Fundraising, training, and more: 24 weeks out...crafty chicks style!

Pam L, Lauren, and I walking in Gettysburg

So for the 2011 DC walk we are officially at the 24 week mark!  How very exciting!  And it's starting to get warm (FINALLY) so we can start training outside in the beautiful sun.  And this year we have 4 entirely different areas that we are walking in, and different routes in those different towns.  So we are hoping to keep the boredom that set in for me last year doing the same ol' walks away.  And it keeps it fair too, since we are all taking turns walking not too far from our homes.

So, you may ask, how exactly is wearing a wig going???  Well, not as bad as I'd feared, yet not easy either.  Since I am always cold at work, I don't have the problem with getting to hot from wearing it.  That's definitely a plus.  And since I have my own hair protecting my head, I don't have a big problem with getting itchy, that only starts to bother me around hour 10, and it's not too bad.  My biggest problem is that where I pin the wig and cap underneath to my real hair, it starts to hurt a little by that 10th hour, and I start thinking maybe I should be a rebel and just pull it off...  LOL!  And I have one problem I didn't think of too much beforehand:  People that I see but I don't really talk to much or at all are starting to wonder if I'm sick!  If they ask someone that works on my floor, they get straightened out and told the real story of my pink hair challenge.  But then how many people don't ask, and then think I have cancer...  So on weekends when I work I've started wearing a pink ribbon scrub cap, like the people that work in the OR wear.  And I make sure some of my hair that is not pink is out in the back, so people can see I still have hair.  But boy do I look ridiculous wearing that all day!  On the bright side of that though is on weekends I'm a lot more comfortable.

So much is going on in this month of April, I am having a hard time finding time to write!  We have 5 fundraisers this month!!!  And new to this year, we've made a whole lot of things to sell at our fundraisers, and it's taken off in a BIG way!  We are a group of crafty chicks this year, and I believe that we will more than meet our minimums to walk, which is totally exciting.  Just a month ago I feared how we were going to raise the $11,500 our team needs to walk; now I'm a little more confident.  So at our first of five fundraiser, we did at the mall in our town.  We set up a treadmill that a friend of mine lent us for the day (Big thanks Gina!) to walk 20 miles in the  mall, and set up a table to sell all of our wares next to it.  We also had a second table with ribbons on it for people to write names of loved ones that have or are battling cancer on for us to carry on our 3 day journey.  We enjoyed ourselves, got some exercise, sold some stuff and got some donations, and got some publicity.  So I would say it was a success.  But we have discussed this after the fact, and because of the high cost of the insurance we needed to purchase in order to do this fundraiser at the mall, we don't think we would do it again.  We would do a treadmill fundraiser somewhere that didn't require insurance though, it definitely attracted attention to us and to our cause.  And it made it more fun for us as well!

Pam L, Pam N, Lauren, and I at the mall fundraiser!

So what crafts have we crafty chicks come up with to sell this year you ask?  Well, Pam L's area of expertise is making breast cancer awareness bracelets.  They are gorgeous, sparkly, and bringing in some serious donation money!!  They have truly just taken off!  We liked her design from the get-go; we knew they would sell.  But what we didn't know is that only a few weeks and 1 fundraiser into our sales we would sell out and need to order more supplies already!  And that before the shipment has even arrived, we have so many people that have put in an order we have to order a 2nd shipment!!!  This is amazing!  And Lauren I'm learning has always made crafts, so this is nothing new to her.  She is our t-shirt maker this year!  We were able to get 30 pink t-shirts donated, and she adds the designs/sayings to them.  So far she has made team shirts that have "Me and The Girls" on them, "Save 2nd Base" shirts, and "Treasure Your Chest" shirts.  And we can sell them for relatively inexpensive prices, since it doesn't cost much at all for her to make them!  It's a wonderful fundraiser!  And what, you ask, is my craft?  I make pink ribbon clips and black headbands with little pink ribbons on them.  The pink ribbon clips are nice and inexpensive, and the headbands I've just started making so we don't know how well they will be received yet, though my team mates and I love them and have each purchased one already!  And we have finally made a bank account so that we can split all our fundraising money easier, since people can just make out checks to Me and The Girls now.  Really happy about all we have going for us right now!!!

Our beautiful pink table at our fundraiser at the mall!

So now for the month of April we still have a dine out night at Texas Road House, a bake sale in front of Smokey's Restaurant, and 2 other fundraisers where we get a table to sell our crafty chick stuff.  I am hoping to be done with my fundraising by the end of the month!!!  Woohoo!  Then all I have to worry about (and I'm not all that worried anymore) is getting the minimums for my team mates!  Yay go Team Me and The Girls!!!