Mariah's Challenge

On November 1, 2009 I will be running in the NY Marathon for Mariah's Challenge, a non-profit in Butte, Montana aimed a curbing underage drinking and promoting responsible of-age drinking. Mariah's Challenge was founded nearly two years ago after a (underage) drunk driver struck three teen girls in a residential neighborhood: Mariah McCarthy, Valerie Kilmer, and Kaitlyn Okrusch. The driver left the scene. Had he stayed and summoned emergency assistance immediately, Mariah may have survived. Instead, the McCarthy family had to bury their child at 14-years-old. Leo McCarthy stood at Mariah's funeral and issued a challenge to the citizens of Butte to learn from this lesson. Out of tragedy, the city of Butte has found purpose. Please help support me as I run in the greatest race in the world for the most determined non-profit I've ever volunteered for!

Any little bit helps as I venture into the frightening world of distance running. I've been running since June and I've lost 30 pounds! I've ran as far as 20 miles and I'm eager to run the full 26.2 miles!

You can send donations via PayPal to stephanie(dot)gruss(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thank you in advance for supporting both Mariah's Challenge and me! Now, onto the cards!

















So, if you follow me on Twitter much (@sagruss) you may have noticed that I've been working on a mass mailing of handmade cards. I present to you "begging in style"!

I am raising money for Mariah's Challenge and I wanted a classy way to request funds from my friends and family. (Look out, the low down FB posts, emails, tweets, and calls are coming soon!) I designed and created 80 of these tri-fold cards and learned some things along the way. The picture inside is of me at the Montana Governor's Cup in Billings, MT.

1) Double sided tape, glue strips, and glue dots are superior to liquid glue in an assembly line.
2) A punch is far less work than using a circle cutter.
3) A circle cutter will not stand up to 240 cuts well. That included expensive circle cutters (I went through two).
4) Just sit down and do them all at once, this shouldn't have taken the week it took to do them all.

Overall, I think the cards turned out well.

-- Stephanie