Organize an Event – A Planning Guide
Choose Event Activities – Honor Survivors in Attendance

Choose Event Activities:
• Choose a Program
• Pick a Theme
• Plan Entertainment
• Educate
• Find a Speaker
• Honor Survivors
• Serve Festive Food
• Decorate

Take time to acknowledge the strength and courage of cancer survivors, perhaps in one or more of the following ways:

• Invite survivors to come on stage to announce their names and years of survivorship. If your group is small, encourage them to also share lessons they have learned from cancer.
• Have a “survivor roll call” with each survivor standing as his or her name is called. If possible, have a photographer take a picture of each survivor as a remembrance of the moment.
• Caricature artists and photographers may donate their time, providing participants with a lasting memory of your event. Consider taking a group shot or photos of survivors with their caregivers, nurses, or doctors, and send each one a copy.
• Ask survivors to paint ceramic tiles and use them to create a collage for display at your facility.
• Award survivors with certificates of honor or trophies for their strength and courage in fighting cancer (see Official Merchandise Catalog to order recognition awards).
• Award presentations may include oldest and youngest survivor, longest length of survivorship, and survivor most active in raising awareness of cancer survivorship issues in your community. Recipients should be included in your media kit and post-event news releases.
• Prior to your event, ask cancer survivors to submit photographs that show them working, participating in a sport, or interacting with their families. Make a video or slide show of the photographs to demonstrate that life continues after a cancer diagnosis.
• Create a banner/wall/display with survivors’ signatures, handprints, poems, pictures, letters, essays, drawings, or paintings to display at your event and throughout the year.
• Tie ribbons on trees to represent survivors.
• Flags bearing inspirational messages can be made by survivors and displayed.
• Memory books (containing inspirational stories, photos, and quotes) or cookbooks compiled by survivors are permanent reminders of the day. Download free NCSD scrapbooking background pages (see More Resources).
• A “tree of life” or “survivors’ tree” can display leaves with survivors’ names and messages of hope.
• Plant trees (perhaps one for each survivor who has reached the five-year mark) or flowers (maybe allowing each survivor to plant his or her own), commemorating the event with a plaque engraved with a special message honoring cancer survivors.
• Add a bench with a dedication plaque to an existing garden, or create a walkway with personalized bricks.
• Dedicate a park or garden to cancer survivors.
• Have each survivor carry a candle in a processional.
• Quilts created by survivors from personalized squares are colorful symbols of the interweaving of survivors’ lives. Consider hanging the quilt in your treatment center to encourage survivors undergoing treatment.
• Enlist massage therapists, reflexologists, makeup artists, or manicurists to pamper survivors.
• Include hospitalized survivors in the celebration by showing your event live on closed-circuit television or on your website. Have volunteers take gifts to them, or ask the musicians performing at the event to visit and perform for them.
• Order official NCSD merchandise (see Official Merchandise Catalog) by March 30. Consider assembling a goody bag for each survivor, perhaps including NCSD souvenirs, such as T-shirt, buttons, cup, and ink pen, plus information on the organization(s) hosting the event.
• Survivors are not the only people worthy of recognition. Be sure to honor dedicated healthcare professionals, caregivers, and volunteers.
• Ask friends, family members, and healthcare professionals to nominate survivors for awards. Ask survivors to do the same for their caregivers and medical professionals.
• Give each participant a lapel flower, using different colors for survivors, family/friends, volunteers, and medical professionals.
• Have a raffle or hourly drawings for door prizes (merchandise or gift certificates) donated by local businesses.

2011 Event Coverage and Photos

2010 Event Coverage and Photos

2009 Event Coverage and Photos