Thursday, March 29, 2012

long overdue update

Hi folks, this update has been long overdue.

As many of you may know from following our blog from past, post event becomes quite demanding and draining resulting in delayed updates and follow-ups.

Our sincere apologies if we have not yet followed up with you. We are working on it.

To start on a positive note, our 10th year event left us with a whopping 1 million by the day's end on Feb 3, and over 1.1 million on our post drop date (Feb 8). We thank Make-A-Wish for hosting our chaotic pre and post cash events and putting up with our craziness.

We say goodbye and thank you to Kelsey who has done an outstanding job with the tax receipting this past year. Kelsey had a most challenging task of sorting years of unresolved receipting issues
at the Stollery Foundation. We appreciate your dedication and work Kelsey - you will be missed.

We also say farewell to Brandi who moved back to a much less hectic position at the City of Spruce Grove where she one again manages events. Think her nerves have nicely settled since her departure with us. Brandi, we thank you for your administrative and organizational talents and great ideas. Hope you'll stay in touch.

We say "WELCOME" to Leslie Ritchie who's taken taken over Brandi's position. Leslie will be our new mom. :)
Leslie has been recently fitted with a ball and chain so she will not be able to leave us anytime soon. After volunteering on our most hectic days, Leslie has chosen to live Hair Massacure.
Jaime and I interpret that she loves chaos and high paced insanity. Leslie has 10 years of personal history with Jaime, so Jaime knows where she lives in case she tries to run.

Jaime has officially survived 7 events (in some capacity), however this year in particular proved to be THE most challenging in her new role as event manager. She was busy.

If I may touch on this - Jaime's background is management (in a C.R. role with McDonald's - 2200 employees).
She has done a phenomenal job managing HM and maintaining her sanity.
Admittedly I struggled letting go of certain responsibilities, not an easy task for a person who is accustomed to playing a role and overseeing nearly every area.
Eventually I learned to accept that I cannot manage all areas and am currently in the learning phase of adjusting to my new role (which we are still defining as Hair Massacure expands into new areas). We are growing, and this is exciting!

On a personal note:

BOTH Jaime and I have experienced an exorbitant amount of personal struggle and hardship since mid February. Family crisis and personal challenge primarily.
Not sure why we have both been challenged to this level, but I can tell you that neither of us will succumb to pressure - at least not yet.
We have both endured a lifetime of struggle, so I guess it will take heck of a lot to take us out of the game. I will say this: we are most thankful that these events did not find us during the campaign. Now that I look back, I believe there has been a distinct pattern of difficulties the follow each event. One may look at this negatively but the way I see it - the good Lord was looking after us putting off the inevitable until such a time that we could deal with it.

Through all of this, I am proud to share that Jaime has lost a total of 50 pounds and still going strong! While we are on a weight loss note - Congrats Tina MacQueen - 100 lbs!! Yay!!!!!!

Speaking of a lighter note:
Kali and I are adjusting to our new do's.
My hair is growing in - at the awkward stage where hats and hair glue are a staple.
Kali's new do is fabulous! A donated 14 inches of thick hair - my daughter has been growing this out since her last shave in 2007.
Braces off, Kali looks like an official teenager. Its hard to believe she's the bald little girl spinning around in the black and white video clip.



Its been difficult to promptly wrap up our event between the various distractions that have taken us away from task, but rest assured we are plugging away - and with Leslie's help we will be wrapped up by April's end.
Our total will be announced (donations are still coming in, so if you have any please send into Make-A-Wish or contact us via the website).
Ive decided to reveal my secret hope of years past - to beat the Stollery Radiothon (sorry Stollery, nothing personal). Its all for the good of the kids, just friendly competition. :)
Not sure if we will meet or beat the 1.3 yet, but we shall get darn close!
Stay tuned - May 1st will be our announced grand total of 2012.

We will also ensure we deliver our outstanding thank yous and acknowledgments. So sorry for the delays if this applies to you.
We want to express our sincere gratitude for all levels of commitments to Hair Massacure.

With 10 years past us, Jaime and I are looking to implement a wee bit of "new".
Not sure what that looks like yet, but if YOU have ideas, we'd sure love to hear about them.

Stay tuned for more updates.
We hope not to delay our next blog.

Cheers






No comments:

Post a Comment