Pay it Forward for Kamloops
Dear Potential Sponsor:
We are writing this letter today to ask you to please help us help someone in our community who is in need, (just so you know it is not me!). Please allow us to introduce ourselves and give you a brief history of our story. My name is Debby and my daughter's name is Carly. I am a 52 year old woman who is a ovarian cancer survivor (3 years so far), still in the midst of trying to rid my body of this terrible disease. My daughter Carly is 26 years old and has been by my side since day one and continues to support and help me anyway she can. When I was diagnosed we lived in Ontario and I didn't have the support I needed (emotional or financial) to help me. My "husband" of 20 years left for the last time when I got sick. All of a sudden I was a single Mom of two with all the stress and bills that go with that on top of trying to deal with this disease and everything that comes along with it. This is a very stressful time in a persons life and affects the entire family in so many ways that only someone who has gone through it can totally understand.
I was born in Kamloops and have wanted to move back to BC for many years. When we moved to Ontario it was only supposed to be for one year. Twenty years later I was still trying to get back to BC. One day in the middle of a Chemo therapy treatment I decided that this was the time for me to move, so we did. I transferred my treatments to Kamloops and set in motion what it took for us to get here (that's a story for another time believe me!). My daughter and I ended up giving most of our stuff away, brought what we could and a month later arrived in Kamloops. I just thought to myself if I am going to die it certainly isn't going to be in a town we never felt at home in! We stayed with friends here in Kamloops until we could get our own place. Since moving to Kamloops almost 2 years ago, I have been very fortunate to have had the strength to seek and receive the help and support from my friends (both old & new) as well as a few very special people in this community that I have found through sheer determination to rid my body of this disease. I am truly grateful for the love and support and knowledge they have all shared with me and thank them from the bottom of my heart. Sometimes people lose hope and do not have the strength to do what I have done. I want to empower them and give them their strength back, we all have it in us, just sometimes it gets lost. Personally my mantra is 'I AM A WARRIOR WOMAN AND I WILL NEVER EVER GIVE UP!!"
Through this journey my daughter and I are on we have come to realize just how difficult it can be and would like to spare someone at least part of the stress and worries we have been through. We have decided to make it our mission to help someone with cancer feel better about themselves, to have a better quality of life and to help them heal. We want to do for them what we wish was readily available for us when our journey started. We are doing a "PAY IT FORWARD" and need your help. We figured if "OPRAH" could do it so could KAMLOOPS!!
We have been making our Home Made Dog Biscuits and selling them through a few local stores, to friends and by word of mouth for the last year. Our little business is called The Gourmet Barkery. After paying for the cost of the ingredients we have finally raised $1,000.00. We were going to donate this money to Ovarian Cancer research but thought we could do more with what we had by involving our community. We would like to take this $1,000.00 and "PAY IT FORWARD" to someone else who is in need of some support and a little TLC. Cancer can be a very scary and lonely place. We will be checking with the Kamloops Cancer Clinic as well as inviting people to send in an application either for themselves or someone they may know to help us find that special person who needs our help the most. We want to make sure we have enough sponsors to do this before we get someone's hopes up. At this point we are sending this letter to see what the response will be. If you feel that you can contribute to this "PAY IT FORWARD" please let us know. We plan to video tape the entire process and will be asking the local cable channel to become involved. Hopefully this will inspire other people and communities to have their own 'PAY IT FORWARD" for someone in their community. It may not "Take a Village", but it would be much easier with one! (So if anyone has a video camera we can borrow for awhile that would be great!!)
One of the reasons for this letter to you today is to see if you or your company would be willing to help us turn this $1,000.00 into something much bigger than that. We are setting a goal for this "PAY IT FORWARD" of $50,000.00 in value. This may seem like a lot to give one person, but it would not all be in cash. In this day and age $50,000.00 really doesn't go that far when everything is so expensive and you are dealing with an illness that can take years to recover from. Your donation could be in the form of cash or gift certificates for services over time, or the use of one's cottage for a few days, whatever you are most comfortable with and feel will help this person to recover their health. Cancer is a long journey and these Acts of Kindness would be used throughout that journey. We all know that nutrition plays a key role in recovering from cancer as does the mind set and the stress level. "You have to change the "terrain" to change the game!" It truly is a "Body, Mind, & Spirit" journey.
I know there are many people in this community with the knowledge, skills or resources to help us achieve our goal. There are many things a person going through cancer can use that most people never think of. Whether they choose the more Natural Cures, chemo therapy, radiation treatments or all of the above, it is very stressful and can be very costly. Some options are just not available due to lack of funds.
This person's needs could be as simple as someone to help clean their house once in awhile or do their spring cleaning. You could do a little yard work, shovel some snow, put up Christmas Decorations. You could buy some nutritious food or supply them with some of the vitamins and supplements they are going to need to help their body through this journey. It could be just to spend some time talking to them or listening and letting them know that they are not alone. It could be sharing your expertise in a certain field whether it be massage therapy, nutritional advise, counseling, holistic health care, dentistry, massage, a day at the spa, or what ever the expertise is you have that will lesson the stress in this persons life. This is just to name a few, I will leave it up to you to finish the list.
Sometimes when you have cancer working is not an option and keeping your head above water plays a huge part in raising the stress meter to the max. As we all know stress only helps disease thrive! When we come together as a community and do this "PAY IT FORWARD" just think how good that will make someone feel knowing that there are people out there who care enough if they live or die to actually do something about it. I live on a disability pension so I know first hand how stressful it can be.
We will be calling on our friends and family, the local radio stations, newspapers, the local cable channel, businesses, churches, schools, as well as hopefully setting up in the malls for fund raising. It doesn't really matter what you give, any donation big or small, as it will all add up. The person selected will know where each and every service or dollar came from as well as getting a copy of the video. Just watching their special video on a rough day will give them the strength they need to carry on. As soon as we get enough participants we will then go and choose the person we are going to help. This person will have to meet certain criteria and will be carefully selected by a knowledgeable panel of people from all the applications submitted. When all is said and done we will be issuing a statement to all the participants as to what was donated and hopefully holding a thank you get together where we can all view the video and introduce ourselves to each other.
Most often when someone is diagnosed with cancer the people around them say they always feel so helpless and don't know what to do. They are always asking "What can I do to help?" Well this is something we can all do as a community.......... as my Mom (who died of ovarian cancer) used to say "Every little bit helps!"
We thank you very much for taking the time to read our letter and hope that you agree with our idea and choose to participate in anyway you can. If you know of anyone that you think should be considered to be the recipient of this "PAY IT FORWARD" please let us know at [email protected], or leave your contact info on our blog. If you know anyone who can help us achieve our goal please pass this information on. We look forward to working with you to strengthen and better our community and give people the power and the faith to take back the ability to overcome what ails them..........What He brings you to, He will bring you through!
Sincerely yours,
Debby & Carly McNutt
PS: If you want to be one of our Tweeps and Tweet us on Twitter.com we are @madeitoutwest
