We are four aqua aerobic friends, the Curly Girls. Sadly, cancer has impacted all of us in some way – family members, colleagues and friends. If we are to lessen cancer’s grip on us, it means continued research and the cost of that is enormous, well beyond government funding and grants. We wanted to help out and decided to fundraise for ACRF by holding a head shave event. The Curly Girls would become the Baldy Babes!
In planning our event, we decided to think big and involve the whole community of Sussex Inlet. We canvassed local shops and businesses seeking donations of raffle prizes and BBQ supplies and lined up volunteers to help out on the day. The event was held for three hours on a Saturday to coincide with our local market that is always popular and draws extra people into town. There was a coin toss, golf putting competition, door prizes, wig library demo, raffle draw, and entertainment by local musicians. Everyone in the community was enormously supportive and our head shave day raised over $11,000. There are many memorable highlights: the buzz on the day, the personal stories shared by raffle ticket purchasers and the hugs that followed, the generosity of anonymous donors, the many friends and people in the community who gave their time, money and support without hesitation, and of course the excitement of having raised such a sizeable amount of money.
We love our new less hair look and some of us are thinking how easy care it is. Our friends, family, and people on the street are having fun sharing comments as our hair slowly grows back.
We’re proud of our fundraising achievement, and we had a great time doing it. To anyone else planning a similar event, our advice would be to give yourself time to plan – we took 10 weeks – and don’t be afraid to ask others for help. Plan to print and sell raffle tickets, plan an event schedule for the day, do a test run, and then plan some more. After all, you want the best opportunity possible to raise funds on the day. Kerrie, Kim, Denise & Pam
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