Entries Tagged 'causes and people doing cool things about them' ↓

Remember that movie with Frankie Avalon and original Mouseketeer Annette Funicello? Beach Party? Frankie got to surf (and was known as) the Big Kahuna. Whether my memory is making a mess out of the 1963 flick or not, I seem to remember the surfers were always on the look out for a huge wave; certain that this wave would be the one to make them a local legend and get their girlfriends’ wandering eyes back to adoring only them. Not to mention make’m kings at the local beach bonfire where everyone wiggles their bikini bottoms.

The Rock Out With Your Socks Out Sock Hop + Art Auction is Jordan and I’s Big Kahuna. We are hoping this soiree will make fundraising legend within our own smaller sized blanket weave of the year We Raised $13 000 for The Arthritis Society.

It is no longer the Year We Will Run a Marathon or the Year We Eloped in a Foreign Country or The Year We Danced to Queen and The Doobie Brothers for Cheap Entertainment. Nope.  It won’t even be The Year We Took a Ferry Ride to Turkey, or The Year we Adopted a Forever-Friend. No, this will be the year We Raised $13 000. It’s a feat. And we’ve been slapping our boards on waves big and small, so far raising a couple of hundred dollars at a time bringing us to 43% of $13 000. (Which is pretty darn-tootin amazing when we look at where we started from -0%!).

But the glitch and there’s always at least one, is we need to raise 75% of our goal by July 1st so we can stay a bit longer overseas after the marathon and take that boat ride to Turkey and make that wedding ceremony on November 4th. If we raise the 75% we don’t get penalized for lengthening our plane ticket (for free!) to squeeze in an extra week or two after the race. That’s $4056 bucks we need to raise in just a few weeks. So this is the time for the miracle worker, the bikini bottom shaking extravaganza, or the Big Kahuna.

And we’re hoping that Rock Out With Your Socks Out will be just the bonfire we’re looking for. (We’re also having a bake sale and bottle drive this month too).

If you’re in Vancouver and want to come the sock hop + art auction, we’d love to have ya! (And if you would just like to donate to the cause, you can do so online here).

And oh gosh, ignoramus confession time: The term ‘Big Kahuna’ is sort of like Coca Cola saying you can open happiness. “Kahuna”  is actually a word meaning “priest, magician, minister, wizard, expert in any field”, (not a huge wave you can surf). Also according to wikipedia pro surfers such as Duke Kahanamoku, have resisted the word’s pop culture lure out of respect for its original meaning. Hmm.

So, in our next big wave of fundraising, Jordan and I are looking for our “humpback“. (According to Wiktionary under Glossary of Surfing this is a big wave that is more like two waves. It’s also called “double-up”. And we sure hope this fundraiser does exactly that. Cowabunga!

Big Wave Surfing

I have not gone without food for longer than six hours in my entire life. Most would argue that means I have never gone hungry. And they’d be right.

My multiple six-hour stints without food include trying to do the 30 hour famine two years in a row in high school, attempting spiritual fasts, health cleanses and a sympathetic hunger strike. At about hour 6, my urge to eat outweighs any principle I’m striving to live by. I cave. I eat. And I’m amazed that any human being who is hungry for any length of time could think about anything other than food.

And it’s estimated that over a billion people do.  That’s how many people are regularly hungry in the world.

It’s the Vancouver Food bank’s Hunger Awareness Day today (and running until June 11th). Here in the Lower Mainland, the food bank feeds/supplements/aids up to 25 000 people a week. And that’s without any government assistance. But it is with a lot of help. Namely from you and people like you who volunteer, donate resources, food, their time and money. And according to Kraft Canada, they will match your donation dollar-for-dollar (up to $150 000) until June 11th. So, if you’ve got five bucks to spare this is the week to donate it. Ten dollars can get a lot of fresh produce.

It’s amazing how many restaurants, community gardens and centres, grocery stores and people give food to the Food Bank.  They’re all onto something. Maybe It’s the first step to bringing humanity back. Sharing something to eat.

In a surprise turn of fund-raising events, bake sales have been out-cashing bowling parties, community dance troop shenanigans and letters to potential corporate sponsors.

Our latest bake sale at 2025 West Broadway sold out! We raised $188.44 that day. Bumping us up to $5594 for The Arthritis Society so far!

So we’re coming back. With even more goodies. June 23rd at 2025 West Broadway, 8:30am-2pm. Sinful treats alongside ones that’ll make your colon sing.

We’re even thinking of having a jokes-for-free side of the table…maybe all about baked goods.

Hey what did the m&m say to the chocolate chip?

Get yr own cookie….

(I did say the jokes were for free, right?)

What Terry Fox did for Cancer research, for a nation of Canadians, for every single person ever staring down the dark, deep hole of despair is indescribable.

With one leg he ran the equivalent of a marathon  every single day of the week for 143 days straight.

Picture I took of one side of the monument of Terry Fox outside of BC Place, Vancouver.

Because of Cancer, Terry’s country-wide marathon was stopped outside of Thunder Bay. But even though Terry had to stop running, his hope ran on. And man did it run. Terry Fox’s legacy is as strong as the young man who started it all in St. John’s Newfoundland in 1980.  Here’s a newspaper article from Star reporter, Leslie Scrivener who first interviewed Terry starting out, in the article she reflects on his legacy now.

Terry Fox is Canada’s forever-hero. He’s an example of everything each of us hopes to be.  I know it is blasphemous to even think about comparing Terry Fox to anyone.

But Eva Markvoort isn’t just anyone.

Like Terry, Eva was driven. Her family supported her. She wanted to raise awareness and funds for research on a disease that kills young people. She didn’t give into despair even though her life was ending. In 1980, Terry Fox created an everlasting legacy with one, sometimes painful, footstep at a time. In 2006, Eva started her own marathon-of-hope, by blogging one post at a time what it is like to live with Cystic Fibrosis and what it is like to live.

Eva’s blog, 65 Red Roses, is such an honest and gripping account of life and death. Of Cystic Fibrosis and the hope and  awareness activism can create. In an at once heart-wrenching and ventricle-expanding post on February 11th -a little over a month and two weeks before she died- Eva says ‘my life is over but my love will go on.’ She was 25 and had lived through a double-lung transplant, was waiting for her second, had touched thousands of lives and brought the words Cystic Fibrosis into the minds of people everywhere.

Both Terry Fox and Eva Markvoort are young BC residents who left remarkable legacies behind such short, impressive lives.  And both are iconic images to me: Terry Fox hop-running with a station wagon and later a van following him down long stretches of lonely Canadian highway. Eva Markvoort’s bright red lips and hair, her passion for life all over her face and her actions.

Picture from Douglas Todd's blog post April 1st; www.vancouversun.com/thesearch

Both Terry Fox and Eva Markvoort pole-vaulted over insurmountable odds with their sheer determination and belief in life. And not to mention their indefatigable insistence that they had something to offer.

And holy crap, did they ever!

Terry Fox running a marathon a day, 7 days a week, with a prosthetic limb is unspeakably amazing. Then immediately after running an amount few of us do in a lifetime, he’d do press conferences! In his short grimy sweats, he’d stand and answer questions, visit sick kids, schools, families, stop for pictures and continue to raise media awareness (and funds- over $450-million dollars raised and counting!) for his cause.  Eva Markvoort, with a double lung transplant, documentary, numerous fundraising efforts, public speaking, working, and just like Terry, would make the time for the  press and to advocate signing up to be an organ donor and raising awareness about CF. I remember reading her blog a few months back and being struck by her constant refrain, ‘don’t focus on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do.’ She’d be reminding herself of this with barely 20% lung capacity or at a time when she had to let go of her dream job and deal with the realities of entering chronic rejection.

I vote British Columbia name March 31st -Eva Markvoort’s birthday- Eva Markvoort day.  It could be celebrated as a provincial day of activism, where every one wears red (lipstick, hair, clothes, hearts) and raises some money or awareness for Cystic Fibrosis, for Cancer Research, for Autism, for any cause that is close to their heart. The trick is, they have to do it with joy and flair. Get silly and jump around a lot. Make sure there is face painting and pictures and love.

Yes, make sure there is ‘love, love, love.’

Here’s a letter I’ve written to Premier Gordon Campbell and MP Joyce Murray. Feel free to copy and paste it and fill in your own information then mail it in.

Dear Honourable Gordon Campbell and Honourable Joyce Murray,

Re: Naming a day in honour of BC resident & activist Eva Markvoort

Eva Markvoort’s death will do nothing to diminish her legacy. One built on love, honesty, openness, passion and grit. I do not consider it far fetched to equate Eva Markvoort to another hero every Canadian holds close in their heart: Terry Fox. Eva’s selfless and determined activism to raise awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and Organ Donation is on par with Terry Fox’s indefatigable perseverance to promote awareness for Cancer Research. Both were young BC residents who created an amazing legacy out of their lives. Lives most of us could never imagine living.

Eva Markvoort’s spirit, her sound commitment and passion are life altering to behold. You can’t read Eva’s Live Journal blog 65 red roses and not be changed. You can’t hear about Terry Fox’s life and understand the scope of his Marathon of Hope and not be changed either.

Honourable Joyce Murray both nominated Eva Markvoort for the Queen’s Jubilee award and marked her passing in the House of Commons. In her short life, Eva also won the 2010 Summerhayes award for her work on behalf of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, received her Bachelor’s Degree and starred in the award-winning documentary 65_RedRoses. She touched thousands upon thousands of lives in both her blog and the documentary. And made a significant difference in the increase of organ donors and people’s awareness of Cystic Fibrosis.

I propose a provincial day of activism in honour of Eva Markvoort. Whether that is a day off work or just recognized.

I feel as a current resident of British Columbia that Eva’s reach extends well beyond our province and that it would be an incredible move of validation to mark this young’s woman’s short and impressive life with a day, her birthday March 31st. A time for all of us to reflect on what matters most- something she lived every single day of her short life doing.

It would also serve to shed more light on Cystic Fibrosis and other terminal illnesses young people succumb to in this province and country. Eva never gave up and in turn, let’s make sure generations to come are introduced to her beautiful, bright lips and the message they so passionately spread: love, love, love.

Eva Markvoort is a striking role model on so many levels. Even her bright red hair is fun.  When she was restricted to a wheelchair, she made sure it was red and dressed up like another BC hero, Rick Hansen. Eva made something out of everything. She is truly an inspiration.

Also an Eva Markvoort Day could serve to honour her incredible family and friends and the legions of loyal fans who have supported her. Her death is everyone’s loss. A day to celebrate her life, joy and activism would be an honourable way to recognize that.

Thank you so much for your time and I sincerely hope this can move forward. If there is anything else I can do to help move this forward, please let me know at the address at the start of this letter.

With respect,

Sincerely,

Laurie Dawson

Draw by Night is forking over all the sketches and drawings, masterpieces and doodles made on May 12th to us!

Well, not exactly to us, but Jordan and I will be the safe-keepers of them until our next *big* Arthritis Society Fundraiser – Rock Out With Your Socks Out!

(This is my second ever photoshop attempt. I'm more proud than a mom, er, even if you can't read it, I guess the mom equation works well, then).

At this event we will divide all art sales between The Arthritis Society and Draw by Night. Win-win-win, because if you bid $5 or more you may get to take home an original from a Vancouver artist who will rock the white right off of that bare wall of yours.

Anyone can come and draw too! That party puts the pen to the paper on May 12th, 6pm -9pm at the VFS Cafe, 390 W Hastings.

And of course, anyone can come rock out at the sock hop too. Even with your shoes on! You can find ‘Rock Out With Your Socks Out’ dance & auction info here.

And one last thing about tomorrow night, DJ Noble -all the way from Norway- has created a specific ‘Meat Legs’ themed song list.  You won’t know what got into that pen you’re holding until you hear the music!

Owww!

(Can ‘Meat Legs’ howl?)

They sure as heck can!

I was thrilled Jordan and I could join Compassion for Animal’s worldwide project: The Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale as a part of our Arthritis Society fundraising.

Now, I’m not going to lie, ok, I’ll lie a little, I didn’t think I’d be able to bake anything that could even remotely be considered delicious without eggs or butter or Betty Crocker. And even if some talented vegan bakers could, I had a niggly vague sense I probably wouldn’t be able to. It’s that sort of underlying mundane terror that can crop up any time in life – ‘what if I can’t figure out how to put the bus ticket into the machine?!!’ Which, when roughly translated means: ‘everyone dies, but I’m still afraid to. Oh, god just let me put the damn ticket into the machine.’ So, when I put on my makeshift hairnet and rallied up some new ingredients, my wooden spoon was shaking. Yeah sure, I was afraid of death, but worse- I was afraid of death from embarrassment… what if I didn’t have the vegan baking gene? What if I sullied the name of the Worldwide Vegan Bakesale and of one of my favourite veggie places to eat in the whole wide city? What if my spoon served to confirm the stereotype carnivore’s everywhere say when vegan baking comes up, “that’s an oxymoron, right?” Or “disgusting, I’d rather eat sawdust sprinkled with brains.”

But I committed to this fundraiser, dang it, and Sejuiced called me back and said they’d love to support both causes and I could set up in front of their store. And here’s nothing but the truth: getting that call from Sejuiced was like someone telling me my first story was getting published, I was elated. I jumped up and down. This was real help from the community. And not to mention from a legit, healthy, feel-good place. I pushed the mundane terror back behind the eggs in the fridge, picked up the tofu instead and got to baking.

These chocolate chips are delicious! I'm still eating them!

We went to a new grocery store called Greens on the corner of West Broadway and Maple - they were super friendly and had the stuff we were looking for.

I used -with some minor adaptations- recipes from three Vegan Cookbooks: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World; The Garden of Vegan and Vegan Vittles. The pages now look like 18th Century treasure maps due to all the oil and flour and maple syrup I accidentally spilled on'em.

The baking started to pile up once I got the hang of it and ps, it's actually pretty easy to bake vegan.

Here’s some cover shots of the cookbooks that proved to not only be useful but late night friends too:

And speaking of friends, it felt like we were hanging out on Sesame Street setting up shop on West 4th avenue. People were so friendly! Our first customer of the day told us we made her day as she bit into one of my-first-time-ever-made-vegan-brownies and said “delicious”. I started breathing again. If it wouldn’t have been weird I would have hugged her for at least three seconds.

I got to thinking, if we could impress these healthy shiny people on West 4th, then maybe we could keep having some bakesales for The Arthritis Society. And heck, maybe even throw in some raw-food desserts sometime. We got to chat with one young woman who makes raw food desserts regularly. I told her I felt like Sly Stallone in Rocky 5 over the brownies, and that I would have no idea what superhero I would feel like over a successful raw food dessert bonanza… John McClane? Yippee-ki-yay…

We got to talk about the Arthritis Society, the upcoming marathon, and the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale to moms, kids, dads, dogs, shoppers, runners, bikers, people on dates, people who work in the area and the fabulous people who work at Sejuiced. We raised $96.50 too!  That pulled us up an entire percentage point towards our goal of nabbing $13 000, we’re resting at 41% of that so far ($5300!)

Three cheers for Sejuiced! Hip-hip-sejuiced! Hip-hip-sejuiced! This veggie-delicious restaurant is letting us set up shop for our next Arthritis Society fundraiser tomorrow.

And between now and then I have a lot of vegan baking to do.

We’ve hitched our little wagon to the tractor that is The 2nd annual Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. As a part of this worldwide 2-week event, we’re whisking up cookies, cupcakes and brownies (oh my! – I never get tired of this joke or The Wizard of Oz, sigh). So, if you’re strolling along beautiful West 4th avenue tomorrow between Noon and Two, stop by Sejuiced (1958 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC) for a little taste of what hopefully will be delicious.

Yeah yeah oh-yeaaaaahhh.

Jordan and I are crossing our score cards in hopes that you will put on a housecoat or a tie and join us for some 5-pin fun.

Our next Arthritis Society fundraiser….(Kenny Rogers singing ohhh yeahhhh)…. The “Chuck the Stapler and Pick Up a Ball” fundraiser.

What the heck does that mean you ask?

1) We came up with the title really late at night, in a burst of creative hilarity and thought it would be genius

2) We both really love the movies Office Space and The Big Lebowski and was trying to figure out a way to combine them in both in our next event

3) We want people to dress up either as their favourite Office Space character or Big Lebowski and put the Swinger red stapler aside for some bowling time

4) We both suffer from ‘a case of the Monday’s’ on Monday’s, Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, etc and there’s no better cure than a bit of The Dude or anything narrated by Sam Elliot.

5) Even Milton abides.

All money raised goes to lift our pink mercury up, up way up! (which is a weird way of saying it goes to The Arthritis Society; full disclosure: I named this event too, sigh)  :)

You can email Jordan at jordanwhemsley@yahoo.com to pick up a ticket!! He did this funny video-ad for it too! (And Jordan looks like a younger Kenny Rogers but he sings like King Diamond and Ronnie James Dio). ohhh yeahh.

First off: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  to Zulu Records (making us legit by helping us sell tickets); Pacific Cinematheque, (the people working & volunteering there are gods and saints); Videomatica (giving us a way cool prize pack and a much needed high-five); Jordan’s mom’s (baking supplies trip or should I say mission?) and the friends who iced cupcakes late into a Friday night, with no bottom of the tub in sight.

Our house the night before the fundraiser, icing 144 cupcakes. Thank god my friends are artists, or the decoration would have consisted of a blob of icing on top.

a close up!!

the most important part to making cupcakes...(don't worry this was a staged event and no real icing dipping or licking took place).

The duds

We raised $968 in ticket/cupcakes/50/50 draw sales and $200 in donations!! That’s $1168!! Bumping us up to 32% of our total goal!  We threw in the price of the theatre and insurance and gave a little speech before the show.  We were so amazed to see people come out. That we even gave out prize packs consisting of a dinosaur, fake tattoos and a $5 gift certificate. (So, if you were wondering whether or not you’d wanna come to our next event -may the prize pack sway you over-  because we’ve got two more to hand out for next time!)

We were a little nervous first time around that we only got pictures of the cupcake table before people arrived and the film started. hahaha. So, there’s no pictures of the actual turn out or how good the movie looked up on the big screen. And let me talk about the film for a second, holy holy, how grateful we are to The White Stripes, B-side entertainment, Emmett Malloy for letting us do our own screening of the movie that turned my heart into a six-string guitar and made it weep and howl.  A few years back one of my best friends and I took a greyhound bus to try and follow the White Stripes around for a few shows. Afterwards we stood waiting beside any vehicle that looked like it could be for them just to catch a glimpse of the band that brought our souls back. I didn’t even feel foolish. I was old enough to be the mom of the kids waiting with us. (Well, a responsible teenage mom at least). I love that band and everyone who showed up on Saturday loves them too. Even Jordan’s mom left the theatre raving about the mystifying/electrifying twosome. So, heck yah!

Me really hoping people will show up

One of our two tables at Pacific Cinematheque

These swirly goodies raised us 70 bucks!

Yay white stripes loving, cupcake selling friends!

We’ll post soon about our next event on Monday, April 19th. Just know this: it’s gonna bust your case of the Monday’s wide open and pour some bowling balls’ worth of fun right in till Tuesday. 5-pin style.

b-b-b-bam-bam b-b-b-bam-bam, I wanna be more organized.

Not sure the Ramones would have rolled a cigarette or took a shot of whiskey to that last one, but I think if I was more organized I wouldn’t want to be sedated.

I’ve got that 200-cigarettes feeling for our Arthritis Society fundraiser tomorrow. I feel like Martha Plimpton’s Monica- making cupcakes, sending out thinly veiled beseeching emails and texts to close friends to bring their friends and that guy they always wanted to talk to at the office and then maybe his brother and if his brother’s neighbour is out on the front stoop then convince him to come too.  Ahh, nerves or is that excitement?

When it comes to raising cash they’re the same thing.

Throwing a big public bash feels like first date jitters. It’s exciting to go out with someone you don’t know but it’s such a risk from the usual pyjama pants and The Office routine. You have to be hopeful and realistic, but even more hopeful. Of course, we’ll break even, we may even make a hundred bucks towards the cause! Maybe a thousand! Someone’s shirt will come off! Who knows?!

In less than 24 hours our very first big public fundraiser will be game on.

The good news is our fundraiser is a White Stripes documentary. That’s like having a really cool older brother let you sell your Girl Guide cookies at his all-weekend party. You might not sell anything but you know your life is gonna be changed. That’s the thing about rock n’roll.

So having Emmett Malloy’s film on the screen already gives us a rock up from me playing an off-version of Alouette on my grade school recorder while crying. Already it’s waaayy better than that.

Last ticket count from Zulu Records has us sold 42, we have sold 12 ourselves and there are 194 seats to fill with sweet sweet fundraising love.  We need to sell 80 to break even.

So…140 people isn’t too many to expect at the door…right?…right? Well, not if someone’s shirt comes off.

Join us tomorrow at Pacific Cinematheque at 1:30pm. Cupcakes, prizes, swirly candy and rock n roll. Tickets are $10.00 each but 20-bucks worth of fun.