Songs, playlists, memories… forever

What if you had the opportunity to associate yourself with a song such that every time the song was played the listener envisioned your smiling face?    Over the past two years I have held ‘Playlist Fundraisers’ where co-workers, friends and family have had the opportunity to donate songs to my marathon race-day playlist.  The commitment made to the donor was that I would put the song on my playlist and include the donor’s name and song title on a wrist band such that when the song played, I would be reminded of who donated the song making the donor a memorable part of my race.   Last year I didn’t wait until race-day to listen to the playlist.  I used the playlist during training and by race-day, I knew most of the songs and really appreciated each donor as each song was played.  What is interesting about this is that I now can’t turn off the association of the song to the donor.

Mylee (IMO) – Mitochondrial Disease community

Without even trying, I think of Mike when I hear ‘Afternoon Delight’, John when I hear ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’, Stephen when I hear ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls – Metallica’, Kevin when I hear ‘Born to Run’ and Jessi when I hear ‘I am Shipping up to Boston’, to name a few.   I love thinking of beautiful little Mylee every time I hear ‘Yellow by Cold Play’ and seeing that photo of ‘Wylder the Warrior’ in my head when I hear ‘I am a Warrior by Patty Smyth’.  Wylder and Mylee were of course my angelic patient partners for past Boston Marathons and other races.

Wylder (IMO) – Niemann Pick A community

What I realized with this fundraiser is that each of you not only has an opportunity to create a connection with me on race-day, you really have an opportunity to influence a connection that I have with a song for a much longer period of time, maybe forever.  Hmm, that sounds risky 🙂 .

So this year, I want each of you to give this some thought and decide how much you want to shape my connection to a particular song and change the donation amount accordingly.  For example, if all you want is for me to listen to your song on race-day, provide the song title and artist for $5 and you will be a part of my race-day experience.  However, if you want to make it interesting as Dave and Sara did last year with ‘Yellow’, increase your donation amount and share something with me by commenting here, on FB or through email, about the song and why the song matters to you.  It can be funny, motivational, spiritual,…. it’s up to you.  I will add these songs to my training playlist and will open myself to being influenced ‘probably forever’ by your story and connection to the song.   I am not guaranteeing that I will like it as is the case with ‘Triumph – Wu-Tang Clan’, donated by Monalisa 🙂 ….. not a fan (of the song anyway), but I will absolutely listen to all of them during each long run and on race-day.

For those of you who are new to this fundraiser, here is how it works:

1. Go to my Donation Page and donate $5 or more
2. Be sure to display your name as the donor.
3. In the ‘comment’ field, put the title of your song, including the artist.
4. If you’re inspired, comment on this post, through FB, or send me an email about why this song is meaningful to you.
5. I will download the songs to my race-day and/or training playlist
6. I will assemble a wrist band of all songs/donors and carry it with me so that I can see who donated each song during the run.
7. On May 3rd, while running the Providence Marathon, I we will listen to the playlist as additional motivation and to have you become part of my special day.
8. I plan to run for about 4 hours so my goal is to assemble a list of 80 – 100 songs.

Garrett – Niemann Pick A/B community

So Garrett my partner, I want you to think of something really special to add to my  playlist (yours is free 🙂 )

Let the song selection begin!!