[xbliss]

Supposed to be TGIF but i came across a sad piece of news. I believe it has been circulating around for some time..

http://www.tnp.sg/ne...,204956,00.html

http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com/

Updates on 24 Jun 09

We have finally gotten a direction to how we want to fund raise for little charmaine. With wilson's approval, we are using this thread to pledge our tokens to help charmaine.

Come support our Grandiflora, Guanster, and Fluffymutt as they pledge their hair (and money) to help Charmaine. Prompted by our encouragement (and nagging.. heee), he had decided to shave off his green locks and we are looking at a target of $2000 (for grandi's hair) and $10,000 for fluffymutt's hair!. We hope to have more kind souls lend their support! Add your pledge by cutting and pasting the last pledge list you see! Deadline will be mid July latest as they hope to get Charmaine over to NY for her treatment.

If you would like to donate to Charmaine via our own GCS "Hair for Charmaine" project, please visit the official GCS fundraising thread. Thank you!!

This post has been edited by xbliss: 25 June 2009 - 11:45 PM

[scatterseed]

Do we have someone in the forum who has done fund raising before? I am asking because I have no idea where to start.

We can sell plants and food! Ie.. remember those wonderful food we had at the gathering? There are many good cooks as well as good gardeners in this forum. I also remember there were painters, potters, florists and many other talented people here.

Maybe we can do a forum auction for stuff that is sitting in our closets collecting dust and turn it into a life saving fund. I do have a couple of items that I would love to have because they are simply so beautiful.

To start off, I will call my landscaper and see whether we can get some plants at wholesale cost and members here pay retail price? Give the difference to the fund. I don't know how much money we can get out of this but we must always try.

I will call the ppl on the blog tomorrow and ask whether they have a garage sale or funfare that we can join in to facilitate a fund raising event.

Anyone else with any ideas pls contribute because time is running out for this little girl and we all know how precious kids are. They are our future.

SS

[fluffymutt]

Would it be good to hawk gardening/other stuff at a flea market? I saw this on a website. But there'd be rental costs I think. Anyone done this before?

"The all-day bazaars are at Bugis Village, Arab Street and Little India where stalls overflow with ethnic trinkets and souvenir items. On the third Saturday of the month, there is an evening flea market at Tanglin Mall, on Friday and Saturday evenings there's a flea market at Far East Square, and on Sundays, there are flea markets at Clarke Quay (9am to 5pm). For special seasonal bazaars, check the daily newspapers."

I previously raised $11k shaving my head for the Children's Cancer Foundation's Hair for Hope event. I wouldn't mind doing it again if CCF could channel what I raised to this little girl.

But I think the easiest way to raise the biggest absolute sum is by holding a gala dinner and inviting lots of rich people. Time to activate your network of the rich and powerful? :P

[scatterseed]

Shaving heads... I think DBS just did it. In newspaper today/yesterday I think.

Actually, that's a great idea. Don't need CCF to be involved. How much do you want to raise before you will do it? State the amount and then we see whether enough forumers will contribute. You don't shave your head until we reach that minimum amount. You want to sleep on it and let us know?

SS

[Grandiflora]

With all due respect, with all the media attention this child is getting, she will get enough donations without our help, i am pretty sure.

Id shave my head if you guys sponsor :hysterical:

But id prefer an anonymous donation to some society thats not well known (and preferably an unpopular one - not something with public appeal like kids or spca). Just my two cents worth.

Come on guys, green hair worth more right? :P

[scatterseed]

Grandiflora, on Jun 19 2009, 10:34 PM, said:

With all due respect, with all the media attention this child is getting, she will get enough donations without our help, i am pretty sure.

Id shave my head if you guys sponsor :hysterical:

But id prefer an anonymous donation to some society thats not well known (and preferably an unpopular one - not something with public appeal like kids or spca). Just my two cents worth.

Come on guys, green hair worth more right? :P

Green shoots from your head might just be weeds. :hysterical: So, you ON or not?

[Abby Lim]

Grandiflora, on Jun 19 2009, 10:34 PM, said:

With all due respect, with all the media attention this child is getting, she will get enough donations without our help, i am pretty sure.

Id shave my head if you guys sponsor :hysterical:

But id prefer an anonymous donation to some society thats not well known (and preferably an unpopular one - not something with public appeal like kids or spca). Just my two cents worth.

Come on guys, green hair worth more right? :P

Your green hair not worth la, army will cut them off without paying you a cent! :hysterical:

[xbliss]

it's heartening to see the response. I really don't know where to start from too.
I was thinking if the hospital that charmaine is staying at will allow us to put up a fund raising event by selling our plants, similar to what another member did at another hospital to raise funds for the hospital, except this time the money goes directly to charmaine's medical fee. i do hope she gets to go NY and come back a healthy kid. I know there are so many other kids out there, but her situation seems special.

fluffymutt got your hair back in time to shave somemore?! hee.. maybe can shave your dog's one too! gala dinner.. em.. i got no rich and powerful friends leh!

For pasar malams or flea marts, it's about $60 for 2 days for most of them. If we can all gather together our ware and make sure we sell them, then we should get a tidy amount. I can try to book if you all are keen :)

Perhaps we can agree on a way before we call for members?

[scatterseed]

Actually, I haven't seen any publicity for this girl. You reckon they have a lot of people donating already? But to hit $500k is probably not easy, especially in this downturn. Let's see how this goes.

Abby Lim, on Jun 19 2009, 10:41 PM, said:

Your green hair not worth la, army will cut them off without paying you a cent! :hysterical:

That's what I told him. Better make some money out of the shaving event.

[Grandiflora]

scatterseed, on Jun 19 2009, 10:38 PM, said:

Green shoots from your head might just be weeds. :hysterical: So, you ON or not?

On on, if you guys donate, sure on!

[scatterseed]

Grandiflora, on Jun 19 2009, 10:52 PM, said:

On on, if you guys donate, sure on!

Alright man! Must do by first week on July right? Don't waste this opportunity! OK. I start the ball rolling ok... I pledge

1. SS $100

[xbliss]

Grandiflora, on Jun 19 2009, 10:52 PM, said:

On on, if you guys donate, sure on!

his hair will be claimed by govt anyway, right? hehehe.. i would pay more if it weren't for that! (just kidding) But i can;t understand the green part... :blink:

But tks grandiflora for raising a good point, that perhaps they have already gotten the money. However, looking at the fund raising and media list, i don't really think they are anywhere near, unless they have not been updating.

To make sure, i have emailed the people who have been posting in those blogs to check if they have met target, and if not, how much they are lacking. Plus i also asked for a timeline since it's a life we are talking about saving here. Let's see what happens from here. Once there is more certainty, i will write to wilson to seek his permission to use this forum as a discussion platform for the actual fundraising.

[Grandiflora]

xbliss, on Jun 19 2009, 11:00 PM, said:

his hair will be claimed by govt anyway, right? hehehe.. i would pay more if it weren't for that! (just kidding) But i can;t understand the green part... :blink:

But tks grandiflora for raising a good point, that perhaps they have already gotten the money. However, looking at the fund raising and media list, i don't really think they are anywhere near, unless they have not been updating.

To make sure, i have emailed the people who have been posting in those blogs to check if they have met target, and if not, how much they are lacking. Plus i also asked for a timeline since it's a life we are talking about saving here. Let's see what happens from here. Once there is more certainty, i will write to wilson to seek his permission to use this forum as a discussion platform for the actual fundraising.

Whats with the green? Hey, when was the last time you saw someone with green hair? this one is valuable commodity :P Pledge more please :P

Thanks XBliss, thats a good thing youre doing. In case they really cant get the donations they need.

[Guanster]

this kid, is my friend, charlene's friend daughter.
she always help out at her house..
if you all need more information, or got anything that want to help her...i can let charlene know.
it is quite pitiful that this young girl have to suffer this fate

[Ah Kee]

doing flea mkt is extremely time consuming and tiring
also cant earn much becos you cant sell items expensive
after deducting rent, usually wont earn much ...

if confirm we are doing fund raising, can count me in
regardless if grandi cut his hair or not, I will still donate

[xbliss]

Guanster, on Jun 19 2009, 11:48 PM, said:

if you all need more information, or got anything that want to help her...i can let charlene know.

i already contacted her and got a response. I have pmed wilson with the response. If he's ok, we can do it here. If not, we can take it offline. :)

btw, i haven't put disclaimer yet.. i am totally unrelated to the family or any of the blog owners hor.... just a onlooker who has a little money to spare to relief a child of her suffering.

[Guanster]

xbliss, on Jun 20 2009, 12:24 AM, said:

i already contacted her and got a response. I have pmed wilson with the response. If he's ok, we can do it here. If not, we can take it offline. :)

btw, i haven't put disclaimer yet.. i am totally unrelated to the family or any of the blog owners hor.... just a onlooker who has a little money to spare to relief a child of her suffering.

have contact charlene. i told her if necessary..i will ask the organiser to contact her directly..cuz she said too much emails to check..very difficult to keep track.

[xbliss]

wilson has given the go-ahead, so now is for us to decide how to raise funds. Tks wilson!

One option to reduce hassle is we can all donate directly to charmaine since the POSB a/c is listed on her blog.

Another option (perhaps can raise more money) is we help sell our plants or other stuff. Given their timeline of about end july-aug, i guess it would be good to do it quickly. Hence those flea markets are out, since by now we prob can't get any slots for june/july by now.

I am not good with fundraising.. but shaving of hair sounds like a great idea! see who wants their heads to roll.. oops, i mean hair to fall!

Here are some of my correspondence with charlene (charmaine's godma). Have taken out my particulars cos i still want some privacy. Those want the original email can pm me with your email address and i will fwd to you :)

(I am having some problems with photobucket, will upload again later)

This post has been edited by xbliss: 20 June 2009 - 11:12 PM

[scatterseed]

Hi,

The Straits Times Sat June20th, page B8 had an article on Hair for Hope. There's a hair shaving event at Velocity@ Novena Square on July 5th. I think they allow walk-ins as well. Should we organise this fund raising on this forum and go there so that our shavee(s) can participate in this cancer awareness event? We can give also give a donation (on our own) to CCF if one wishes to on that day. They did say that they get 200 t0 300 walk-ins on the day itself.

Any donation is appreciated, even a small amount. Just sacrifice your cuppa today and contribute lah... or sacrifice the purchase of one plant (and save killing one in return). This is a genuine case as we have Guanster knowing them personally. No amount will be too small. Don't feel pressured to match what others are contributing. Even $1 is good because its a gesture of compassion and help rendered.

I called my landscaper about the wholesale priced plants. He said no problem sourcing it for charity but he did say that such sales don't do well and after deducting for rental of stalls etc, there won't be much left after all the hard work.

I also contacted the family member through the blog's address and they did mention that they are quite busy and appreciate all the help they can get. I believe that the burden of just looking after the child would be overwhelming without having to worry about fund raising and their financial position. They should just concentrate on giving the child as much love and care as possible.

So, are we going for this hair shaving thing or not?. We already have Grandi as a shavee. Any other volunteers?

Pledges:

1. SS - $100

[Grandiflora]

scatterseed, on Jun 21 2009, 01:39 AM, said:

So, are we going for this hair shaving thing or not?. We already have Grandi as a shavee. Any other volunteers?

Pledges:

1. SS - $100

Maybe not so good an idea to publish how much you want to donate. Make it anonymous...