An almost stress-free brunch...

August is almost over... and I can feel the stress and chaos in my life subsiding. Despite some "rocky moments" of family sickness (strep throat!) and undesirable weather (the one crappy weekend of the entire summer has to fall the weekend of my bbq fundraiser!) - the month has been good to me... and in particular, it has been good to my "summit for wishes" fundraising campaign.

Centre pieces

After weeks/months of planning and preparing for the ladies only Brunch for wishes, everything came together so nicely on Saturday morning. No last minute running around, no panic attacks... everything seemed to go so "smoothly". Sure, I have a list of "lessons learned" and things I might do differently were I to do the same type of thing again... but to be completely honest... I'm very happy with how the brunch came together - and with the response from the all the lovely ladies that attended (65 in all).

Andrea "speaks"

The food was excellent - courtesy of the biftheque (tea, eggs, bacon, ham, potatoes), Liberté (cream cheese and yogurt), Van Houtte (coffee), Aimée of Simple Bites (home-made scones and jam), Sylvia and Isabelle (muffins!).

Andrea and Ève-Marie

The speakers were moving and inspiring.  Ève-Marie of Salut, Bonjour! captured the brunch guests were her less than `pretty` experience of Kilimanjaro in 2009 - reading us excerpts from her personal journal. She certainly inspired me (and scared me a little)... and motivated me to start training and preparing for the mountain part of this whole experience. I can't wait... and I consider myself "warned" (oof!)

And Krystal, a Make-A-Wish recipient, moved most of us to tears with her personal wish story. Krystal has suffered from cystic fibrosis since the age of 2 and had the chance to have a wish granted when she was 15 years old. Her wish... to surf in Hawaii. Her story demonstrated so clearly how wish granting has such an incredible impact on the lives of children (and their families) - truly bringing hope, strength and joy into their lives.  

Krystal shares her "wish" experience

I truly enjoyed giving out the door prizes to brunch attendees. There was some pretty incredible stuff sitting on that table...

1) 2 passes to the thermal baths at the Montreal Scandinave Spa

2) 4 AVON baskets (courtesy of Trianda Barton)

3) A Simple Bites basket

4) Tupperware

5) A set of hand-made thank you cards for http://www.justmeprints.com/

6) A gift certificate to café céramic

7) 4 pairs of beautiful earrings from 4CDesign

Obviously - an event like this certainly leaves me with a lot of people to thank... and I hope I don't forget anyone!

• Le Biftheque `rive-sud` (for the the room, the excellent service and a lot of the food)
• Copie Express  Taschereau- for printing the brunch tickets (free of charge!)
• Liberté (yogurt and cream cheese - delish!)
• Brossard Bagels (best bagels on the South Shore)
• Van Houtte (coffee... of course!)
• Ève-Marie Lortie
• Krystal Freake (and Isabelle Benoît)
• Trianda Barton (Avon)
• Aimée Wimbush (Simple Bites)
• Marie-Josée Arel (Tupperware)
• Elena Roussakis (Just Me Prints)
• Céramic Café
• Carolyne St-Onge - for helping me set up the brunch... contacting the biftheque, thinking to invite Eve-Marie Lortie, finding a sound guy, making lots of beautiful key chains to sell for donations, and helping to set up and take down the "stock".
• Isabelle Laplante - for coming early and leaving late (despite her growing baby bump), moral support and of course for her delicious muffins!
• Sylvia Skuse - for baking more of her amazing muffins.
• Catherine Sanchez - for an amazing "contact" in the food industry!! Merci beaucoup Oliver...
• Magalie Renaud - for coming early and being ready and willing to help whenever and wherever possible. (and for translating all my promo stuff!)

and last but definitely not least...

Brandon Rodgers - my very supportive husband... who has my back and puts up with all my running around and organizing (for the brunch and for everything else)... and who has gone to bed alone too many nights recently while I `finish one more thing`... I love you very very much and your support and encouragement are key to what I've accomplished so far... and what I will accomplish in the weeks and months to come!

There's lost more to share, but I don't want to write a novel... so... I'll end with a brief update on the fundraising totals...

Drum role please... :-)

I have now raised (with the help and support of those near and far) $ 11 013.04. 

That is 69% of my fundraising objective (approximately half of which is for the foundation and half of which is to help me afford to get to Kili) 

WOW. I am thrilled with how far I've come so far...  and while I've learned so much in these last few months of fundraising, I know I have lots more to learn... as I start to prepare for the physical challenge that Kilimanjaro presents for me (both mentally and physically) and as I literally learn to slow down - pole pole.

A.