Hey Cadets, its Flex-a-thon time – no, not a marathon muscle flexing event, but rather a chance for you to raise money for your Squadron by doing a fitness activity of your choosing. You are welcome to get the people who live in your house with you involved – this is a fun family event you can all enjoy together. You can run, walk, hike, bike, skateboard, roller skate, do yoga, martial arts, train for your Canada Fitness Badge, do a fitness circuit… the choices are almost endless.

Everyone in the Squadron is welcome to participate!

Your activity is your choice, but there are some rules:

1. You must do your activity individually or with members of your household. Cadets may not physically gather together to do their activity.
2. You must follow all Ottawa Public Health COVID safety protocols when doing your activity in a public community park or trail. Check out the latest protocols here: https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/be-covidwise.aspx
3. Only virtual fundraising is permitted – collect your pledges by sending out your personal fundraising link by email or social media to your friends and families. (NO in-person contact is permitted!)
4. You must choose an activity that encourages physical fitness (for example, playing a hockey video game does not count but practicing hockey technique on your driveway does).
5. Set your time goal for your activity of choice to complete your Flex-a-thon commitment. You can break this up into sessions leading up to and throughout the weekend as long as you accomplish the goal you set for yourself.  Once you have chosen your activity and the time you plan to do it for, enter that information on your personal fundraising page.

Some examples of activities and times:

• 2 hour bike ride
• 45 minute run
• 15 minutes a day for 5 days Canadian Fitness Badge prep.
• 1 hour hike
• 2 hour walk
• 5 20-minute fitness circuits
• 3 45-minute yoga sessions
• 1 hour roller blading

6. You must complete your activity by the end of the May 15 and 16^th weekend.

Why are we doing a Flex-a-thon?

Because of the COVID pandemic we have had to change so much of what we do and this includes fundraising. We can’t do our traditional tag days this year as they require cadets to meet with the community in person. Instead, this Flex-a-thon provides maximum flexibility and maximum reach, allowing cadets to be involved physically and raise money virtually.

Why are we fundraising?

We are hoping to see in-person activities resume in the next training year. We are a non-profit and rely on funding from the government and on fundraising to provide high-quality and engaging learning opportunities and activities for our cadets. Some of the activities we plan include museum sleepovers, familiarization flights, sports nights, drone and rocket classes and more. Fundraising makes it possible for us to provide the best possible experience to our cadets.

How does the Flex-a-thon work?

• We have set up a fundraising website for our Ottawa Air Cadets Flex-a-thon. https://raceroster.com/events/2021/47525/flex-a-thon-2021. This website includes all the squadrons in Ottawa who are participating. We will be having a friendly competition between the squadrons to see which squadron has the cadet who raises the most money and which squadron as a whole raises the most money.
• Each participating cadet will be able to personalize a fundraising webpage which they can share with their friends and family through email and social media. This individual page will have a place for the cadet to enter their name, their squadron, what activity they are planning to do and what their fundraising goal is.  Cadets 12 and under need an adult member of their household to register them for the activity. Cadets can then personalize their page with adult support.
• Each cadet will share their fundraising page with their friends and families through email and social media sharing.
• Donors who donate $25 or more are eligible to request a receipt for income tax purposes.
• Rather than donating X dollars per km or per hour for the duration of the activity, donors are asked to donate a lump sum and the cadet commits to completing the entire activity in return.

How do I set up my personal fundraising webpage?

1. Go to https://raceroster.com/events/2021/47525/flex-a-thon-2021
2. If you are 13 and over you can sign up independently. For those 12 and under you will need your parent/guardian to register you and support you in your page personalization.
3. Click the green register button on the home page.
4. Follow the instructions to log in – enter your email address and create your password.
5. You’ll be directed to a registrant page, fill out the information there.
6. When you get to the Team question – click on Yes, add this registrant to a team created by someone else.
7. From the drop down menu choose 872 Squadron
8. Fill in your fundraising goal and your description of your activity and why you are raising money. You can change and add to this later.
9. The final box reads Select a preferred fundraising organization When you click on the box you will see squadron choices, click on 872 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron.
10. Click the continue button. This will take you to a liability waiver. If you agree, click on the I agree button
11. Next, you’ll be sent to a page that allows you to make a donation for yourself. You can enter a donation amount here or click check out without donating to your own campaign.
12. Finally, click check out. You will be directed to a page with links and options for sharing. All of these links and social media buttons will only share the general website link, not your personal fundraising page. The general Flex-a-thon website is worth sharing because there will be team updates, leaderboards and donation links there as well as information about the Flex-a-thon event. Feel free to share this website link, however the essential link to share is your own fundraising page.
13. Click on the blue box View Fundraising Page.
14. You will be directed to your own fundraising page. This is the one you want to share.  You can edit this page at any time to add information, give people an update on your progress, change your photo. Remember that you are representing your squadron so keep all messaging respectful.

How do I share my fundraising page link? How do I promote my page?

On your personal fundraising page there is a sidebar on the right with your name, photo and sharing prompts.

If you have Facebook you can click on the Facebook icon to share your page directly with your friends. Likewise you can share on Twitter. The green envelope icon lets you share by email.

Finally, you can click on the green link button to copy your link onto your clipboard and insert that into emails directly from your email account, or add it to your bio on Instagram so people can find your link easily there.

How does someone donate?

When you give someone the link to your personal fundraising site they simply need to choose a donation amount and follow the prompts.  

If your donor prefers not to use the website for their donation, you can give them this information:

• Alternate ways to donate:
  • e-transfer sent to: 872.treasurer@cadetsair.ca
  • cheque payable to:

872 Kiwanis Kanata Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron
PO Box 24125, 300 Eagleson Road, Kanata ON  K2M 2C3

These are the basic instructions to get up and running. Once your own page is set up you can look around the main website and see other ways of sharing information – for example, there is a post activity button, you can view teams to see team progress, you can check out the fundraising leaderboard and friends and family can donate to specific people by looking up their name under the Donate to Participant button.

Have fun setting up your page and spreading the word about your campaign!