Calling All Team Captains

Hi! My name is Bree Trejo, and I’m Team Captain of Perseverance Warriors. I’m also serving as the Lead Team Captain for Walk Your AS Off 2016. If you’re thinking of captaining a Walk Your AS Off team this year, or you’re looking for ways to bring your team together to Walk AS One, I’ve got some ideas for you!
Being a team captain has its challenges, but what you get in return makes it worth it.
One of the biggest challenges I had was getting my team members to send me their steps. I think every team captain struggles with this, but I came up with some extra ideas to engage my team members and to keep them motivated.
I started a team Facebook page and had the whole team join. I posted our team updates and reminders on our team page. I also became friends with my team members on Facebook so I knew how they were doing with everyday life. By doing this we all became close and we were able to provide a strong support system for each other.
Every Sunday I sent out a Facebook group message to my team members from our team page. I would try to personalize it to reflect how things were going with our team. For example, if something good happened, we would congratulate them. If something bad happened, we would all let them know we were there to help any way we could. It didn’t take long for us to become a Walk Your AS Off (WYASO) family.
At the end of each message, I would remind everyone that I needed screenshots of everyone’s steps for that week. I also constantly reminded them that it doesn’t matter how many steps you take or didn’t take. No number is too small to contribute to our cause. We all have good and bad days, and that’s ok.
Once I had the steps in, I’d recorded everything on Monday, and then I’d send out reminders to anyone who hadn’t sent me their steps yet. This made it easier for team to report and for me to track.
On Wednesday, I would create my 3-star stepper badges for the week. I created my badge by finding a cute photo on Google. I uploaded it to the Pixlr app, adding in their names and steps. Then, I posted it on the team page and tagged the steppers to congratulate them. Other team members would join in to congratulate them. This also showed our appreciation for what they were doing for WYASO each week.
Soon enough, everyone was sending me their steps on time!
At the end of each month, I also made a photo of the top three steppers on my team. Then I made a team photo with our total number of steps taken. When I posted my team photo, I thanked everyone for their hard work AND set our team goal for the following month.
I always tag the whole team in our photos, that way it goes to all of their pages for their friends and family, so they can see the difference they are making, and to help spread the word. This was one of the ways we got new recruits. Friends and family began asking questions about the walk and about Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). They would then send them to me, and I would explain about AS and our walk’s mission. Next thing you know I was signing them up.

If you’ve got questions on how to captain your team this year, please reach out. That is what I’m here for!

---

You can contact Bree by email at [email protected].

Or get in touch through the WYASO Team Captains Facebook group.