Craig and Joanne Wallace

Craig Allen Wallace – International Man of Mystery? Not really. But being the wife of what one friend calls “The most charitable man I know” has its ups and downs.

I think back to when this all began. Many of you already know the story of how this started. In case you don’t here is the cliff note version.

Craig wanted to have a big party with bands in our backyard. I, as the voice of reason, said, “No”. He then asked a month or so later if I would agree to the big party with bands if it were to help a charity. Still being the voice of reason, I said, “Ok, but not in our backyard”. So, my take charge husband went out and found a place to have the event.

We even joked that we’d call it “Walla-Pa-Looza” after our name, Wallace. Cancer became our charity of choice because it affects everyone. Well, the name stuck, and Craig got his very successful and fun party.

When my husband gets an itch to do something, you better believe it is going to get done. It always amazes me how he gets an idea, goes with it, and usually has great success. But even Craig would agree with me that all of what was one simple idea in his head never could have become reality without all of our wonderful volunteers who give up so much to support this important cause. I know Craig wouldn’t want me to just write only about him – even in a blog that is supposed to be about him! That is his way.

He always says that you can’t just sit back and expect others to try to make a difference in this world. He is a great man who is very passionate in what he believes – in his relationships with family and friends, and in life. Anyone that truly knows Craig would agree. You always know what you are going to get with him and he never tries to be someone he is not. What you see is what you get.

What you may “get” may be loud, and even sometimes crabby! But when you know Craig after awhile you just let that pass. Because you know that same man would give you the shirt off his back, or time he really doesn’t have, to create such an enormous thing we like to call “Walla-Pa-Looza” just to help others.

In taking on such a huge responsibility, some things do have to suffer. I joke that I have to make appointments with him to compare calendars, because we are both so busy. I also say that I am the last one to know anything. Our kids sometimes feel it a bit too. Craig does try very hard to do as much with them as he can to make up for it like coaching BOTH of their baseball teams!

Even though the kids and I sometimes feel a little neglected because he is so involved in things and we don’t always get to spend as much time with him as we would maybe like, we do understand that what he is doing is a wonderful thing that will help many. It is so cute to see our kids explain to their friends or even other adults what their dad does. There is such pride in their eyes and their words as they speak of him.

As I wrap up my entry, I feel the need to add one more thing. My mother, who died of cancer when I was pregnant with our first son, had a special relationship with Craig. They both shared a love of music (Elvis, to be precise!), a love of gab, (made even more fun with a cocktail or two) and a love for me. My mom always told me that Craig was her favorite son-in-law. She was very good at reading people. I think she knew all of the wonderful things Craig was going to achieve one day. I know that she is looking down on him with pride.

So, I guess I should say “No, don’t take my husband – Please!! You can’t have him. Well, Ok. I guess we can share”.

Joanne

Craig is taking the next couple of weeks away from blogging. That means that for the next couple of blog posts you get to hear from some of the "Walla-teers". I’m the first one.

Today I received an email from Simple Truths – The Gift of Inspiration about a book titled Pulling Together by John Murphy. The email shared an excerpt from “Lessons from Geese” author unknown, and I thought of Walla-Pa-Looza.

Yes, I am about to compare the Walla-Pa-Looza gang to a flock of geese.

As geese flap their wings, they create uplift for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if any bird were to fly alone.

If we share a common direction and a sense of community, we can get where we are going more quickly and easily because we are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.

If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go, and we will be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to others.

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies at the point position.

If we take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership as with the geese, we become interdependent with one another. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those upfront to keep their speed. If we “honk,” we need to make sure it is positive and encouraging.

All of the people that are involved with Walla-Pa-Looza want to make a positive impact in the community and help local families that have been afflicted with cancer and we need the community’s help in order to accomplish this task. Without the help of the community, sponsors, companies that donate items, time, or gift certificates, the bands that donate their time and talent, restaurants that donate proceeds as well as other organizations, volunteers, step stools, stools and chairs Walla-Pa-Looza would not be what it is today. All of us are very grateful for all of the help and generosity.

In closing, one more quote from the book: “Looking beyond oneself, asking for help or accepting help can feel risky. But people are not given life to simply take from one another. We are here to give.”

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Walla-Pa-Looza Raisin’ Cash for Cancer 2010 on Saturday, July 31!

The best is yet to come!

Mark Olson - Walla-Pa-Looza Volunteer

Ladies and Gentleman I present to you….

Behind the scenes here at the Walla-Pa-Looza world wide headquarters we are always coming up with ideas to grow our events. We talk, email and bounce things off each other all the time. So, when someone comes up with something good, we run with it. A lot of people think that I am this one man wrecking crew. Well, the truth is, I do some wrecking but we have an incredible group of volunteers. Since I put together this organization in May of 2009 I had an outpour of people that called me or e-mail me wanting to do something. Some of them, well all of them work behind the scenes never asking for recognition.

So, without further ado I present to you Mark Olson. Mark is one of the volunteers that flies under the radar but is always first to do anything thats necessary. Mark and I have known each other for over twenty years. Although we did not hang out during those past twenty years we have been able to reconnect because of Facebook. So, when Mark came to me and asked “what can I do?” we assigned him some tasks. Since then Mark has become our go to guy when it comes to selling tickets, loading and unloading bands, setting up, breaking down and much, much more!

Mark is one of our best volunteers. He brings a positive attitude, a sense of humor and a big heart. Those traits will take him a long way in life and I am glad to have him on our team. When you have a group like we do it helps to have people like Mark who just go with the flow. Since reconnecting with Mark I found out that he loves football, the Cubs, snowmobiling, fishing and his family. He is also married to Lauri Olson who happens to be the Village President of Richmond, Illinois. So, when you see Mark loading gear or selling drink tickets at Walla-Pa-Looza say hello. Thanks again Mark. It’s nice to have you on our side!

Mark volunteers for Walla-Pa-Looza and you can too! Hit the contact us page on our website today. If you cannot volunteer, spread the word, invite a neighbor or become a friend of ours at http://www.facebook.com/wallapalooza.

CW

Well I am honored to be this weeks guest blogger.  What a week! A promotion at work and my turn to blog! So I’m gonna blog it up!

First, I cannot express enough  the impact that Walla-Pa-Looza has on me in so many different aspects.  Every event, every meeting, every single party we have had, I seriously just look around the room and take in the incredible group that we are.  It is amazing how this organization has brought so many of us back together. 

The majority of us went to school together, played sports together, or were connected in some way or another in our community.  I feel I have grown so much being a part of Walla-Pa-Looza.  There is almost never a weekend without something to do now.  Every person involved gives something different to the events and organization itself and with all the effort and support, Walla-Pa-Looza has already grown so much!!! Our next event is right around the corner.  I can’t believe it has been a year already and what a year it has been!  I have always volunteered in my community, but this has become more than volunteering.  We have created a Walla family, a family that not only gives to our community but to each other. 

Which leads me to one of my closest friends, the ever so famous Craig Wallace.  Even though my life has been a little crazy lately and our daily phone calls have been limited to a few times a week, I know that he is there no matter what.

For the ones that know him well, Craig never stops thinking, never stops wanting to give something else, something new.  He is at all times consumed in his own thoughts and of course we all know because he is so damn loud and shares with all of us … and trust me, I think the whole town can hear him when he talks.   Nonetheless, he is an incredible man and I am so blessed to have him as part of my life.  I can’t go without mentioning Joanne, because without the support and total effort that she gives, this would have never been what it has become.  Joanne is amazing !

For each event that we have done or been involved with, I can’t help but think about the reason that we are there. The reason is that we are putting our lives on hold to help someone in need.  Life has such unexpected and unfortunate events that touch our lives in some way and the impact that it can have on a family is for such obvious reasons, severely overwhelming.  The financial stress is unbearable and every bit of help is needed.  That is what we do, we help provide some financial relief. But, the financial end goes far beyond just handing over a check.  We have created many friendships and support lines from the events we have been involved with and as they say, that is “PRICELESS”.  I am so excited to watch Walla-Pa-Looza grow and grow and most importantly, watching the relief that puts a smile on the face of a person or family in need.

Please browse around our website to learn more about Walla-Pa-Looza. It contains a lot of great information about who and what we are.  Click on the links of the others that support our cause. Become part of our organization and come volunteer your time and talent.  We need to get our sponsorships up, so we can provide more to the cause.  We can do this with your help.  Networking our organization is key to being successful in gaining these sponsorships.  Take the time to seek out all the individual people or companies that you are in contact with and bring our upcoming event to them for sponsoring an amazing and rewarding cause.

Well I am off to do what I do best, or at least what takes up so much of my time – homework.  Thank you for reading my blog and I look forward to seeing you all at Walla-Pa-Looza!!!! As Craig and I say at the end of every phone call, “HEAVY METAL!!!”.

Sheryl

Gordon Gekko chasing the cash

OK so here’s the second installment of “Craig made us do this ‘cuz he is on vacation and really doesn’t feel like doing it”, er uh, I mean “Guest Blogging”. Like Ron, I am also pretty competitive but I’m confident I can do this without doing too much damage. After all I’m not an IT guy…

Following Ron’s lead, I’m going to give you a glimpse into my role(s) within the Walla organization. My main role is to retain “Corporate Sponsorships”, we’ll start with that. Being a “Sales and Marketing Guy”, it was only natural that the best way for me to contribute was by putting a plan together to solicit money from businesses and make sure it is executed to its greatest ability. Any event that we do requires a significant amount of money to get up and running. The catch is that while we do raise a lot of money during the event, we need to be able to pay for things PRIOR to the event like tents, bands, marketing, insurance (yes, we take a big honkin’ liability policy prior to the events in case you get hurt at our party), the glorious “Porta-Potties” and a lot more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. So for the 2010 summer event scheduled for July 31st, we all start working right after the New Year’s holiday to get things going.

The first thing I do is to put together a “Corporate Sponsor” program that details a number of ways for local businesses to get involved with our event from a monetary perspective. The benefits a Corporate Sponsor would receive for their contribution can range from something as simple as having their company’s banner at the event up to a VIP sponsor package which will include a VIP tent, complimentary food and beverages and more. This sponsor package is then rolled out to all of the volunteers of Walla-Pa-Looza to be able to present to their personal and professional contacts and hopefully retain a sponsor. The money raised from sponsors usually ends up being our operating budget for the event and helps us put it on. This way we can focus on the day of the event to raise as much money possible knowing that the majority of the expenses have been covered already and the rest can go toward doing what it was intended to do: Help others in need.

As for my “other” duties, well those are the same as many of the other volunteers that also may have a “main” duty. This includes things like serving food and drinks, keeping the area clean the day of the event and just making sure everything runs smoothly and everyone has a great time. There is one other duty however that many of us share that is vital, and is one that is not looked at as a duty per se as it was not something assigned, but just sort of happened. It is the role of Craig’s confidant, consigliere, adviser or whatever you want to call it. You see, Craig started this whole thing but quickly found out that it takes an army to put on an event of this size. Although the event bears his name (well, a portion of it anyway), Craig does not like to make any unilateral decisions. He comes up with a lot of great ideas but is great about bouncing them off all of us and getting buy-in and acceptance from the core group. Although we are an official charitable organization (well almost, our “legal stuff” is in process) and have a board etc, there are many discussions about how we will do things before it actually goes to a vote before the board. This is why this organization has been so successful so far – teamwork. If one person tried to do it all, it would have still been a small party for no reason other than to party in some guy’s backyard.

I hope this posting gives you yet another bit of insight in to the group that is responsible for Walla-Pa-Looza. Once again, the common theme here is “You can’t do it alone”. Whether that means fighting a life-threatening disease like cancer, putting on a great fund raiser or just dealing with the day to day. Support from those closest to you is a key factor in being successful at anything, so pay it forward even when it doesn’t seem like it’s coming to you.

Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy

Craig has decided to take a brief break from blogging and has asked some of the volunteers to take the helm while he’s on break. I decided to take him up on the offer because, being pretty competitive, I want to prove that I can do at least as good a job as him. After all, I am an IT guy.

If you watch Star Trek, I’m like the Spock to Craigs melodramatic Kirk. I lend a cold, calculating and sometimes impatient hand to his posts as "executive editor" and "blog poster". Yep, I set up a sweet system for him to post without my help and he still sends me Microsoft Word files that I have to move into the blog and link everything up to make sure you guys can find the resources that he is talking about. See, I want to make sure the Walla-Pa-Looza web experience is one in which you have the information that goes along with his mushy “wanting to save the world” ramblings.

I’ve been thinking about what to post here and figured the best thing to do would be to talk about how I got involved with Walla-Pa-Looza and what I’ve learned over the past year.

I remembered Craig from high school and friended him on Facebook because of that – but I don’t remember ever actually meeting him before our first Walla meeting. According to him, he hung out with the same people I did. Go figure – I don’t remember us actually hanging out or anything. I guess I was too busy doing peoples homework in computer class. Looking back, I really should have done MY homework instead. I passed that class, if I remember correctly, with a D. In any event – I was watching his posts and reading his notes – but as far as I had known I had never met him.

Nick Bionda, one of my best friends in high school, called me about providing web space for the group. Nick, Craig and a rag-tag group of volunteers were planning this big event for August 1, and since I had donated web space for another friend of ours, he wanted to find out if I was interested in doing it again for the Walla folks.

Obviously I said yes.

I worked with Kevin to put up the original version of the web site. Ok, I didn’t really work at all – I just told him what to do. More accurately, I told him what I thought he did wrong after he did it – thats just how us IT people work. After a while, I started to take over so that Kevin could focus on other things. He did a great job, but he had way more important work to do – and I guess I am a bit of a control freak.

When we had our first meeting about the August 1 event, I finally got to meet everyone. I remember sitting in the parking lot of the Johnsburg Community Club being nervous. I have no idea why. Looking back, I think it was that I knew I had no skills in the area of sales, sponsorships, or whatever they were doing and what they had put together so far was pretty impressive. Hell, as an IT guy I don’t even have people skills. When it came right down to it, I just wasn’t sure I had anything to contribute.

What I found when I walked into the club was a bunch of people that had found something that I had been looking for – a way to make a difference. More than that – they were trying to make a difference and have fun at the same time. They were excited, motivated, and if I may say, quite effective. In about 30 days they had the building blocks of a pretty large charitable event – and it was going to rock the Johnsburg area in a big way.

Over the past year, in one way or another, I’ve participated in three events with this group and I found there were things I could contribute. Whether it was selling tickets, serving pizza, emptying trash, or just showing up, participating and donating. Even the act of writing a blog entry so the chairman can get a rest from his lengthy commute downstairs to his office is something that matters. I feel like I’m making a difference, no matter how small.

There are three things that I’ve taken away from this last year or so of being involved in Walla-Pa-Looza that I’d like to share with you:

1. You can’t do it alone. You need good friends in your life. People you care about and who care about you. If you’re lucky, you’ll find (or re-find) a group of people like those I’ve been lucky enough to reconnect with.
2. "It is our turn". Craig has said this a few times in the past year and its stuck with me. It’s our generations turn to help. To make a difference. To have an impact on people who need help. No matter how small the contribution, it’s a contribution and its needed. There’s a lot of hurt in the world. We need to do whatever we can to help.
3. You can help people and have fun at the same time. While what your working on may be serious, the way to deal with the seriousness is to have fun with the people you are doing it with. I can honestly say, while this group takes what it does very seriously, there is a real sense of fun in what they do – and thats a great quality to have in the people you contribute with and gets the best out of everyone.

If you’d like to get involved in Walla-Pa-Looza, as a sponsor, a volunteer, or just to do “little things” to help, contact one of the folks on our contact page. If you would rather just donate, we have a place for that too. Remember, every little bit helps – no matter how insignificant you might think your contribution is, it can have a significant effect on someone you may not even know.

I hope to see you on July 31 for Walla-Pa-Looza 2010. It’s going to be a great time for a great cause. When you get there, come over and say "Hi". I’ll be the cranky looking guy in the purple shirt staring at his phone.

Live long and prosper, and remember – as a very wise man once said, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few … or the one".

Mike Betts holding the official Walla-Pa-Looza guitar that was raffled off at the event.

Over the past couple of years, I have had a ton of friends come back into my life and it has been incredible. One of those friends is Mike Betts. Mike has gone through so much over the past year that it is nice to see him bounce back. He has a great job at Motor Werks in Barrington and is starting to find his way again. My new joke with Mike is that because of Facebook he has been able to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Because of that, I decided to give him a new nick name so, I nick named him “Captain Reconnect”. The “Captain” and I hadn’t really spoke in about 20 something years. In fact, I had to remind him that at one point in the past I was sitting at Fox Hole eating dinner and he walked right by me! He doesn’t remember it so I will give him a pass, but I am incredibly happy he is in my life again and I hope to have him as my closest buddy until we are old and gray.

Oh, wait, we are both bald so, just old!

Today I am writing about Mike because he lost his father a few years ago to cancer. Mike’s father had brain tumors and the doctors could not do anything for him. So when I posted a note on Facebook asking for volunteers, Mike was one of the first people to step up.

Original Walla-Pa-Looza Note on Facebook

See, it was important for him to do something to raise awareness – but Mike has a different story too.

The Betts family is currently involved in the McCullom Lake Cancer Cluster lawsuit. I have some information on what is taking place because I happen to own a rental property in the village. But it wasn’t until I took a ride around the area with Mike pointing out the places his relatives lived did I realize the seriousness of it. All of those relatives lived in one particular area. You can connect the dots, read the local papers, or just take a ride with Mike one day if you can’t figure it out, but it’s scary folks. I have posted a link below for you to take a look later on so you can understand the seriousness.

Walla-Pa-Looza is important to Mike because he wants to make a difference. I joked with Mike this past summer about making time in between announcements at our 2009 summer event to take out the trash and clean the toilets but he wouldn’t have cared. He just wanted to be part of something that was so important to him. I love him for his dedication and loyalty.

Although I lost a mother in law and a grandmother to cancer, Mike has lost an entire part of his family tree. I couldn’t even imagine the heartbreak they went through because if you ever met the Betts family you would know how important family really is. I was fortunate enough to witness what a kind and caring family they are first hand at Mike’s surprise birthday party.

As you can see we all have our reasons to do something to raise money for cancer and cancer research. Mike does his part, and you can too. Just contact us for more information on how you can help.

Here’s a link to the story on the McCullom Lake Cancer Cluster.