Kicking Out Breast Cancer!

We did it!

boobalicious — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:31:34 +0000

We did it! We completed our walk on Sunday, September 30^th. It’s kind of bittersweet now that it’s all over… We were all looking forward to it because it’s always a great time and we feel like we’ve been fundraising for ages… But now that it’s done, we’re all left with this feeling of “Now what??” But more on that later.

As opposed to the pouring rain we had for the walk last year, this year we were blessed with a great day. Sunshine for most of the day and the temperature, though a bit chilly at first, was perfect for walking, kicking, and dancing :-) The walk started at 10 am, but we all met at 8 am for breakfast and to get ourselves sorted out for the walk. Sorted out?? Well, heaven forbid we just show up with our T-shirts and start walking… this is Team Booba’licious after all! There were boas, wigs, and other paraphernalia to hand out! We were quite the sight. 14 girls in La Belle Province all in pink wigs and that was just the beginning… It’s not every day that people see a swarm of pink boas and wigs walking through the streets so we were quite the spectacle. What can I say? It was fun. To say that images of our team are in the cameras of over a couple hundred people would not be an exaggeration… Anyway, the walk itself was so much fun! We walked, cheered, kicked, laughed, and danced our way through the streets of Montreal. We even had a team member in a wheelchair! Julie, 5 months pregnant with twins, is already unable to walk 5 km, but there was no way we were doing the walk without her. She’s an integral part of our team so we got her a wheelchair.

And so I know some of you are wondering… Did we hit our goal??? Well… No :-( But we’re very proud of ourselves all the same. Our initial goal was $12,000. I don’t have the exact tally yet, but I do know that we are very close to $9,000. I think that’s amazing! Think about it- we’re just a group of girls who like having fun and we managed to raise close to $9,000 in the process. I think that’s a pretty productive way to pass some time. And we have until the end of October to raise money so the possibility is still there to hit the $10k mark…

All in all, the past few months have been very special to me. This group of women is phenomenal. We’re teammates, but also great friends. The fundraising activities even brought some of us closer. I loved watching many of us getting together to plan activities to raise money. And the satisfaction we got at the end of an activity when we realized the amount of money we raised… The surprise everyone felt when we realized we raised over $1000 at a garage sale… Or when Julia and I realized we raised over $200 in 90 minutes from collecting money at an intersection… The personal satisfaction and genuine excitement and appreciation I felt every time someone purchased a piece of my jewelry… Starre and I literally jumping up and down and screaming in the back office of Scotyz when we realized we had raised what we did at the spaghetti dinner… Even maintaining this blog and seeing the stats on how many people have actually taken the time to read this… Great memories!

Every time someone gave us a donation we would thank them wholeheartedly, but I need to do it again. It really meant so much to me when people gave donations and it amazed me how generous some people can be. Thank you all so much! So we’ll be taking a fundraising break for now and get back into it next year. Once I know the final total raised I will write about in here. Until then, enjoy the pics from the walk.

And the Countdown Begins…

boobalicious — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:54:00 +0000

Our walk is less than 2 weeks away! 11 days to be exact… We’re just over halfway to our goal of $12,000 so we’ll be kicking the fundraising into high gear over the next week and a half. It’s going to be a challenge to reach our goal, but I’m not going to admit defeat just yet… Fact is, we’ve managed to raise over $6,000 while having fun and that’s amazing!

We had our spaghetti dinner this past Friday and without a doubt, it was the most fun activity yet. It was the only activity where the entire team was present and we had a great time! We all dressed in pink and some of us wore pink wigs and boas. Anything to stand out! Scotyz was packed because of tickets we had sold but also because there were two other groups there for other reasons. We were concerned that there wouldn’t be enough space to seat everyone, but the extra people ended up working in our favour. Everyone was able to sit and eat and the extra people gave donations and bought raffle tickets. The spaghetti was actually pretty good, the atmosphere was fun, and Solstice rocked! Between ticket sales, raffle ticket sales and donations, we managed to raise just over $3000!

It was really awesome to see the amount of people who came out to support us. It’s also amazing to see the dedication from some of our team members and the work that some people put in to ensure the success of this event. More importantly, it was all the donations (financial and otherwise) that people made that really made the night all the more special. We didn’t have to pay a cent to Scotyz- all the food was donated as well as gift certificates to be given as prizes. All our door prizes and hockey tickets were donations from friends and businesses. We even have a friend who’s a real estate agent and is willing to donate a portion of his commissions made over the next year to our team. A special thanks to the following people and businesses:

Scotyz Bar
Bruce Stam- Old Orchard Pub
Shanna Warnock- Partylite
Angelo Randazzo- Aqualud Spa
Mitchell Moss- Crofton Moore Management inc.
Dr. Pascal Nguyen- Clinique Dentaire Dr. Pascal Nguyen and Associates
Isaac Schuster- REDSTONE APPAREL/FIRETORN
And thanks to the team for just being awesome! We rock!

So I’ve posted some pictures below, and as it’s been pointed out on a couple of occasions, I am wearing (yet again) what has become my fundraising tube top. In my defense, pink is not a colour I have in my wardrobe so my fundraising outfit options are limited. Enjoy the pics!

Spaghetti Dinner

boobalicious — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 20:51:28 +0000

The garage sale was another success! We managed to raise just a over $450 which is pretty good considering that we had less than half of the items we had at our first garage sale.

And now for our biggest fundraising event yet… If you haven’t been to any of our events, this is the one not to be missed!! On Friday, September 14th we’ll be hosting a Spaghetti Dinner at Scotyz Bar in Greenfield Park. All you can eat spaghetti and garlic bread! We’ll also be having entertainment by our special guest, Celtic rock group, Solstice (from Hurley’s pub). You guys are in for a treat! Super talented, energetic, and definitely one of the best Celtic bands in Montreal- and they’ve agreed to perform at our charity event Here’s a bit about Solstice from the website Montreal Online Celtic Community (http://www.geocities.com/mocc2000/talent.html)

Solstice
Anchored by driving acoustic guitar rhythms and unleashed by phenomenal fiddle fury, a Solstice concert takes you on an intense musical journey that transcends generations and musical styles. Fiddle player extraordinaire Jonathan Moorman can seamlessly lead you from emotive airs to foot-stomping jigs and reels to electrifying solos that captivate audiences everywhere, making him one of the most unique and exciting fiddle players in Canada.
Keeping the groove going with percussive and dynamic acoustic guitar, Patrick Lesyk provides the perfect accompaniment that is at the heart of Solstice’s musical stylings. Patrick also handles lead vocals with a warm and soulful voice that is both powerful and sensitive. The group’s impressive musical dexterity appeals to a wide range of audiences. From traditional Celtic enthusiasts to Country and Bluegrass lovers, from Folk lovers to serious rockers, the music of Solstice has a little something for everyone. Together, Patrick and Jonathan pack a serious one-two punch that has wowed audiences in Europe, the US, and Canada.

You don’t want to miss this! We’ll have door prizes, a raffle, and a guaranteed great time all night long, all for only $12! Not only that, but 100% of all profits will be going to breast cancer research. A great night out for a great cause- you have nothing to lose!

Dinner will be from 6 pm to 8:30 pm and prizes and entertainment will start after supper. It’s being held in a bar so minors are not allowed.

Please contact me to purchase tickets. And tell your friends!

And as always, if you cannot make it out for the spaghetti dinner, please donate by following one of the links on the right hand side.

I hope to see you all on the 14th!!

Address: 3979 Taschereau blvd. in Greenfield Park, 5 minutes from the Champlain bridge

Another Garage Sale…

boobalicious — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:48:35 +0000

Following the success of our first garage sale, we’ve decided to try our luck again with another. This Sunday, September 2, 2007 we will be holding another garage sale in Greenfield Park.

Where: 977 Bellevue, Greenfield Park

Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If anyone has anything they would like to donate to sell, please feel free to contact me through this site or by email to booba-licious@hotmail.com.

And, as always, if you can’t make it out to the sale, please feel free to donate by following one of the links on the righthand side. Thank you!

Working at the Car Wash…

boobalicious — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:17:29 +0000

You’re supposed to read that title to the tune of the seventies dance song… And now it’s probably stuck in your head as it is in mine So we finally had our car wash on Saturday… We woke up to find that no, it wasn’t raining or cloudy like on our other attempts, but it was very windy. And chilly. Not the best car wash weather, but we weren’t canceling again. Not only were we not canceling, but we were determined to make this car wash a success and to have a great time while doing it. We even had a DJ!My friend sent his friend DJ Rafi my Facebook invitation (gotta love Facebook…) and he contacted me to volunteer his services for a few hours. That was so nice and generous of him. Thank you, Rafi! Only Booba’licious would manage to have a DJ at their car wash! It started off slow, but for most of the morning we had a pretty constant flow of cars. Once it got busy, the time passed really quickly. We had a lot of fun and got a pretty decent workout We were also selling car magnets to raise extra money. And Julia and I spent a little over an hour standing at the intersection collecting money. Well, walking and running in between cars every 30 seconds for 90 minutes is probably a more apt description. That was a huge success and unbelievably addictive. Even though we knew we had to head back, every time the light turned red we wanted to give it one more go because we knew we’d collect more money. But it’s only fun when you do it with a friend. We fed off each other’s energy and the drivers did as well. When we had first decided to try and cover more corners by separating, we didn’t collect nearly as much, people ignored us, and it was very depressing and discouraging. Together, we raised $208 in less than 90 minutes!

All in all, the car wash was a success. We managed to raise just over $600 in 6 hours. Not bad! It’s a lot of work and you definitely earn that money (we were all exhausted at the end of the day), but it’s a good fundraiser. Very little investment in terms of time and money to organize and it’s fun! I posted some pictures below…

Our next activity will be another garage sale on Saturday, September 1st. More details to come!

Car Wash is Back On!

boobalicious — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:25:51 +0000

The Car Wash is back on! Hopefully it’ll happen this time, our third attempt. We tried again at the end of July, but again, the forecast called for rain and so we decided to cancel it (and it didn’t even end up raining…). So here we go… :

Date: August 18th, 2007

Time: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Location: parking lot next to Place de la Mode at the corner of St. Denis and Rosemount from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I will make a post here if there are any changes…

So we now have less than two months until the walk on September 30th. We didn’t raise as much money this summer as we had hoped because of events being cancelled, team members being away, etc. We’ll be picking up the pace of events in the next month and a half so please check back regularly to see what’s up. I had a BBQ at my place this past Saturday to help raise money (see some pictures below), the car wash is coming up, we’ll be having another garage sale, a spaghetti dinner, and more. I’m super excited about the spaghetti dinner! It’s going to be so much fun! There’ll be great food, door prizes, raffles, and most importantly, an awesome Celtic rock band performing: Solstice. They’re great! More details will be coming shortly.

In the meanwhile, please donate to our team members! Click on the links on the right to get to the donation page of several members. Thank you!

Car Wash- Cancelled

boobalicious — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:13:34 +0000

Due to the unpredictability of the weather, our car wash for July 7 is being postponed. Once we have a new date, I will let everyone know. Thank you!

Car Wash…

boobalicious — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:41:11 +0000

So we’re at it again. Next fundraising activity will be a car wash on July 7, 2007. It’ll be held in the parking lot next to Place de la Mode at the corner of St. Denis and Rosemount from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. As usual, all profits will be donated to breast cancer research. Please come out to support us!

Car wash will be cancelled if it rains. Please check this site on Saturday morning- I will post again only if it is cancelled.

Most Successful Fundraiser to Date!

boobalicious — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:37:16 +0000

You never really know how a garage sale is going to turn out. What if the weather is awful? What if we don’t have many customers? What if people think that all we have is junk?? All of these questions and more ran through my mind before the garage sale… I am thrilled that all my worries were unfounded!

I woke up Saturday morning to clear blue skies; a bit chilly, but we could handle that. It was rain that we didn’t want and luckily for us, that didn’t happen. Arrived at Starre’s place at 7:10 am to find that there were already people going through our stuff. I was shocked! I heard about this garage sale culture, but had never actually seen it first hand. I couldn’t believe that there were people awake and dressed at 7 am on a Saturday morning, already going to garage sales… I’m not judging them at all, I’ve just never seen it before. We literally had to ask people to please wait because we weren’t even close to being completely set up. We had so much stuff!! All team members, particularly Starre, have been busy for weeks collecting items that were generously donated to us from family and friends. It took us awhile to set everything up, but we were good to go before 9 am (thanks to Starre who started setting up before the team even got there). I saw soon enough that I didn’t have to worry about us not having customers. We advertised well and we had a steady flow of people all day with several rushes. We also had a lot of people stopping by because they saw that it was for charity and we received a lot of appreciation and compliments from people all day. Amazing… As for people thinking that all we had was junk- definitely not the case. We had some great items, but for sure there were things that I thought might not sell. But one man’s junk is definitely another’s treasure…

All this to say, by the end of the day we managed to sell most of what we had for a grand total of… $1075!! It is amazing to me that we managed to raise that just by selling things that people generously donated. Thank you so much to everyone who gave us items to sell and to those who came by and bought stuff or gave a donation. All in all, I found that most people were generous. Most people understood that we were not profiting from this in any way, that proceeds are going to charity, and therefore didn’t give us any problems. I appreciated that. As for those who were haggling us to save a dollar or two off of items that we were practically giving away, knowing full well that it was for charity… I just didn’t get it. All in all, we had a great day. Tiring, but fun and definitely worthwhile.

Thanks again everyone! Our next fundraising event is a car wash on July 7, 2007. Details will be coming shortly…

Team Booba’licious Garage Sale!

boobalicious — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:01:15 +0000

Another few weeks have gone by since I last wrote, but our team has not been idle! A few of our team members got dressed up in pink during Grand Prix weekend and hit Crescent street to collect money. We didn’t do too badly… Pictures are below.

And now it’s time for our next fundraising event. On Saturday, June 23rd, we will be having a big garage sale! Team members have been collecting items for weeks and we seriously have a bit of everything. Car seats, books, toys, furniture, skiis, clothes… you name it, we’ll have it. New and old. And most importantly, all money raised will be going to breast cancer. It’s going to be a great day so please, come out and support us!

Time: 9 pm to 4 pm, June 23, 2007

Place: 977 Bellevue in Greenfield park, right next to Centennial Regional High School

Hope to see you there!

And like usual, I am still making and selling jewelry. Bracelets, anklets, necklaces, and earrings. I posted new pictures on the “Karen’s Handmade Items” page. Please check them out!