Another one down... more than half way!

The last few weeks of my life have been busy. Mini-vacations, sickness in the family, my first "hike", my first yard sale, regular life, regular work, a fundraising weekend at IGA... and now... the final preparations for my ladies brunch fundraiser. The number of to do lists floating around in my head is finally starting to decrease and I feel like I'm regaining some sense of normalcy. Sort of. ;-)

Aside from the lessons learned from my most recent fundraising activity - I'm really excited to announce that we have passed (by far) the 1/2 way point of this crazy project. With less than 5 months to go to Kilimanjaro, the total amount raised stands at $ 9600 - pretty exciting if I do say so myself. I'm not done yet - but I feel like I've made it far enough that I'll be able to start sharing the focus between the fundraising and the physical training aspects of this adventure.

Which brings me to my next announcement...

A local gym, Global Fitness, has agreed to help me prepare physically for the hike. I'm so excited (and a little scared) to start intensifying things and literally get my butt into gear to climb that mountain! I will keep you informed on my progress... first things first - a physical evaluation next Monday - eek!

Now... a very brief recap of the weekend fundraiser at IGA...

We started on Saturday morning... Esther, Sara, myself, Jordan and Zachary. I thought the coffee and muffins in the morning would be big hit, but to be perfectly honest, it wasn't at all. On both Saturday and Sunday we sold a total of 20 coffees or so. Not quite enough to justify renting the 100-cup coffee maker for the weekend (!)

The bake sale was however a fantastic addition to the BBQ fundraiser. Not only were we allowed to set up right in front of the cash registers... my volunteer bakers contributed some AMAZING stuff... from beautiful (café worthy) muffins to rocky-road bars, classics like brownies and rice-krispy squares and mini-cheese-cakes (yes... mini-cheese-cakes!) - there were lots of takers. We ended the 2nd day with a couple of chocolate chip muffins - everything else SOLD for at least $1 per item.

After the success of our face-painting adventure on Canada Day, we thought we would draw all the kids with this addition to the fundraiser. Unfortunately the weather left us backed up (and hidden) so we had very few face-painting customers... the ones who did come got Carolyne's full attention - and mad-skills. She is one GIFTED face-painter! Next time, we'll set her up with the bake sale table so all the kids bug their parents to let them have their faces painted ;-)

The best thing about this fundraiser... the help! My bakers, my sellers, my BBQers and of course... my buyers.

The Bakers...  

Aimée, Charlene, Sylvia, Arlene, Carolyn, Rachel (& Layla!), Carolyne

The Helpers...  

Brandon, Zachary, Jordan, Jacquie, Rachel, Sara, Esther, Calvin, Jacques, Derek (M), Derek (S), Carolyne, Alejandro, Magalie, Michael

And I cannot forget - my weekend babysitter - the best MIL ever - Carolyn!

And those who stopped by just to encourage me (us)... you know who you are :-)

THANK YOU!