Cowing Around For Africa

We have had a few fundraisers for the Pamoja Tunaweza Women's center since last September. We held a 'Pay the Rent' Home shopping party at my home in October that was a big success. The following weekend we held our 'Cowing Around for Africa' event which was wacky AND successful. We will probably do it again next year.

The cow idea came from my cousin Derek in Dublin. He had used a similar idea to fundraise for his musical theatre group. The concept is what I call Cow Patty Roulette...can you guess?? Well, we sold tickets for 'squares' in a downtown park across from City Hall in Kingston. Each square was $20. We only planned to sel 450 tickets (so great odds) and in the end didn't sell all of them. Each ticket was given a number for a square on the grass (2 by 2 feet). We then had a local farmer bring in his cow and let he graze in the enclosed areas until..PLOP!!! The square with the plop won a caribbean cruise for two donated by Dialysis at Sea Crusies (the company that I have done dialysis crusies with, and who are big supporters of our project). It was a family event with music and face painting. The weather cooperated too, which was wonderful because it was October 21st and could have been horrible.

I have posted pictures of the beautiful cow who participated. Mr. Lloyd Orser kindly agreed to bring her down and wait while we watched. This was exceptionally kind of him because dairy farmers work non-staop from what I gather. It took her just over 2 hours to eat enough grass to get the job done.

The fundraiser raised $5500 for the Women's center project.

Right now we are planning for the Women's Health Caravan which leaves Canada on April 18th for 2 weeks. I will post more information as we move along. I can't believe we have come this far. It wouldn't have happened without the supprot of our families, friends and the Kingston community.

The other two big events will be a New Year's Eve Gala in support of the center and to publicize our Kilimanjaro Climb in January 2009. We have plans underway for almost 20 women (4 Tanzanians) to climb the mountain to raise money for the center....yes, I know I said I wouldn't do it again...I guess it is like giving birth, you forget pretty quickly about the pain and only rememebr the good parts!