We had our meeting last night for October. I will update you all on the happenings. We always start our meetings with the run of the mill stuff. Things like the events we have to be at, craft shows like the Harvest Hoedown in Indian Head on October 20 and the Lioness Craft and Bake sale on November 10. We make sure that we have people to cover the whole day. Right now we are focusing on selling our raffle tickets and merchandise at these events. We will have Casino tickets available as well.
So after we get the house keeping stuff out of the way we are able to move onto the good stuff. We had two applicants last night. We think of this as the good stuff because helping these women is why we do all of the rest of the stuff with Forever Friends. When we can give money to a woman that really needs it then all of the fund raising and work that we do is all worth it.
We helped two women last night. We were able to pay for six months of lymph node draining for one woman and one wig for another. Most people probably don't realize that lymph node draining is not paid for by our health care. It takes about 1 1/4 hours in a very specialized massage that is not relaxing or fun. This in part keeps the arm from swelling to dangerous levels. It costs about 100-110 dollars per time and our applicant had to go everyday for three weeks. Adding this up means a woman on a very fixed budget spent about 2300 dollars in three weeks just on treatments. Not to mention that she had to stay in a care home while she got the treatments because she does not live anywhere close to where these specialized treatments are. It cost about 2000.00 for her stay. If you do some rough math you will see the cost of a necessary treatment resulting from breast cancer. And this is why we do what we do.
We then do reports from our treasurer. We have enough money in our account to pay for the Casino night and give at our average rate until January. This means if our Saskatchewan's Got Talent night is not a huge success we will be out of money.
Because we are as dangerously close to running out of money as I ever want to be, our focus is on the CKRM Presents Saskatchewan's Got Talent on November 29that the Casino Regina. The link below will get you information on the night and the performers. If you want ticket let me know and I will get them sent out for you.
http://casinoregina.com/entertainment/calendar/view/554/59
Thanks to everyone for the reads today. Have a great day!
"And there but by the grace of God, go I."
Monday, 15 October 2012
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Spotlight-Brandy Young!
Iyanla on the Oprah network was talking once about how you know when you are pushing yourself far enough. She says that when you feel just a little like you are going to pee your pants, that is the line. That's when you know. If you actually pee your pants, you have pushed your self too far.
For the most part the casino night is making me feel a bit like throwing up every time I think of it. Which for the record, is all the time. I will be happy when more tickets sell. That's the biggest part. It feels like your throwing a party and invited all your friends but not everyone one has replied yet. We have sold thirteen tables, eleven of eight and one of six and one of four. Lisa B Originals has been a huge help for us with ticket sales.
I am going to be showcasing a bit of our talent in the upcoming blogs.
Brandy Young has been singing since she could talk. Her first performance was when she was 8 years old. She's sang at many fundraisers and talent shows. Over the past 15 years, she's competed in the Yorkton GX94 and 620 CKRM Big Country Talent Shows. In 2008, she won the CMT Karaoke Star for Saskatchewan and got to go on to Toronto for the finals to represent her province. In 2011, she won the Sheila Ann Memorial for the 620 CKRM competition winning a session to record her single I'm Not Sorry. Brandy has sang at Craven's Mainstage for the past 6 years, Casino Regina's Show Lounge and Yorkton Painted Hand Casino, last year winning the Painted Hand Talent Show.
Brandy has been a huge supporter of FFOH. She has preformed at our auction in the past. This long term support is something that we are so impressed with. Brandy is one of our three performers for the evenings entertainment.
I will keep you all posted. It continues to unfold in an amazing way with plenty of surprises yet to come!
I will finish by saying, Please buy tickets! If this evening is not successful, FFOH will only have about seven thousand dollars to last until our spring auction. We will be out of money by January.
Happy Thanksgiving all! I am counting my blessings this weekend. And all of you are on my list for reading. Thank you all!
"And there but by the grace of God, go I."
For the most part the casino night is making me feel a bit like throwing up every time I think of it. Which for the record, is all the time. I will be happy when more tickets sell. That's the biggest part. It feels like your throwing a party and invited all your friends but not everyone one has replied yet. We have sold thirteen tables, eleven of eight and one of six and one of four. Lisa B Originals has been a huge help for us with ticket sales.
I am going to be showcasing a bit of our talent in the upcoming blogs.
 |
| Brandy Young |
Brandy has been a huge supporter of FFOH. She has preformed at our auction in the past. This long term support is something that we are so impressed with. Brandy is one of our three performers for the evenings entertainment.
I will keep you all posted. It continues to unfold in an amazing way with plenty of surprises yet to come!
I will finish by saying, Please buy tickets! If this evening is not successful, FFOH will only have about seven thousand dollars to last until our spring auction. We will be out of money by January.
Happy Thanksgiving all! I am counting my blessings this weekend. And all of you are on my list for reading. Thank you all!
"And there but by the grace of God, go I."
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Raw Emotion
I have used this blog for Forever Friends partially as a advertising tool for us and partially as a journal. Working through some of the things that make it challenging to be part of FFOH and some of the things that make it great.
This was one of those days it was both.
To begin I will tell some of the back story. My number has always been associated with Forever Friends. Applicants call me directly to discuss help, help with filling out the forms, and any questions they may have. This wasn't a big deal in the beginning because we didn't get many calls.
As FFOH grew, I got more calls. Some of these calls leave me reeling emotionally. I get the feeling that some of these women just need to tell their whole story to someone.
When bad things happen to us we don't always tell the whole story to everyone we meet. Think about it with me. We don't tell our families about our financial struggles because we don't want to burden them. We don't tell our doctor about how we feel emotionally about all that is happening. Some of our friends shy away from some of the more intense emotional side of it all. Some people distance themselves completely. We don't tell our husbands the whole story of the pain and discomfort. We camouflage "I'm fine, it's not that bad, I'm okay." We do not unleash the whole story on everyone we meet. We can't. You can't tell the lady in the supermarket isle about your feelings. You can't tell your mother about the change in your sex life because of what if going on. You can't tell your boss about your financial troubles.
So sometimes when these women call me they begin slowly with a couple of questions, tentatively. It sometimes turns into an emotional blood letting so to speak. With them telling me things they wouldn't tell anyone else. This raw emotion is very difficult to deal with. Even though I feel like crying with them, I don't. I just listen. Even though I sometimes feel like driving to their house and fixing it all, I know I can't.
I had asked at a meeting to have my number removed from the website, to encourage people to email instead. I was having a tough time dealing with the emotion. The rawness of it all. My board, always willing to back me up, agreed. No one wants me to burn out because I am overloaded. Then this happened-
A woman came up to me after a fundraiser. She introduced herself and then started to cry. She thanked me for all I had done for her. I asked if we helped her. She said yes but that we had never given her any money. She told me that she called me a few years ago. That I talked to her and made her feel so much better. She said she never did apply but just knowing that we were there to help her made everything better. She thanked me for listening, for taking the time to talk to her.
Here's the kicker. I didn't remember her. I have talked to so many women, over so many years. But it made me even more aware of what we do. The best part of FFOH is the fact that we are people, not an organization. We are people you can talk to, women there when you need us. Women who can actually really help. Sometimes that help is just someone to listen. I just didn't think about it like that.
I never did contact the web designer to take my name off the page. Just couldn't bring myself to do it. Now I know why. I know now I have to share some of the raw emotion with the rest of the board. This should help with the weight of the emotional pressure.
I am grateful everyday for all I get to do with FFOH. Today more than ever. The woman I talked to today just needed to know we could help. We can. Today her day is better. I feel grateful but weepy. I feel so sorry for the woman today. Her story very similar to Theresa. Stopped me in my tracks. I hope that our strength will be part of what will help her through.
"And there but by the grace of God, go I."
Thank you all.
This was one of those days it was both.
To begin I will tell some of the back story. My number has always been associated with Forever Friends. Applicants call me directly to discuss help, help with filling out the forms, and any questions they may have. This wasn't a big deal in the beginning because we didn't get many calls.
As FFOH grew, I got more calls. Some of these calls leave me reeling emotionally. I get the feeling that some of these women just need to tell their whole story to someone.
When bad things happen to us we don't always tell the whole story to everyone we meet. Think about it with me. We don't tell our families about our financial struggles because we don't want to burden them. We don't tell our doctor about how we feel emotionally about all that is happening. Some of our friends shy away from some of the more intense emotional side of it all. Some people distance themselves completely. We don't tell our husbands the whole story of the pain and discomfort. We camouflage "I'm fine, it's not that bad, I'm okay." We do not unleash the whole story on everyone we meet. We can't. You can't tell the lady in the supermarket isle about your feelings. You can't tell your mother about the change in your sex life because of what if going on. You can't tell your boss about your financial troubles.
So sometimes when these women call me they begin slowly with a couple of questions, tentatively. It sometimes turns into an emotional blood letting so to speak. With them telling me things they wouldn't tell anyone else. This raw emotion is very difficult to deal with. Even though I feel like crying with them, I don't. I just listen. Even though I sometimes feel like driving to their house and fixing it all, I know I can't.
I had asked at a meeting to have my number removed from the website, to encourage people to email instead. I was having a tough time dealing with the emotion. The rawness of it all. My board, always willing to back me up, agreed. No one wants me to burn out because I am overloaded. Then this happened-
A woman came up to me after a fundraiser. She introduced herself and then started to cry. She thanked me for all I had done for her. I asked if we helped her. She said yes but that we had never given her any money. She told me that she called me a few years ago. That I talked to her and made her feel so much better. She said she never did apply but just knowing that we were there to help her made everything better. She thanked me for listening, for taking the time to talk to her.
Here's the kicker. I didn't remember her. I have talked to so many women, over so many years. But it made me even more aware of what we do. The best part of FFOH is the fact that we are people, not an organization. We are people you can talk to, women there when you need us. Women who can actually really help. Sometimes that help is just someone to listen. I just didn't think about it like that.
I never did contact the web designer to take my name off the page. Just couldn't bring myself to do it. Now I know why. I know now I have to share some of the raw emotion with the rest of the board. This should help with the weight of the emotional pressure.
I am grateful everyday for all I get to do with FFOH. Today more than ever. The woman I talked to today just needed to know we could help. We can. Today her day is better. I feel grateful but weepy. I feel so sorry for the woman today. Her story very similar to Theresa. Stopped me in my tracks. I hope that our strength will be part of what will help her through.
"And there but by the grace of God, go I."
Thank you all.
Monday, 3 September 2012
Luck and a Golf Tournament
I think as a whole Forever Friends may spend more on boobs than anything else or anyone else on the planet. We buy boobs all of the time. This month we bought three and about six specialty bras. Sask Health will pay four hundred dollars usually for prosthetics but won't pay for bras. This makes no sense to me but I am not queen of the world (yet) so until then we just keep buying them.
The cycle is this. Women get 15 weeks of unemployment. Then they get sent to welfare. Welfare won't help them if they have any savings. So they spend everything they have. They go back to welfare and get about 800 dollars a month. Then when they need a bra that costs approximately 120 dollars they are allowed to "borrow" from their future food money at social services to buy the bra.
We take a woman who worked her entire life and reduce her to borrowing from her social services cheque with permission from a social worker to buy something she needs.
As a generation we are seeing a shift. It used to be that women had husbands to help them along. They stayed home, raised kids and kept a clean house. Sometimes they worked. And if they worked it was in retail or the service industry. (I know I am simplifying this and it is/was not like this for everyone.) Then we had a generation of women that began in the work force and developed more of a career. With those changes an income meant women we no longer tied to a man. Now we are seeing women that have more careers and less ties to men. But with that independence comes no help from a partner when they get sick. This is just how it is. More single women in their 40's and 50's. This trend opens up an area where women need help.
Luckily, we have help to give. The reason we have help to give is because of generous wonderful people like you readers and women like the one belonging to the Katepwa Beach Golf Club that are having a "Golf Fore Cancer" tournament on Thursday Sept. 6, 2012 at 2PM. If you golf you may want to consider helping out!
Oprah says "Luck is simply preparation meeting opportunity." I really believe that is true. We are an organized bunch of women with amazing opportunities before us. Or best opportunity is the opportunity to help people. That's something I feel pretty lucky to witness.
Thank you for reading. Over three thousand people have read about us! Keep sharing and spreading the cause. We have seen the number of applicants go up continually which means more of you are telling people who need us about FFOH. Thank you for that on behalf of the women we help.
Have a blessed day!
The cycle is this. Women get 15 weeks of unemployment. Then they get sent to welfare. Welfare won't help them if they have any savings. So they spend everything they have. They go back to welfare and get about 800 dollars a month. Then when they need a bra that costs approximately 120 dollars they are allowed to "borrow" from their future food money at social services to buy the bra.
We take a woman who worked her entire life and reduce her to borrowing from her social services cheque with permission from a social worker to buy something she needs.
As a generation we are seeing a shift. It used to be that women had husbands to help them along. They stayed home, raised kids and kept a clean house. Sometimes they worked. And if they worked it was in retail or the service industry. (I know I am simplifying this and it is/was not like this for everyone.) Then we had a generation of women that began in the work force and developed more of a career. With those changes an income meant women we no longer tied to a man. Now we are seeing women that have more careers and less ties to men. But with that independence comes no help from a partner when they get sick. This is just how it is. More single women in their 40's and 50's. This trend opens up an area where women need help.
Luckily, we have help to give. The reason we have help to give is because of generous wonderful people like you readers and women like the one belonging to the Katepwa Beach Golf Club that are having a "Golf Fore Cancer" tournament on Thursday Sept. 6, 2012 at 2PM. If you golf you may want to consider helping out!
Oprah says "Luck is simply preparation meeting opportunity." I really believe that is true. We are an organized bunch of women with amazing opportunities before us. Or best opportunity is the opportunity to help people. That's something I feel pretty lucky to witness.
Thank you for reading. Over three thousand people have read about us! Keep sharing and spreading the cause. We have seen the number of applicants go up continually which means more of you are telling people who need us about FFOH. Thank you for that on behalf of the women we help.
Have a blessed day!
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Always Amazed!
Wow has it been a busy summer. So much to catch you up on.
We have always grown and learned with FFOH. Our steady growth has made it so we can continue to keep up with the work load as it grows and changes. Having no paid employees means that we have to work pretty hard to keep up with the demands of it. There are lots of phone calls from social workers and applicants. As we get better known, we get more calls from the people on the front lines of cancer. As the people on the front lines learn about us then I know they will be able to pass more applicants on to us. I am so impressed with all that is going on.
We got our first donation on the Paypal account. That was exciting. Then we figured out how to get the money from the paypal account to the bank account. So that was great. Then with the help of a friend of mine from GeeBee Construction (Silver Sponsor for the Saskatchewan's Got Talent Night at Casino Regina) (Shameless Plug) We made sure it wasn't offensive to anyone and got good advice on making it better. So we are coming ahead in leaps and bounds. Things like that help us appear more professional. As we are growing we want to make sure that everyone we deal with knows that we take it very seriously.
We have had 52 applicants so far. Four in the last month alone. We have been able to help these women. That makes me feel good. We have been getting better at helping people as well. We are getting more streamlined and can respond even better to peoples needs. Speed is often of the essence so it is more important than ever to help quickly and efficiently.
Our announcement this time is the Paypal account. If you would like tickets to the event in the fall, go to our site and donate $75 and we will send you a ticket to the event. For a $35 donation we will send you a ticket for the show portion of the evening. The tickets are first come first serve basis so we will send you the best ones we have available. Here is our website again.
http://www.foreverfriendsofhope.org/
Now that fall has arrived, I promise to be attentive to the blog. We have had almost three thousand readers. Keep sharing and passing on the message of Forever Friends. Our applicants thank you for the information. Thanks for the reads!
We have always grown and learned with FFOH. Our steady growth has made it so we can continue to keep up with the work load as it grows and changes. Having no paid employees means that we have to work pretty hard to keep up with the demands of it. There are lots of phone calls from social workers and applicants. As we get better known, we get more calls from the people on the front lines of cancer. As the people on the front lines learn about us then I know they will be able to pass more applicants on to us. I am so impressed with all that is going on.
We got our first donation on the Paypal account. That was exciting. Then we figured out how to get the money from the paypal account to the bank account. So that was great. Then with the help of a friend of mine from GeeBee Construction (Silver Sponsor for the Saskatchewan's Got Talent Night at Casino Regina) (Shameless Plug) We made sure it wasn't offensive to anyone and got good advice on making it better. So we are coming ahead in leaps and bounds. Things like that help us appear more professional. As we are growing we want to make sure that everyone we deal with knows that we take it very seriously.
We have had 52 applicants so far. Four in the last month alone. We have been able to help these women. That makes me feel good. We have been getting better at helping people as well. We are getting more streamlined and can respond even better to peoples needs. Speed is often of the essence so it is more important than ever to help quickly and efficiently.
Our announcement this time is the Paypal account. If you would like tickets to the event in the fall, go to our site and donate $75 and we will send you a ticket to the event. For a $35 donation we will send you a ticket for the show portion of the evening. The tickets are first come first serve basis so we will send you the best ones we have available. Here is our website again.
http://www.foreverfriendsofhope.org/
Now that fall has arrived, I promise to be attentive to the blog. We have had almost three thousand readers. Keep sharing and passing on the message of Forever Friends. Our applicants thank you for the information. Thanks for the reads!
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Another fantastic week!
This is an update on all that has been done with Forever Friends this week. It's been a great week!
We had a group of great ladies from Fort Qu'Appelle host a golf tournament in our name this week. They raised 2717.00 dollars for us! Thanks to the Echo Ridge Ladies for the great support. Two of our member helped with the registration table and I was asked to speak at the luncheon. It's always an honor to speak at Forever Friends events. I always get nervous and hope I don't make a fool of myself. Don't fall down, zipper up, that sort of thing. I think it went okay. The luncheon was great and they even let me eat first which was awesome. A fantastic lunch was served and we were honored to be there. Honored to be a part of it. So again our thanks to all that helped organize the event.
We are in the process of helping a couple of applicants right now. One is for prosthetics and a wig as well as rent for four months. And another for four months of bills until she can return to work.
Neither of these women were declared terminal so they don't qualify for long term disability payments. Because they own cars and homes they don't qualify for social services until they sell their assets and live off the money. Even though they don't have huge expensive homes or new cars they don't qualify. So basically they are left with no income while finishing their treatments. Four months worth of treatments and no money coming in at all. I can not even try to understand why this happens but it does. Everyday.
Our event for the fall is coming together very nicely. We have the ability to accept donations on our website now. We can also use the paypal button to process MasterCard or Visa transactions. If you would like to purchase tickets to our fall event you and contact me directly at 699-7788 or call the casino Regina box office 565-3000 (Regina) or 1-800-555-3189. Or visit the link below. http://www.casinoregina.com/entertainment/box-office
And just because I haven't included it in a while, here is the link to the Forever Friends website. There is an application there, as well as a donate button.
http://www.foreverfriendsofhope.org/
We appreciate every look at the site, every read of the blog and all of the support we get.
Thank you all.
We had a group of great ladies from Fort Qu'Appelle host a golf tournament in our name this week. They raised 2717.00 dollars for us! Thanks to the Echo Ridge Ladies for the great support. Two of our member helped with the registration table and I was asked to speak at the luncheon. It's always an honor to speak at Forever Friends events. I always get nervous and hope I don't make a fool of myself. Don't fall down, zipper up, that sort of thing. I think it went okay. The luncheon was great and they even let me eat first which was awesome. A fantastic lunch was served and we were honored to be there. Honored to be a part of it. So again our thanks to all that helped organize the event.
We are in the process of helping a couple of applicants right now. One is for prosthetics and a wig as well as rent for four months. And another for four months of bills until she can return to work.
Neither of these women were declared terminal so they don't qualify for long term disability payments. Because they own cars and homes they don't qualify for social services until they sell their assets and live off the money. Even though they don't have huge expensive homes or new cars they don't qualify. So basically they are left with no income while finishing their treatments. Four months worth of treatments and no money coming in at all. I can not even try to understand why this happens but it does. Everyday.
Our event for the fall is coming together very nicely. We have the ability to accept donations on our website now. We can also use the paypal button to process MasterCard or Visa transactions. If you would like to purchase tickets to our fall event you and contact me directly at 699-7788 or call the casino Regina box office 565-3000 (Regina) or 1-800-555-3189. Or visit the link below. http://www.casinoregina.com/entertainment/box-office
And just because I haven't included it in a while, here is the link to the Forever Friends website. There is an application there, as well as a donate button.
http://www.foreverfriendsofhope.org/
We appreciate every look at the site, every read of the blog and all of the support we get.
Thank you all.
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Some Amazing Help!
The first on is on this flyer. Let these ladies know if you would like to enter a team. There are some great prizes and a light lunch. This is a ladies tournament. There is also a prize for most dollars raised so get out there and get some pledges. Forever Friends will be supplying all the receipts for the donations. I will keep you posted on the second tournament when we get the finalized information.
The second is a business here in Saskatchewan that sells locally inspired clothing. http://store.skatchclothing.com/products Follow this link to see the cool t shirts they have available this season. 15% of all orders in the month of July go to Forever Friends. I ordered a shirt last week. I got notification that it has shipped already and can't wait to get it! And in the fall I am going to order a bunny hug. Mostly because I am so glad they have bunny hugs, not hoodies. (Yes I know they are pretty much the same thing, however as a child/teen of the eighties, this matters.)
As usual I am truly humbled by the happenings for Forever Friends this year. Thank you all for your amazing support. Support those that support us and let them know it.
Have an amazing day!
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