Last year our virtual runner Army Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Mark ran his legs while on active duty at Camp Victory in Iraq. Our story was not only picked up by the local media (KOIN News, The Oregonian & The Columbian), but by national media including Road Runners Club of America, Victory Times, and the Army Times. Additionally our team was one of the featured teams filmed in the upcoming Hood to Coast Documentary
This year Major Chris Reese will be running his legs "virtually" in Iraq as Jeff did, while Jeff runs Stateside to participate "real time" on home ground.
By race day, August 28, Major Chris Reese will be deployed in Iraq with the rest of the 41st. Chris is the Public Affairs Liaison for the 41st to the major news networks. In his capacity, we will be pushing to generate national attention to our team's mission and to our team sponsors.
This publicity not only raised awareness and support for our Armed Forces as a whole, but also our team sponsors. Last year we set up a "Troop Drive" that allowed the public to donate needed items to the service men and women of Jeff's unit. In the end we where able to shipped more than 30 boxes of supplies and treats to Jeff and his unit.
This year, 360 Goes 180 has teamed up Operation Home Front
Operation Home Front provides emergency assistance and morale to our troops, to the families they leave behind and to wounded warriors when they return home. A nonprofit 501(c)(3), Operation Home Front leads more than 4,500 volunteers in 30 chapters nationwide and has provided critical assistance to more than 45,000 military families in need. Operation Home Front also operates an online magazine for military wives and women in uniform).
By working with Operation Home Front, we plan to expand our "Troop Supply" drive from last year. The plan in the next 12 weeks is to spread the word to the public about our unique team and its mission to support Oregon's 41st. We plan to send out a national & local press release announcing our team and our "Troop Drive" directing the public to drop off supplies & treats at designated "drop off sites" in the Portland, Oregon & Vancouver, Washintgon areas.
We would like to make this a national-level human-interest story. We would like to use this event to remind the public that we all have friends and families deployed overseas, and we need to send them our support and well wishes, and include them in our day-to-day thoughts.
Over the last few months, we have been working with Hood to Coast organization to get their permission, and we've secured some fantastic sponsors:
- Greenlayer: providing us with technical race tees made out of recycled water bottles and bamboo charcoal ash
- TriWest Healthcare Alliance: providing general support to team and mission
- Max Muscle Sports Nutrition: covering the cost of van rentals, gas, shipping/handling of troop drive supplies, and the cost of marketing.
- Portland Fit and Vancouver Fit: providing free training to our team members
- Gleukos: providing All-Natural Sports Drink
- ChiRunning: a revolutionary approach to effortless, injury-free running.
- Running Mindfully: providing ChiRunning mentorship to team members
- Osteopathic Medical Associates & Jones Institute - providing the Therapist @ 360 Physical Therapy mentorship in the powerful yet gentle manual therapy technique called Strain Counter-Strain.
- 360 Physical Therapy: providing medical consultations and race entry fees
From the start, we envisioned using technology to bring Chris to the finish line in Seaside with us via a streaming video feed –perhaps having a two-way video stream so he can see what is happening at the finish line while everyone there can see him while he runs his relay legs.
The opportunities for our sponsors include branding both locally in the community and on base in Iraq with the 41st. Exposure to the 2600 Service Men and Women of the 41st and their families, the 1250 members of Portland and Vancouver Fit, and the 30300 runners, walkers, high school runners, van drivers, and volunteers participating in this years Hood to Coast event, not to mention the additional crowd numbering over 60,000 family & friends at the beach finish.
In addition to raising awareness for our service men and women, added opportunities for our sponsors include:
- Prominent logo placement on our race apparel, support vans, our dedicated website, the 360goes180 facebook page, and all of our promotional and marketing material.
- Hosting the Operation Home Front sponsored troop drives – this is designed to drive more of the public, specifically the running community participating in the HTC into your stores
- We also anticipate similar press coverage to what our team received in 2008 (see links below):
- Columbian
- Hood To Coast
- 2008 Hood To Coast Photo Contest Winnders
- Road Runners Club of America:
As with all teams with a dream- we too have an operational budget. Your sponsorship will do much to help us accomplish our mission. Anything you can do to sponsor us to defray our operational costs and help us spread the word about our team to the nation - would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks you so much for your consideration of this truly win win opportunity for our service men and women and your company.
