Cheers to Art!!

We have been walking for JDRF's Walk to Cure since 2005!! Nora was dx'd in June and by the fall we were up and walking. We had always done the letter writing campaign and it worked but it grows so tiresome. I brainstorm every year to find different ways to do fundraisers and hit up people in our community instead of just family and friends. (Which I still do!!) So this year we tried something different! We tried Cheers to Art! This is a neat art studio that has step by step demonstrations to paint your own work of art. I know...it sounds scary for those of you who can't even draw stick figures...BUT...Jill, the owner, is soo good and breaks it down so that everyone is an artist! Cheers to Art has a calendar of events but will special design a canvas for your cause. Of course I HAVE to have us paint Blue Heels!!! I gave her some ideas of shoes, circles and blue. And this is what she came up with:

Cheers to Art JDRF Fundraiser! 

The Blue Heels for diabetes awareness and then the pearls represent the circle that is the universal symbol of diabetes. (Think WDD logo!) Now, the cool thing is that you can make your canvas any color you want. So some people chose black shoes, red shoes, green shoes and pink shoes. Jill guided us in how to set the painting up and then you can make it yours. I gave my little diabetes speech at the beginning of the session and thanked the people for coming out. The session was open to the public so I only knew about half of the people registered for that evening. So they came out to either support the cause OR paint a really cool canvas OR both!! 

Here are the canvases that my girls and I came up with:

See what I mean about different interpretations?

Here is the canvas my sister did: 

This is the one my Mom did:

My Mom's canvas tells a story. She said the broken necklace represents Nora's broken pancreas and the blue marks left from the heel represent all the bumps (highs/lows) that Nora has had with diabetes. <3 it!! 

We had a great time! They have a bar and music playing and we all just sang along, drank and painted! At the end of the session I had a young adult come up to me and tell me she was dx'd at the age of 3. That she had always wanted to come to a painting session with her friend and once her friend saw the calendar of events and saw it was JDRF night she KNEW this was the perfect night to attend. Another young woman came up to me and let me know her Dad was Type 1 and dx'd in his 20's and that he is pumping too! I always LOVE meeting adult Type 1's or anyone with a direct connection! 

It was a successful fundraiser...we raised $330 that night and had a BLAST!! So, in closing, as walk season gears up for all the major diabetes organizations; what are your fundraising ideas? What is something new you might try? I encourage you to try new things! Challenge yourself to reach out in your community to raise awareness and funds for YOUR diabetes organization. 

A great big THANK YOU to Jill Carroll, owner of Cheers to Art, for allowing us to come in and Paint for a Cure!!