“Catherine’s Pretty Ponytails 2- Big sis takes over!” surpassed what I thought was possible by a long shot. Between the hair donation/fundraiser and the Boston Pizza event Kimberly and her teams’ efforts yielded $15, 988 for the Canadian Cancer Society and gathered 63 ponytails for wigs for cancer patients. The young girls/women/men and young boy who participated by donating their hair and collecting pledges were absolutely outstanding!  They heard of this campaign, joined and ran with it. They managed to rank #2 in all of Ontario for on-line team fundraisers!  How shocking and impressive is that?! ? The youngest hair donor was 4 years old…just goes to show that anyone can do this, no matter your age or gender! You can make a difference and it feels so good!

Between the 2 campaigns, (the original led by Catherine and this years led by big sis and in a matter of only one year from June 22nd, 2008 to June 22, 2009) there is a total of 110 ponytails for wigs and $21,546 for the Cancer Society! Who knew this idea/campaign would have reached such proportions! It hit a chord with so many! Most of the hair donors/families are going through what we are and donating hair makes you feel that you are doing something and it helps to alleviate the feeling  that you can’t help your family member or friend who has cancer. It is empowering and it makes you realize  that you are not alone.

Although Catherine started this with the simple words “mom, I want to donate my hair for cancer patients” she certainly did not do this on her own! There are so many people to thank! We want to thank Regal Hair Design and Boston Pizza Orleans for hosting our events. You are terrific and we couldn’t have done this without you! I bet the hair donors are glad too that I wasn’t cutting their hair! We want to thank the companies who provided the campaign with services or product like The East Orleans Star local paper for the advertising, Sure Print and Graphics for the flyers and printed material, Loeb Cumberland Market who provided all the food and food supplies, the girls school for supplying the tables, chairs, canopies and portable stage. LynneArt facepainting for turning all the hair donors into walking works of art, caricatures and clowns for entertaining the crowd, Micpo who is multi-talented and enjoyed by young and old, our local TV anchor Max for all the support and promo, also all the companies who provided silent auction prizes and our friends and family and community who have been so terrific and supportive. We really appreciate it! It means so much to our family! We feel very blessed to have so many amazing people in our life!

The event at Boston Pizza Orleans was another huge success. We raised over $2000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. A big thank you to the owners and servers of Boston Pizza on Innes Rd. for the generous opportunity they provided and for donating 10% of all the sales that night and letting us hold a silent auction.

It was so nice to see so many friends, family members, families from the girls school and our community out to support the girls and their fight for a cure! It means so much to our family.We could not have done this without all of your help and support. Thank you all so much!