Last time I did the walk (in 2005), I remember being so stressed out about raising the money. Everyone I knew was in school, so I raised it $5 at a time. I did the walk and spent over $200 of my own money just to participate. But the goodness in people came out when I baked cookies and took them to class. It was a history class that I knew nobody. I nervously stood up in front of the group before class and told them what I was doing, and that I would pass around a basket of cookies and if they would put a dollar in the basket, it would be donated toward the cause.
I expected lots of cookies to be gone and hardly any money left in the basket. After all, I didn't know any of the people in class, and none of them approached me after class to talk about the walk. I don't remember the numbers, but I was shocked at how much money was in the basket, and also how many cookies were left over. I guarantee several people gave me $5 for the cookies, and I also guarantee that several people put in money and didn't take the cookies.
Asking for money is always uncomfortable, but I felt like if I could just throw a party and let everyone know that it is a fundraiser, they would pick up the money part. And it worked wonderfully! The best part is that lots of people who couldn't make it either gave me a check or promised to donate in the next few months. So the word is out!
We started off with some appetizers: 3 types of pesto, along with bread and bacon-wrapped pineapple.
Brooklyn got all dressed up for the party! For a broken camera, the pictures turned out ok.
I just love a cute tub filled with drinks! I tied pink/brown ribbons to the handles. We have a TON of sodas leftover. At least we didn't run out!
I set up a 'Donation Station' with donation forms, pens, and completed ones so everyone knew what to do with their checks. It's pink.
And I bought pink flowers for the dining room table. Also notice the new artwork in the background. It's from art.com and took forever and a day to come in. But at least there is something on the walls.
I tied pink/brown ribbons to the wine glasses. You can't really see them in the picture.
Then we made pizza. I had enough for 8-half sized pizzas. We made Pioneer Woman's potato, leek, bacon pizza; a canadian bacon/pineapple; a pepperoni; a spinach and tomato; and a tomato and canadian bacon; along with a dessert pizza with tons of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter chips, and marshmallows. Delicious!!
Then we all hung around and enjoyed the evening. The favors were chocolate cake balls dipped in pink. I set them up on the new table in the entryway.
Here's a closeup:
In the end, the party raised $475, which brings my total so far to $850, about 40% of the way to my goal! I'm loving the journey this time around- training is going well and I realized that walking so far in a day makes me feel really good about myself and what my body can do. And I wouldn't do it just for myself, so having the greater purpose of raising money to put an end to breast cancer makes it all even better.
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