Well it has been a long time since I have blogged. I guess that means everything is going good and we haven’t had any delays or issues. We have been really busy with lots of things going on. I am going to blog about a couple of big events that have happened and will hopefully catch everyone up on everything else that has been happening in the next few days.
The first big event has to be Shave Your Lid for a Kid. Last June we decided we wanted to host a head shave to help raise money for Kids Cancer Care and give back to this incredible organization that has been with us for the whole journey. A year ago we had no idea what to expect or how much we could raise, but I think we can safely say we have exceeded all expectations.
We held Shave a Lid on Friday May 25th at Somerset School. In the last month the school community stepped up and did an incredible job of fundraising, recruiting shavees, providing a great venue and helping us with the planning and pulling off of the event. I was there just after lunch and started helping setup for the Spring Fling (school dance) and getting ready for the head shave. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and we made the decision to setup inside. This limited our space a little, but not the enthusiasm of all the people.
We had Kids Cancer Care, DJ Fish and Virgin Radio all show up to help with the event. We ended up with 40 people shaving their heads, over 30 door prizes and ended up raising over $51,000. When we finally got started we were in one of the double classrooms and it was packed. We had great volunteers shaving heads as well as some special shavers for various people. Ryley and I both shaved our heads at the same time and Karlee shaved the majority of my head! We had several Scouts and leaders shave their heads. Both the principal shaved his head and the assistant principal got a pretty blond hair cut and then let the kids dye his hair lots of pretty colours. There were students and parents that decided they wanted to shave their heads too. The outpouring of support for the event was incredible. There are several families at the school that have been impacted by childhood cancer so I think the fundraiser hit home to many people.
We also had lots of family (including some from out of town) and friends come out and help us with all aspects of what we were doing. It was very neat to see some people who we haven’t seen in years. Christine (the CEO of KCC) and Ric McIvor (the Transportation Minister) both showed up to lend their support. There are too many people to thank in a blog, but if I didn’t get to say Thanks at the event please know you effort and support were greatly appreciated!
This past Thursday (June 21st) Kids Cancer Care put out the call for volunteers to help with building bunk beds at Camp Kindle prior to a health inspection on Monday. They needed volunteers to help get 30 bunk beds built in a day. Several friends stepped up and offered to come out to help. A huge thanks to Roland, Brad and Chad for coming out and building. Another thank you to all the people who said they would have come had it been another weekend or if there had been more notice.
We got out there just before 10am Sunday morning and headed up to one of the new dorms. After a little planning and some figuring we got down to work. Chad and I went to one of the downstairs rooms and got right to work. After a little bit of playing around we got a system down and managed to get a couple of beds built. We helped another couple finish their second bed and then went down for lunch. After lunch I worked with Brad and Roland and we got another 2 beds done and then went back and put the missing ladder rungs on some of the beds in the first dorm. We had everything finished by about 4:30 or so and were on our way home.
Camp Kindle looks like a completely new place. The 2 new dorms are beautiful inside and out. All the rooms have a great view of the valley and only have 4 people in each room. It is such a nice place that I can’t wait to go out there for family camp. The new dining hall and staff quarters look beautiful too. There is still a lot of work to do for the landscaping as it was a big mud bog this weekend, but I am sure that they will get that all together. I know all the kids who have been affected by childhood cancer are going to love the new camp and really appreciate all the work that has been done.
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