IBO’s Making A Difference

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Shaun

Just came across this blog post by the Amway One By One blog around how much money was raised this year by the Easter Seals Drop Zone in Canada. $25,000 was raised which helps support children and families dealing with disabilities. Amway has been involved with The Drop Zone events since they started and over the last seven years it’s IBO’s have raised over $400,000 dollars to this great charity. I know each year we will continue to raise more and this is just the start of one of my dreams to raise larger amounts for great charities such as this.

Check out the post here – http://blogs.amway.com/onebyone/2011/11/09/taking-a-leap-of-faith-for-easter-seals-canada/

Easter Seals Thank You

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Shaun

I just wanted to send a final update and thank you. A thank you to all those who selflessly donated to this great cause. I know I did a lot of canvasing, events and social media contacts and it really did end up in a great result. I was able to raise the most money in Edmonton for a single fundraiser and that earned me a second rappel off the building. However the biggest result was getting this great charity more money which was always the goal.

As promised here is the video of the first rappel, I wish they had the second rappel as that was where I went upside down and played around a lot more. Next year for sure! I do have to give a quick thank you to Amway Canada for taking care of the video for me, I really do appreciate it.

2011 Easter Seals Drop Zone

Here is the wonderful thank you I received in the mail the other day from Easter Seals. The girl in the photo was this years Easter Seals Ambassador, Melissa Pickle. Such a sweet girl and has a huge life ahead of her thanks to the efforts of Easter Seals. Feels good to make a difference in a person’s life, wish more of us could do the same.

Dropping for a Great Cause

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Shaun

Yesterday I had the honour to raise enough money to do the Easter Seals Drop Zone. If you raise $1,500 your eligible to drop over the side of the 29 story Sutton Place in downtown Edmonton. This is the second year I’ve done this and did more than doubled what I raised last year. I raised around $1,800 last year and this year with the help of many donations, raised $3,780 to earn the title of top single fundraiser for 2011. Along with that title, it allowed me the ability to drop again which was twice as much fun as the first drop. I was able to go upside down, swing around to the other side of the wall and knock on a few windows to see if any guests were checked in. Nobody came to check it out, maybe to scared Either way when your comfortable with the equipment you can pretty much do anything you want. It’s safe beyond safe with multiple checks and multiple points of safety.

Easter Seals is a great charity that raises money to help enhance the lives of people with disabilities. It first started out with children and then realized that children grow up and still require assistance. One of the best things I love about this charity is the fact all the money raised in Alberta STAYS in Alberta. This allows more money to be dedicated to the people who actually need it instead of all the administration that typically happens with most organizations. So that is just one of the reasons why I’ve chosen to donate my money towards this charity. I also think when you have some extra money coming in and your debt free it’s a nice way to give back to the community. That has been a dream of ours for awhile now and since we have extra income its only right to help those who need it.

A HUGE thanks needs to go out to all the sponsors of this event as these types of events are not possible without them. One cool note about the sponsors is that Amway is a long standing sponsor of Easter Seals and does a tremendous job with this event. Amway was highlighted quite a lot during the dinner since I was the top fundraiser which was very humbling. I was able to meet the ambassador they had this year and get my picture with her. They made mention about the IBO’s that were in the room (there were definitely a few representing) and it was quite interesting to see. No snide comments or anything like that this year because the people of Easter Seals understand the impact Amway has. I’ll support that for sure.

So what’s next? Well first a thank you to all the sponsors, I’ll be sure to send a personal thank you in the coming days. Next year, September 5th, 2012 is when the next Drop Zone is and I’m setting my goals higher. $5,000 will be my personal goal and next year I want to see if we can get even more IBO’s involved in a huge team that will blow away the top team which was just under $13,000. With the size of this Alberta market we can easily surpass that and that’s my goal next year.

Last Sunday of August

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Shaun

Well this is the last Sunday of August and well the last weekend of August and I would be lying if I said I’m a bit sad at that. It means the inevitable changing of leaves from green to yellow and then to nothing. Edmonton is one ugly city once all the leaves are off and just before the snow falls. Its quite a depressing sight and I can see why people have the need to get the heck out of here during the winter and regardless if they have the cash for it they will go into debt just to flee.

However, there is a silver lining to this almost depressing state of season change here in Edmonton, its the fact there is change. Change is good, it gives us a clean slate sometimes so that we can move forward. While I would much rather have a longer summer, we need to deal with what we have and make the best of it. Embrace the change and move forward. Look at the bigger picture and be thankful to have another day on this planet and embrace the things that come.

So on this last Sunday of August I’m thankful for a lot of things. I think I’ll take a digital page out of Kim’s blog on Happy and write on what I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful to have a loving family who has the patience and grace to see me off to work each day.
I’m thankful to have my health of which I’ve been working at so that I may stay on this earth long enough to see my kids grow up and my wife grow old with me
I’m thankful for my family and extended family of who we try and see as much as we can, no matter the distance.
I’m thankful for my chosen family and friends
I’m thankful to be out of debt and no longer have those shackles in our lives
I’m thankful to have a wife that loves me and works on our relationship each and every day.
I’m thankful I’ve been able to raise a ton of money for Easter Seals and my thanks goes out to all those who have donated thus far.
I’m thankful for so much more but those are the key ones that are on my heart right now

I highly recommend that you take some time and reflect on what your thankful for.

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

10 Days–Easter Seals Update

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Shaun

So 10 days until I take the plunge over the 28 story Sutton Place here in Edmonton all for the Easter Seals Drop Zone. I have been very fortunate to have raised $2,590 so far however I still have $910 more dollars to go. I’m currently sitting at 74% of my goal and am working by butt off to get the rest of the money to reach that goal.

Just to give people a quick refresher on what it is I’m raising money for here is a quick run down.

Easter Seals Alberta is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of Albertans with disabilities and special needs. Proceeds from this event help fund each of our three main programs:

Easter Seals Camp Horizon, where every summer, over 1200 kids and adults challenge themselves and have fun through participating in various activities that develop personal skills and build self-conﬁdence and self-esteem.
Easter Seals McQueen Residence, a fully staffed group home for disabled adults, where residents are encouraged to learn the necessary skills and develop the conﬁdence to live in the community on their own.
Equipment and Support Services (ESS), a last resort agency supplying assistive and mobility equipment to Albertans with disabilities and special needs, thus allowing for greater freedom and independence within our community.

This is a great charity and one of the few of the larger charities that are able to keep all the money raised in Alberta to stay in Alberta. Most charities end up going to the larger foundation and then get spread out evenly which may or may not be fair. This way all my efforts stay within the province which is one of the reasons why I’ve decided to dedicate my time and some of my money to this worth wild charity.

Now I’m putting out a challenge in the next 10 days to everyone that reads this and to everyone else I’ll contact in other methods to see if they are able to part ways with $20 dollars. Typically that’s say a lunch and a coffee which most people who work downtown do. I can tell you at work I hardly see anyone brown bag it, and if they could just give up one lunch that would be $20 dollars which would also be a tax receipt and doing something selfless instead of buying a lunch.

So what say you Edmonton and beyond? Would you be willing to give up $20 dollars and brown bag it for one day? As the slogan says, Challenge yourself and change lives, I challenge you to give up a lunch for one day. Can I at least challenge those on the Summer Blog Challenge? You’ll get more awesome points!

For those who don’t have the link here it is again. http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1042653&langPref=en-CA