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"Experience
is something you don't get until just after you need it."
-Anonymous |
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I have
learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and
kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these
teachers."
-Kahlil Gibran
"Most
people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on
the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot
from a winning touchdown."
-H. Ross Perot
Visit
our laughter & inspiration corner!
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Blankets For Canada Society was started like most businesses, from a
dream. There are hours of work behind it that no one other than my husband would ever see or understand. Most of the work was done by
myself with the constant need for research. I have learned a lot of places to look for things and are sure there are
many many more.
Blankets is a not for profit so we have NO MONEY. I am known as the beggar, and I seem to be doing pretty good at it. I
believe in honesty with the people I work for. I also believe that our project is
people helping people so we give businesses a chance to be part of us. I do
get upset if they say NO. For all that NO mean is that they don't see where it will be of any benefit to them business wise at this time.
Many have said NO and as they continue to talk with me they come around and begin to see what they might do to be part of it.
To do something like this you have to be willing to put in very long hours for you are just like any business starting up. You need a long
range plan. We have seen a lot of our five year plan come about in 2 years. We were not totally ready for this. But we are able to stay
ahead ok so far. Just having to shift our thought to fund raising for outreach at this time.
We have a board of directors spread over Canada. The current President, is in Calgary AB, The Secretary is in Lethbridge AB (2 1/2 hours apart),
the treasure is in Calgary at this time, The VP/Spokesperson (me) is in Lethbridge also, We have board members in Edmonton AB, (northern AB)
Halifax N.S, Toronto, ON. Our head office is in Lethbridge Alberta. We have a store front for our stitch and chats but the office is in my home
and in Calgary at the Presidents home. Our board meetings are head on the net. We are using ICQ until we find a better way. we all work out
of our homes and Lethbridge has the only store front, it didn't take us long to learn this one........!
We try to keep in constant contact with all Chapter leaders over the net. This is a job as not everyone is as devoted as some of us are and
we loose track of some of the less active people and have to start over again. Hours a day at spent by me at the computer working in different
ways for Blankets.
As I have said we have learned a lot and would like to help others not make some of the
decisions that we have had to redo. And also some tips on filing for a Charity number which takes in Canada 4 to 6 years we are
told. Ours came thought in 6 weeks.
Personally, I am 56 in October, born and raised in the Middle West of
the USA and now live in Canada with my 74 year old husband. I am soon to be come a full time RVer and that will be my office to work from.
I am a NANA (Grandmother) of one girl and one boy. I am the step mom one girl and one boy, both adults now.
I have some college education, I went to college at the age of 46 on a part time base to take the classes that I wanted. Mainly Speech,
English and Psychology classes and some Religion.
The biggest asset that I bring to Blankets is my love of people and caring about others. I like organization and I am pretty good an
helping people feel good about themselves and using their talents effectively so that the job can be done. I do not feel that I should do
it all. If in a society or a not for profit. It has to mean something to someone other than you or when you burn out it will die because it
was your alone. For the most part Blankets has done this. But the people still need training and that is a daily thing as they want to let
me carry the load. Blankets is and will always be "my baby" but we have
work real hard to see that it doesn't belong to me...!
Blankets is a business and I want it run as one. It is almost like we
have a large corporation now with very few people at the head. There is never a minute that you can turn your back and just let your
business run. But you need to use common sense, ( am I still hunting for it so
can not help you find it too well) in your time. There must be time for
family and what ever else that you do. It is best to have your family support when you start a business of any kind as it will take 24 more
hours a day than you planned for to get it going. But if your base is strong and correct that will ease up and your business will last so that
you can have the holidays like other humans do.
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