~ a post by Pam W ....
Carol's daughter Hailey and my daughter Jenna have been friends since they attended a daycare together when they were just 3 years old. Little Hayden was there too!
So when Carol asked me to co-chair the girl’s high school fashion show with her in November, I could hardly say no. She was right when she told me that it would be a really fun thing for us to take on. Of all the huge fundraising events in the girl’s final year of high school this did seem like one both Carol and I would enjoy the most.
We started our first meeting off with a bang when Carol decided to hand out yellow folders to each committee head (15 in all!) with info from previous years shows. Later I had some of the ladies comment that they knew the event would run smoothly when they received the yellow folders. They said that in all their years of volunteering for school events they had never seen this level of organization.
As the coordinators of this event, our biggest obstacle was finding dedicated choreographers who could give up many of their lunch hours to work with our 112 models - no small task. We were thrilled when we had 3 very unique and talented ladies rise to the challenge just after Christmas. Carol and I knew the models were in good hands after our first meeting at Starbucks - the creative juices were really flowing.
In January and most of February I had to work full time and Carol spent many hours labouring on the coordination of the fashion show. She truly put her heart and soul into the production. I asked her if she could do all the speaking at the meetings and she agreed. I seemed to fall into the role of being the secretary. Along with our committee heads we were becoming an effective team.
When I came home from a spring break trip to Mexico I was shocked to find out Carol was battling cancer again. No one told me since they didn't want to ruin my vacation. I was touched by this kindness. While Carol endured the torture of radiation the plans for the fashion show kept rolling on. It took me a few days to wrap my head around this; without Carol I didn’t even want to continue. When I was in Mexico Carol had met with her long time friend Joyce B and Joyce agreed to take over where Carol had left off. I would have been lost without you Joyce - thank you. We both knew how important the fashion show was to Carol so with allot of help from so many dedicated women we made sure the show would be extra special.
I know that everyone who knew Carol through working together on the fashion show went that extra mile in hopes that she would be able to see the show on April 19th. I was afraid to call her since I was worried she wouldn't be feeling well enough to attend the show that meant so much to her. When I did call she told me that she was really hoping to come but if she did she would probably only be able to see the first half since she became really tired at night.
The fashion show ended up being a truly magical evening. It is difficult for me to find fault with anything. Every committee had their area just perfect. In spite of heavy competition from the Canucks game the event did sell out 325. We raised over $9,000 and DVD sales are still coming in. Here are some of the comments I heard. "This was so much more than I had imagined" "It was truly magical" "All the mum's were crying during the grand finale" "I am so happy Carol could attend". And best of all from the students “I will always remember the fashion show” "I am so glad I did this" "I wasn't really into it, but I ended up having so much fun"
The fact that the show and the grand finale in particular were so wonderful was something I will always remember. The fact that Carol came and stayed for the entire show made it so much better!
Thanks for pushing me outside my comfort zone and asking me to take this on with you. It was a great experience and a lovely grad gift to our little girls.
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