Win a Date to the Gala!

Hi everyone,
As part of our final push towards the Gala we are running a little competition. Whoever donates the most money online today, June 11 will win a "date" to the Gala with me! (I know, what a prize.)

The Finale Gala is a black-tie optional affair at the Ritz-Carlton in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The evening will begin at 6pm and will be unforgettable!

Come on ladies, it's for a good cause! If you want to enter, just follow the link at the top of the page and make your donation today!

Donations will be accepted until 12:00am TODAY!

Wine Tasting

Hello All and happy JUNE!! You know what that means? We're almost finished with our campaign and can use all the help we can get to reach our goal before its over.

We wanted to touch base with a quick re-cap. This past weekend we held a wine tasting event at fellow candidate Lindsey Scott's art gallery in Tysons Corner, VA. The event was a HIT and a huge success! We raised over $1,600! Big thanks to Lindsey, Habatat Galleries, the Kepley Family and all who attended!

Here are some photos!








Don't forget to DONATE if you haven't already! Less than 2 weeks to go until the campaign comes to a close!!

1 month to go!

As of this past week, we have officially hit the home stretch with less than 1 month remaining in our campaign. We have made amazing progress to date. I am truly astounded by the generosity that has been displayed by people throughout this campaign. I am happy to report that as of today, we have raised an amazing $21,000! Thank you to everyone who has been able to support us. But it doesn't stop there, we still have a long way to go to reach our goal.

Please continue to stay tuned for news of upcoming events. 1 event in particular I would like to highlight is a Wine Tasting that we will be hosting at an art gallery in the Tyson's Corner area in Virginia. This looks to be a great event. If you have any interest in attending, please email us at 2timesstrong@gmail.com.

Check back soon for pictures from some of our recent events!

Calling All Kids!

Mother's Day is fast approaching and what better way to show your mother you care than with a beautiful gift that doubles as a donation in her name to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

In 2005, Wendy Jarmol of Jarmol Jewelry created a gorgeous set of jewelry to help her friend Pam Burns raise funds for her Woman of the Year campaign. They sold over 100 pieces of jewelry and raised $2,000 for Pam’s campaign! Wendy has returned again this year to offer this fundraising tool to all candidates. Wendy is currently working on the 2009 set.

The stunning Leukemia & Lymphoma Society necklace and earrings are $30.00 each. The stones are Champagne Swarovski Crystal.



The best part is, for each piece you purchase, $15.00 will be awarded toward our campaign!

Orders can be made at www.wendy-jarmol.com. Click on “The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Jewelry” section to view the necklace and earrings.

To ensure that we get a percentage of the proceeds from your purchase, put either "Andrew Kepley" or the "2-Times Strong Campaign" in the comments section of your checkout.

Your mother will love and appreciate this one-of-a-kind gift... and don't forget, Mother's Day is Sunday, May 10th!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Porter's Happy Hour

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Porter's Dining Saloon for our most recent happy hour. We had a great turnout and were able to raise over $800! See below for pictures from the night.

Please don't stop trying to spread the word about our campaign, we are about a month into it and want to keep up the tremendous start we've had. If you, or someone you know has any goods or services to donate, please contact us. In this tough economy we all need to be creative in how we choose to give back to our communities, this is one of those ways.

Little League Night

This past Saturday my old high school, W.T. Woodson, was kind enough to sponsor an event on our behalf at a varsity baseball game between Woodson and Annandale High School. This was a great event all around. Both me and my brother Patrick played baseball at Woodson, along with my Campaign Manager, Michael. It was great to be back in the Woodson baseball community and see so many familiar faces.

We were also fortunate enough to have this year's Boy and Girl of the Year, Alessandro Valeri and Megan Avery, attend the event! Big thanks to Alessandro, Megan and their families for coming out.

We are so gracious to everyone who was able to attend, and because of everyone's support we were able to raise over $1,700! While no doubt part of the reason the night was such a success was because of the perfect weather, it is also a testament to the communities that surround Woodson and Annandale High School. The generosity of everyone in attendance truly touched me.

I also must spend a moment to thank Baja Fresh and Goody's Ice Cream who came out for the event and were kind enough to give us a portion of their proceeds from the night.

Here are some event photos!

If you want to be a help be a part of our campaign, join us this Friday at Porter's Dining Saloon in downtown, D.C. for Happy Hour! A $10 donation gets you in to the bar, one raffle ticket and great drink specials including $3 Miller Lites, $3 rail drinks, and $4 drafts until 10pm. Check our Facebook Event Page for more details. Hope to see you there!

First Event!

Thanks to everyone who came out to The First Down Sports Bar last night for our first fund-raising event! We had an awesome turnout and as of right now seem to have (unofficially) raised $800+ which is a great start. Here are some pictures from the evening!

Our next Happy Hour event is on April 24th at Porter's Dining Saloon in downtown, D.C. Join us for $3 Miller Lites, $3 rail drinks, and $4 drafts until 10pm. Hope to see you all there!

Boy & Girl of the Year

Just wanted to follow-up on the video we posted the other day. This video features me with the Boy & Girl of the Year, Alessandro and Megan. They are, and will continue to be, a true inspiration for us throughout the following 10 weeks.

I also wanted to share this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyEVAJpg91c of the Boy & Girl of the Year. Watching this video immediately took me back to the many hospital rooms my brother Patrick occupied during his hospital stays. The pictures you will see of Alessandro and Megan in this video are the same pictures we have of Patrick at those stages.

We are trying to get Alessandro and Megan to attend a couple of our events so that you may also have the opportunity to meet them.

On a lighter note: we have our first event coming up this Thursday at First Down Sports Bar & Grill in Ballston, located at 4221 North Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA.

15% of the proceeds from this event go toward our campaign. Specials include $1.99 Domestic Drafts, $2.99 Premium Drafts, $2.99 Rail Drinks. $4.00 selected appetizers, and $12.99 all you can eat wings. Please come out to support us!

Andrew's Promo Video

This video was shot at the LLS Kick-Off party on Wednesday, April 1st. Watch as Andrew promotes the Man & Woman of the Year campaign with this year's Boy (Alessandro Valeri) and Girl (Megan Avery) of the Year.



CLICK HERE to learn more about Alessandro and Megan.

Kick-Off Party at The Park

Last night, LLS held the official Man & Woman of the Year kick-off party at The Park at Fourteenth in downtown, D.C. It was a great way to start the campaign, mingle with all the candidates and meet members of the Society. Here are a few pictures below!

All the Man & Woman Candidates

Most of the 2-Times Strong Campaign Team

Andrew Kepley -- 2009 Man of the Year Candidate!
Honorary Chairs Alison Starling (ABC7/WJLA-TV's Good Morning Washington Co-Anchor) and Brian Egan (WMZW Morning Show Host)
Andrew and Katie Goode, Man & Woman of the Year Campaign Manager

The Candidate with his proud parents!

Andrew with Last Year's Man and Woman of the year (Chartese Burnett & Jim Galvanek)

The Kane Show from Hot995

Don't forget that our first event is at First Down in Ballston, Thursday, April 9th starting at 5:30. There will be great food and drink specials, of course with part of the proceeds going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma society! Hope to see you all there!

Donate Now!

As of 12:01 this morning our campaign has officially begun! To donate, please visit our fundraising website. Now that we are able to collect money, please help us reach as many people as possible. How can you do this?

• If you have a blog, you can post our "button", found on the left-hand side of the page, on your blog. You can also become a “follower” of our blog
• If you're on Facebook, join our group "The 2-Times Strong Campaign" and invite all of your friends
• Send the link for our donation page to your contacts
• Come out to our events and bring your friends! Even if you don't live in our area, we will be having events throughout the country, be sure to check out our calendar for upcoming events near you

From this day we have 10 weeks, until June 13, to raise our goal of $50,000. Please help us reach our goal, spread the word!

5 days til the kick off!

Our campaign officially begins on April 1, which is a mere 5 days away! Over the past few days our team has been scurrying to get as much done as possible before the start of our campaign so when the time comes, we are ready to start making an impact right away.

If you want to help us get the word out, "grab" our logo and put it on your blog or website. If you do this, people will be able to click on the logo and it will bring them directly to our site, pretty cool huh?

Our amazing blogging guru Aliya, was also able to add a calendar function to our blog. Be sure to check this often for upcoming events! Speaking of events, I'm proud to announce our first official event will be at First Down Sports Bar & Grill, which is located at 4221 North Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201 on Thursday, April 9. First Down is located directly across from the Ballston metro stop on the Orange Line. Please come out and join us for a great time!

Check back soon for more updates on the campaign and details about our first event. Thanks!

Letters are done!

One of the less-exciting tasks in any fundraising campaign, is the sending of fundraising letters. I am happy to report that our team has completed this most-important step! Combined, our team was able to gather close to 500 contacts to which we will be sending a letter. Because of the astounding amount of money these letters can generate, the LLS was kind enough to help us in the arduous process of stuffing envelopes! Seriously, these people are an inspiration to our team to continue to push forward even when the task at hand might be less than exciting.

If you find yourself wondering how you can help, the easiest and most effective way to help us reach our goal is to pass on any communications you get from us, emails, facebook group invites, letters, etc., on to your respective networks. We need to reach as many people as possible over the course of this campaign. PLEASE help us spread the word!

In other news, you can expect to see the unveiling of our new team logo shortly on this site! My good friend David was kind enough to give us a hand with creating this logo. Please check back soon to see it! With 10 days to go until our Kick Off, we are continuing to make great progress so that when April 1 comes, we'll be ready to hit the ground running. Thanks for all of your support, be sure to check back often!

About the Campaign

Greetings Everyone!
Thanks for visiting the blog we have set up to help keep everyone up to date on our progress. Over the course of our campaign, you can expect to find updates on our efforts to date, as well as information on upcoming events on this site.

Before we get into that however, let me take this opportunity to give you a little background information on our campaign: A few weeks ago I (Andrew) was given the great honor of being selected as a candidate in this year's Man & Woman Campaign to benefit the National Capital Area chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This is a fundraising competition between around 20 individuals from our area. We have from April 1 - June 13 to raise as much money as we can. The campaign culminates with a Gala on the night of June 13. Whoever raises the most by the time of the Gala will be declared the "Man & Woman of the Year".

To help reach our lofty goal of raising $50,000, I have enlisted the help of many of my good friends for which I am forever grateful. To help us get there, we will be having many, many events over the next couple of months. Please help us spread the word about these events and try to come out and support us if you are able! The more we get the word out, the best chance we have of raising as much money as possible.

Check back often to stay abreast of the latest news related to our campaign. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is such a great cause to support that actually helps raise funds for many things besides Leukemia & Lymphoma. Please help us raise as much awareness and funds as possible for this great organization!