There's no "i" in team!

In my last blog post, I mentioned how I became part of the Winchester Hospital Heelers Weekend to End Women’s Cancers team in 2007…

Right from the start, we were a TEAM. We each had to raise $2,000 in donations to participate in the Weekend – a daunting task, or so we thought – so we set about trying to find creative ways to fundraise. With 15 women on the team, we knew that we would each have to do our own individual fundraising – canvassing our neighbours, friends, and relatives. We also decided to organize some ‘team’ fundraising events – a bake sale, giant yard sale, a food and wine event, area road tolls, and a raffle. Our effort was impressive!

Why did we mount such a huge effort? Fundraising for the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers was very personal to us. Through a collaborative arrangement, the ORCF had committed to returning 75% of the funds raised by our team to the Winchester District Memorial Hospital for local cancer programs. For those of us who live in the rural areas, traveling to Ottawa for chemotherapy and radiation treatment adds a whole other dimension of stress to an already stressful situation. The opportunity to contribute to improved cancer care in our community was huge.

We quickly learned that we weren’t alone in our thinking. Our local newspaper got behind us, and began running weekly profiles of the members of the team. Local business owners began calling us, asking how they could help support us in our efforts. We were the ‘little engine that could’; and with so much local community support, there was no way we could fail!

In 2007, our team of 15 raised over $54,000. In 2008, our team grew to 17 members, and we raised over $65,000. In 2009 – are you ready for this? Our team had 52 members and we raised over $154,000. If you do the math, over the three years, that was over $204,000 that came back to our local hospital – to our community – for local cancer care.

In my next post, I’ll let you know what the Winchester Hospital has been doing with these funds…