Great news!

My mom had a phone call today from Mme Caron at the Canadian Cancer Society (you might have seen her comment here on my website). She is so nice!! She told us that their systems people are working very hard on setting up a way that I can link to their site through DorisDollars. That way, people will be able to come here and make donations that will go to them directly (from Canada and the United States!) but I'll be able to keep track of the total amounts to count towards my goal.

This is really exciting and I'm very happy that they want to help me!!! Thank you Mme Caron! Someone else is going to contact me (specifically for the area where I live) and will also help me with my garage sale. I will be able to show people who come to my sale that the CCS knows about it and supports me and that all the money collected will really be donated to them (and NOT put in my piggy bank!).

One of the best things is that Mme Caron told us that the link that they are working on for me could eventually be available to others who want to do what I'm doing!! They aren't just making a one-time "fix" for me... they are making something that will help more people in the future! Isn't that GREAT?? We're going to hear back from them again in a few more days. I'm so happy!

By the way, Mme Caron said that they had a hard time using my email link to contact me. We have checked the coding and have tested it from many different email accounts (like hotmail, yahoo and others) and it is working correctly. If you have trouble reaching me by email, please don't hesitate to post a comment after any of my entries. They appear on the website but they are also emailed to me by this system so I will be sure to get your message one way or another!

Still working on the garage sale but I'll update you again soon!

Kelsey
xo

The date's set!

Hi everybody! Here's another update about what I've been working on.....

The date for my garage sale is set! It will take place Saturday, September 16th. I'm very excited that I've received some donated items to sell and I have the promise of more coming soon. I'm also selling some of my own toys and games, like electronic games and CDs and such. Now the hard work starts... having to price everything :) I'm really happy that I have some bigger items to sell... like a microwave, some small televisions and even a child's bike. These things will be really helpful towards raising larger amounts!

At the garage sale, I'm going to have either business cards, flyers or both. They will explain "DorisDollars" and give the URL to my website. I hope people might use them to keep track of my progress or to help spread the word to others that I haven't met yet. My mom and my aunt are going to help me with the design and color printing!

Also, we wrote back to the Canadian Cancer Society about the link that I described in my other post. We hadn't received an answer yet so I thought it would be a good idea to check with them again. I am sure that it takes time to decide about something like that and to write back to everybody that might be sending them emails. I have to be patient and I'm sure I'll have an answer soon. I'll let you know!! :D

Thank you again for your nice comments and all your support! They sure mean a lot to me.

Kelsey
xo

Updating you on a few things

Hi everyone,

First of all, I'd like to say thank you very much for your beautiful comments. It is really nice to know that I have so many people supporting me already. That makes me feel stronger and even more determined!

I would like to give you a quick update on a few things. After a great suggestion (thanks Granny!), I asked my mom to help me look into how I could get a referral link to the Canadian Cancer Society's website. That might not be the right name for it but what I am hoping is that, if someone clicks on their link from my site and makes a donation online, then I would somehow be notified and I could count that amount into my total DorisDollars. Raising $100,000 is going to be a big job and every bit will help! So last night, my mom emailed the CCS and asked some questions about all this and now we're waiting for an answer. When I know more, I'll post about it here for everyone to read.

I've also started collecting items for my garage sale - not from other people, yet, but I'm going through my own toys and games and "STUFF" first. Then, I am planning to get in touch with the friends and family who have offered to donate items of their own so I can arrange to pick them up or have them dropped off.

My mom, my sister and I are also thinking about craft projects that we can do together in order to raise funds but that's probably not going to happen until after the garage sale (unless we have enough time to make some before that!). I was also thinking of adding a coffee stand, just like my mom had at her garage sale. She gave the coffee away for free, when people stopped by, and I would too -- but if someone wanted to drop some spare change in a jar as a donation, they could do it at that table and take a coffee with them.

Anyway, these are just some of the things that are going on today! I hope you'll keep coming back and visiting my website and leaving comments and suggestions. I really enjoy reading them and I check every day!

xo

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to DorisDollars. My name is Kelsey and this is my blog. It will follow Doris Dollars, my fundraising program. I'm just getting started but I already have lots of ideas and things I'd like to try. My mom helped me to set up this website and I will update it as I go along. I will post about activities that I'm going to try and I'll always update you on how much money has been raised. I really hope that I will have success stories! I'll even try to add photos, if I have some.

I thought up Doris Dollars as a tribute to my Grandma, Doris (Golding) Hunt. She had a rare cancer of the salivary gland. She had lots of operations and radiation to try to help her get better. She lived with it for many years and fought really hard. She did everything the doctors told her to do. She passed away on November 25th, 2004. She was 63 years old. I miss her very much because she was such a big part of my life. My mom, sister and I lived with her for a few years and she always took very good care of us - until my mom had to start taking care of her. She never once complained about being sick, or being in pain, and she always wore a smile.

Doris Dollars will be my fundraiser to earn money for cancer research, one dollar at a time! My goal is to donate a total of $100,000 to The Canadian Cancer Society - no matter how long it takes! I know that is a very large sum but I was taught to always aim high if you hope to achieve big things. I think my Grandma deserves something big to honor everything she did for me and for others.

My first fundraiser will be a garage sale. It will be held in September, when my town lets families hold a yard sale. Many of my family members jumped right in with plenty of ideas and offers of donated items for me to sell. It is GREAT to know that so many people support me already and I'm just getting started! My garage sale probably won't be huge but all money raised will be donated.

If you would like to share your ideas for fundraisers or activities, feel free to comment to any post or you can send me email by clicking on the link in the righthand column of this blog.

Doris Dollars is new and just getting off the ground, but over time, who knows what I'll be able to accomplish?

Remember my new motto:

"You've got a chance to save lives. Go ahead. Go LOONIE!"