Fundraiser #1 for the 2011 walk: Walmart Day

Well the rain did not exactly stay away, but it didn't keep my daughter and I from doing my first fundraising day. Early on Sunday morning we looked at the weather report, and decided to give it a try.  So we packed up our table, sign, chairs, our trusty duct tape, a beach umbrella to attach to our table, our stuff to sell, and our pink collection jar and headed out.  It was only drizzly at the time...

We set up in front of Walmart, and within an hour it started to pour.  So after about 5 minutes of hiding under our umbrella, we decided that our "merchandise" was getting too wet, so I brought the car around and packed up our stuff.  Wouldn't you know it by the time we finished getting all our stuff in the car, it stopped!  So we debated a minute and decided not to totally set up our table again, but to keep our chairs, our sign, and our jar out and see if we could just collect donations for a little while longer before the next downpour.

Sideways... sorry...  my daughter manning the table

In the next 2 hours we smiled and chatted with the customers going in and out of Walmart, and had a good time despite the weather.  Many people stopped to read our sign, and drop a dollar or two in our collection jar.  There were people who thought walking 60 miles was amazing and donated, people who had cancer themselves and wanted to drop in a few dollars and thank us for our efforts, people who told us they were donating for friends or family with cancer, even 2 boys who looked like they were about my daughter's age who dropped in a couple of bucks each.  We were amazed at the generosity of the people out shopping, it was quite heartwarming in the chilly rain.  I continuously had to push down the money in our jar it was getting so full!

We didn't sell a single thing thanks to the rain, but it was a bigger success than I thought it would be.  My daughter and I arrived home with big smiles on our faces, and the rest of the family came to the door to see how it went.  They expected us to be disappointed, and to only have raised maybe $20.  We dumped our bucket out on the kitchen table to startled faces:  we raised $170 in just 3 hrs, all just from sheer generosity.  I truly underestimated the kindness of Christmas shoppers, and it touched my heart.  But it was also a little sad to go out and see just how many people's lives have been affected by cancer.

The 2nd day that we had planned to go back to Walmart for a couple of hours in the evening got cancelled, because on that evening it turned out that my family needed me at home more than I needed to raise money.  But I will definitely be sitting out there again, hopefully raising more money towards a cure!  I made my first donation to the SGK foundation for $150, and watched the little meter move up just a little closer towards my goal.  But I kept out $25, knowing that I will need to use that $ for change at different fundraising events, which I always forgot to do last time around...