Last week I spoke with a very inspiring group of women – The Crazie Daizies. The Daizies first came together in 2004. It was during this time that work colleagues and running partners - Pauline Tam, Kathleen Kwan and Heather MacDonald - decided that they wanted to participate in their first Weekend to End Breast Cancer in Toronto.

Today the Daizies are made up of team members Pauline Tam, Kathleen Kwan, Heather MacDonald, Sally MacDonald, Heather Seabrooke, Margaret Reiss, Joyce Lin and Karen Frybort. In addition to their participation in walks, the team also raises money for Breast Cancer research in the following ways:

Cleaning Service: In 2004, the Daizies ran a golf club cleaning service and challenged their company to a golf tournament.

Knitting scarves: In 2005, the Daizies were obsessed with knitting. They found a pattern for a keyhole scarf and started making them for our friends and family for Christmas. After finding pink fun fur at the store and trying it out in the pattern, they realized that the pink keyhole scarves looked like the breast cancer ribbon and might be fun to make as a fundraiser for the walk. They started off slow and were selling them at work for $20 each. By the time the walk came around the Crazie Daizies had sold over 100 scarves - 100% of the money from the scarves went to the walk! At last count, we were over 200 scarves sold.

Fundraiser spin offs: In 2006 the Daizies expanded their scarf line to include breast cancer bath mitts and soap sacks as well. These didn’t sell as well as the scarves, but they were a fun experiment.

Other Crazie Daizie fundraising events:

• A craft show that was organized by another Weekend to End Breast Cancer team.
• A ‘tag day’, where the Daizies handed out tiny clothes pins with pink ribbons on the main street and at the liquor store in exchange for a donation.
• Team member Margaret Reiss’ family store collected change in a jar on the counter that added up to an amazing total to help the breast cancer cause!
• Team member Sally MacDonald took pictures at her ski hill and sold the photos as a fundraiser.
• The entire team participated in the town garage sale - and managed to raise quite a bit of money while getting rid of a lot of junk!

Thanks again to the Crazie Daizies for sharing their unique and fun fundraising ideas with The Breast Site. Why not take inspiration from the Dazies and raise money for the cause this coming October – Breast Cancer Awareness Month!