My cycle adventure featured on Local Tourist Ottawa blog!

After recently tweeting about loving getting to explore the city by bike, I was approached by Local Tourist Ottawa to write a blog post for them about my ride. They posted my blog today (and with a link to my fundraising page - how nice!) so please take a read:

Cycling in Ottawa: Laura Nicol trains for her longest bike ride yet

A vacation like no other

One of the taglines for this trip is "A vacation like no other". Part of the reason is because we are fundraising for CARE Canada's work in Vietnam and around the world in the 81 other countries where it works. We will be going to visit projects to see examples of the type of work CARE does and get to meet some of the people they are working with to help them out of poverty.


Many of you have already donated, and hopefully more of you will, and so I thought I should share some more about where your money is going and the great work you're supporting.

The wonderful Jason Sangster took this picture :)

Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE works in 82 countries around the world. Last year, nearly 11,300 staff helped 87 million people. 97 percent of CARE staff are citizens of the country they work in.


CARE works with the poorest communities to:

• Improve basic health and education
• Increase access to clean water and sanitation
• Expand economic opportunity
• Help vulnerable people adapt to climate change

CARE’s mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. They give communities the tools and technical assistance they need to help themselves because the goal is to empower communities to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions.


CARE also ensures that 87% of every dollar raised goes directly to support program activities. The rest covers administration and fundraising costs.


Part of our fundraising is going specifically to support the programs in Vietnam. CARE has worked in Vietnam since 1989 and has implemented over 150 projects in 23 provinces in collaboration with local partners. CARE currently employs 130 local staff.  


CARE’s programming in Vietnam includes:

• Adaptation to climate change
• Enabling access to clean water
• Emergency response
• HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support
• Sexual and reproductive health education

Here's a participant from CARE Australia's similar tour last year's talking about getting to visit projects.

I'm really looking forward to fundraising more for this great cause, and getting to see first hand the difference we're all helping to make! Thanks to everyone who's helped me towards my goal so far. 

Don't be shy - if you haven't had a chance yet to support my $3500 goal - please visit my fundraising page and donate! Donations over $10 are tax receiptable and every little bit counts! 

Fundraising update

It's been a crazy couple of weeks since my last update. The week following the long weekend I was off - running errands, meeting friends for coffee, and preping for my first big fundraiser as well. In case you missed it - I had a garage sale at the crazy tradition that is the Great Glebe Garage Sale.

All good fundraisers start with food:

This pan is meant to make multiple lasagnas, but it comes in handy for mini banana breads too!

Homemade two bite brownies!

So many generous people donated items for me to sell at the garage sale. Thank you to Stephanie, Bruna, Caroline, Kathy, Sarah, Jana, Rose, Mom and Dad, Jen, Jerome, and anyone else I missed! A huge thank you to Delaney and Nancy for lending me their front lawn/laneway to have the sale.Thank you to Theo for putting up with our guest room being piled with the items for a week or so leading up to the sale. Also a huge thank you to my mom and dad who at the last minute lent me their mini van when I realized I had way too much stuff to put into my little Mazda 3! 

Can anyone spot the foot spa?

I brought comfy lawn chairs for us to sit in (see crammed in by sliding door) but we never sat once from 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.! I had to resist the urge to sell them to the highest bidder as many people inquired about them - but I knew Theo would be mad if I sold off our comfy chairs!

My partner in crime was none other than the amazing baker and seller extraordinaire - Caroline - who baked at least 50 amazing cupcakes which sold quickly! She stuck with me the whole day and we made a game out of specifically trying to sell certain items. 

Our set up:

Good use of all available surafaces!

We tried to move things around as items sold to give good visibility. We had a lot of stuff!

   Delaney also took some great pics:

Caroline's yummy cupcakes and the two bite brownies.

Yum!

These were a huge hit with kids simply because of the colour of the icing. They didn't even care that there were berries inside.

Hungry?

Even at 8 a.m. people were buying and eating the treats!

I also sold a bunch of necklaces that I made.

Marie-Helene bought this one with a matching bracelet. I'm also going to make her matching earings so she has a whole set!

Wendy got this great one with the matching earings! I was going to keep it if no one bought it. (Apologies for my not so great photos. Note to self - get some picture taking lessons before leaving for Vietnam!)

So, after more than eight hours we decided to finally pack it in. Caroline did a quick count and this was my reaction:

Bug-eyed and smiling.

You see... because this is what we got from that one day:

$630.33!

I had some things that didn't sell, so I brought them to Aline's garage sale the following weekend at her church and made some more money for the fundraiser. Aline got her church to donate some more books to me and as I write this they're set up in the kitchen at my work where hopefully I can manage to make a few more bucks with the tail end of the donated items.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this such a huge success - from donating items, encouraging me, stopping by at the sale to buy things or just say hi, and all those who are making the fundraising part of this extraordinary journey so powerful.

Caroline and I in our matching CARE I Am Powerful t-shirts.