Hello Stampers,
I am grateful for lots of things in my life, as I'm sure you are. Stampin' Up! has brought so much to my life but the best thing has been the friendships I have formed with my customers, other demonstrators and my downline.
When I became a demonstrator 8 1/2 years ago, I was lucky (or was it fate?) to be blessed with a mentor from the US. Her name is Suzy Miller and she lives with her husband and 2 boys in Lewisville, South Carolina. She is AMAZING and together we started a mentoring project called Border Buddies where we matched established and successful US demonstrators with new and eager to learn Canadian demonstrators. The idea was to form a one-on-one buddy and support system to help us newbies get established. The following year, Suzy and I were honoured to be nominated for the Heart of Stampin' Up! award and received an honorable mention at Convention.
I'm writing this post because my dear friend and mentor Suzy Miller is facing a tough road ahead of her. She has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). She faces high medical bills in addition to the obvious challenges her disease brings to her life. Suzy was always the first person to respond to other demonstrators in need and pay it forward so to speak. So her friends knew we had to do something but what? I had mentioned to some demonstrators the story of Terry Fox (a real Canadian hero) that had a dream of running across Canada to raise money for Cancer Research. Terry thought that if every Canadian donated just $1 he could raise $20 million dollars – so far Terry's legacy has raised over $500 million worldwide.
Another friend of Suzy's – Joann Weimers – and I thought about the power of 1 person and $1 and sent out secret emails to Canadian and US demonstrators to ask them to help Suzy and her family with card themed fundraising projects at their downline and customer events – then on November 1st we started mailing Suzy cards along with the donations. She has been overwhelmed with cards and is so moved by the generosity of her Stampin' Up! family.
The project has raised $4,500 so far and it's not over yet! One of my downline has made a quilt for Suzy and we will be raffling off tickets to raise even more money for the Miller family.
I'll be continuing to offer fundraising projects at my November events along with the raffle so we can keep raising money for Suzy and raising her spirits at the same time. When we hear how Stampin' Up! can change lives this is what Shelli means…you can change a life through stamping!
This is the power of "1" – 1 person, $1 and 1 amazing company called Stampin' Up! – you all ROCK!
PS – if you are a demonstrator or a customer of Stampin' Up! and want to help out Suzy please email me privately for information. Every little bit helps – even a dollar.
Happy Stamping,
Alison
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