture idea I mentioned before has been scrapped.

Luminary sales count toward our team total, and are a very easy way to raise money.  I have only attached one luminary form but, please feel free to copy it or ask me for additional forms.  Why not ask family, friends or co-workers if they would like to buy a luminary or two. 

Suggested donation is $10.00 for each luminary.

Track Sign form - If you can get a business owner to advertise, or a individual or group to post a message on a track sign, for the price of $100.00, our team will be credited for that amount.

Survivor form – If you are a survivor, please fill out the form, and join us at the survivor reception.  If you aren’t, please give your form to a cancer survivor, and invite them to come to Relay.

If you need a copy of any of these forms, please ask Melita for a copy or check back in a day or two and copies will be posted here.

On the day of Relay there will be a lot going on and we could use your help.  Rita Lach has graciously volunteered to give massages to weary walkers.  Bev will be at the grill making pizza’s for hungry walkers, and off course we have to make funnel cakes and lemonade, and it was suggested if it is going to be hot we try fruit kabobs as well.  

So, we will need help making and selling those food items throughout the day.  It’s not fair to have only a few people do all the work.

Another area where we will need your help is with the luminaries.  Christine, Andi and I are on the Relay committee, and one of the areas we chose to handle is the luminary ceremony.  So we will need lots of help filling bags and setting them out around the track.  We are hoping many hands will make light work.

We have a few nice ideas for decorating our camp site.  Thank you everyone for all your input.

If you would like to dress up for the opening lap, you will need to make your own costume.   It was suggested we dress as characters you would see at a sideshow.

One last thing—please tell your family and friends about Relay and ask them to stop by on June 23rd and join in the fun.

MARCH MADNESS Fundraiser

Many thanks to the Maurhoff family for coming up with the idea to have a March Madness basketball poll, and then running with it.  They single handedly set the whole thing up, sold the majority of the slots, and then managed the results up dates on the newly created Mel’s Maniacs blog.  That way, the people who bought tickets didn’t have to follow the tournament, but could go to the blog to see what teams were still in.  

Since there were 64 blocks to sell, and we sold them at $10.00 each, Mel’s Maniacs got $320.00, and the winner got $320.00. 

Congratulations to Ray Stein who was the winner.  Ray graciously donated $100.00 of his winnings back to the team.

Thank you Ray, and anyone else who bought slots, and most importantly to the Maurhoffs.  Great idea!! 

Watch for a football poll in the fall.

SARRIS CANDY BAR SALES

Several people have had great success selling the Sarris Candy.  The candy bars seem to be selling better than the pretzels, so we are now going with an assortment of 5 different flavors of candy bars in one box.   Mel’s Maniacs now has an account at Sarris, so we can keep selling them up to the day of Relay.  If you’d like to give it a try, please let me know.  I’ll be glad to bring them to you.  They sell for $1.00 a piece, and there are 32 in each box.

Our Annual Dance was a HUGE Success!

Thanks to Many of You Maniacs...

Our Annual Dance was a HUGE Success!

We sold 240 tickets, and there was a waiting list of 35 more who  didn’t get to attend this years dance.  We have already had people tell us to reserve them a table for next year, and that we should have two dances a year.  So we can be proud of  how our dance has become an event people look forward to each year.  The dance raised $6,700.00, which is $200.00 more than last year. 

To those of you who helped with this year’s dance, I can not thank you enough.   Whether you donated door prizes, or went to businesses and got donations, if you made a gift basket, or gave items to be used in our wine or alcohol baskets, if you helped sell raffle tickets at the dance, or sat at home and tore tickets in strips of 7’s, if you helped setup the night before, or clean up after the dance, if you helped decorate, or lent your expertise to the power point presentation, or did one of numerous other things that needed to be done, whatever you did, big or small, please know that your dedication is appreciated by myself and the rest of the team. 

Another reason we did so well is because Dave Beran gives us an outstanding price on the food, the D.J. only asks $100.00 for his services, the fireman give the hall to us at no cost because there are 4 firemen on our Relay team, and the bartenders (who told us they love to work our  dance), donated their tips ($105.00) back to us.  We have been blessed to have so many good people in our lives who are all willing to help out.

Once again I have to say THANK YOU.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Ray Stein (and Kentucky) for winning the March Madness pool!

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this year's March Madness a little more exciting (at least for me - I actually watched a basketball game this year!).

Keep checking back here for updates on Mel's Maniacs and all our fundraising endeavors!

March Madness Final Four

Here are the final four results!  Good luck to you all!!!

March Madness Sweet 16 Update

Congratulations to the teams who have made it through the first two rounds!!

March Madness Bracket

We drew the positions for everyone who entered our competition tonight.  It was a very scientific method used to assign everyone a team - we drew your names out of a bowl and the first name went in the first slot and we filled an empty bracket down one side then the other.  It was completely random.  Good luck to everyone!  Check back as the games start and I will be updating the bracket.

March Madness Fundraiser

We are having a new fundraiser this year for March Madness!!!

Only 64 blocks to be sold @ $10.00 each

One Winner takes home $320.00 

American Cancer Society will receive $320.00

After the NCAA assigns teams to slots, we will put all the names in a hat and beginning with the first slot we will match a name from the hat, with that team.  If your team is the final winner then the $320.00 is yours.

Give us your email address or a mailing address, and we will send you a copy of the entire poll, the team you’ve been assigned, and you can check back here for updates.

So please give us your $10.00, name, phone number, email address or physical address and you will be helping Mel’s Maniac’s Relay for Life Team in their fight against cancer.

Annual Oldies Dance

ANNUAL DANCE
To Benefit the American Cancer Society

SOLD OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Join the waiting list!
Cherry City Fire Hall
309 Davis Avenue, Shaler Twp.

March 17, 2012
St Patrick’s Day
6:00 - 11:00 p.m. Doors open @ 5:30
$25.00 per person

Please plan to spend your
St. Patrick’s Day evening with us.

Hot buffet provided by
Dave Beran catering at 6:00 p.m.
Following Dinner, Dance to Music of the
50’s & 60’s provided by DJ David McCullough

Beer and Pop will be provided - BYOB
50/50 Drawing
Raffle Baskets
Door Prizes

For tickets please call Gary or Melita - 412.213.3177

ALL proceeds go to the American Cancer Society
to be used for research, education and patient services for those touched by cancer here in the Pittsburgh region.

Maniacs!

Hey Maniacs,

We have a new fundraiser... let Melita know if you are interested in selling some Yummy Sarris Chocolate!!!  We get half the money raised and how hard is it to sell a Sarris bar!