The Bowl
Movement has made well over $400,000,00 for Parkinson's research to date!
Vancouver
Nov 25 2007
Dear Friends, Relatives,
Donors, Patrons:
What
a good year for porridge! Through your generosity we made about $62,000.00
for the Pacific Parkinsons Research Institute, who in turn helps fund
research at UBC.
Mac’s
initiative, Pennies for Parkinson’s was a big hit. That brought
in $1600.00 It almost filled two Rubbermaid bins which weighed
approximately 450 pounds! The Silent Auction (which I think of as the great
shifting of stuff) made about $8500.00. I love that. It makes me really
happy to see say, my artist friend Elizabeth’s needle felted scarf
on the fashion-forward Liz Watson.
Thanks
to the 2007 Team Porridge. On the stove: Noel MacDonald, Collis
Wilson and Gary Campbell (bro-in-law). On KP: MaryAnne Campbell
(Noel’s sister), Danielle MacDonald (niece) and Cathy Denroche.
On general helping: Drew Meikle (cousin). Greeters: Paul Browne ,
Rosebud (Maureen) Burke and the ever cheerful money gal: Anita Webster. The
silent auction was superbly run by Heather Nichol
and her sister Gayle Wilson, and by my mom, Maureen and Judy Oberlander.
They were also helped by James Meikle and Philipp Ebsworth. Friends from
Mac’s school helped set-up: Erin Pickering, Robyn Harding, John
Lilleyman, Sue and Jim Hyslop. The fabulous flowers were by Michael Luco
and the great team at Earthrise on 4th Ave. And
the guys at Impark saved our sanity and ran the coins through their giant
machine. Thank-you all.
With best wishes and again, thanks for your
generosity,
Marg, Noel and
Mac
www.porridgeforparkinsons.com
The NOV.18 Event in Toronto was
a Great Success
Pictures
of the Event
Porridge fans were "bowled over" by the
Porridge for Parkinson's breakfast held in Toronto
on Sunday November 18, 2007.
Celebrity chefs Jamie Kennedy from JK Kitchens and Joanne
Yolles, the
pastry chef at Pangaea Restaurant, volunteered their time and culinary
skills.
Andy Barrie and Nancy Wilson, both from CBC
greeted our guests. Jeanne
Beker, from
Fashion Television, was our MC.
Thank you to ALL of our sponsors, donors and
volunteers.
Toronto
Friends of Porridge for Parkinson's: Jenny Ginder, Wendy Hill, Susan Jackson-Craig,
Sheila Knox and Donna
Walsh.
Updated
07.11.20 16.10
___________________________________________________
What
is Porridge for Parkinson's?
Porridge for Parkinson's is the world's simplest fundraiser. We
started the idea in our home with our friends and relatives in November
2001, and this past November 26,
2006 held our 6th
annual PfP at our
home in Vancouver.
Porridge for Parkinson's is not a pyramid scheme. It's more of a
food chain . or a bowl movement!
We're delighted that the bowl movement
has gone international, although we have learned the hard way that many
Americans aren't completely sure what porridge is..."something from
nursery rhymes" we've been told. "Oatmeal for Parkinson's"
simply doesn't scan. We'll have to convert the masses, one bowl at a time.
Porridge confusion aside, over the past two years we know of 21 porridge parties that
have been held in Canada
and the United States,
and together have raised over $298,646.00
for Parkinson's research and Parkinson's societies. If you decide to make
use of this idea (take it, it's our gift to you), we'd love to hear about
it. Please email us at info@porridgeforparkinsons.com
to let us know if you are planning to hold a breakfast, or how it went if
you held one (we'll just lump you into the general tally).
We've put
together this website to show how you can hold an inexpensive, delicious,
simple, and profitable event. The website will be a scrapbook of past
parties, tips for putting on a party, and a running tally of funds raised
for Parkinson's research.
Whether you serve 5, 10, 30 or 300, or
you know two friends who might serve 10 each, we think this is an ideal
cheap and fun way to raise money to find a cure.
P.S. Bill
Richardson, Mac's godfather, wrote this article (149k
PDF file) about our efforts for the June 2002 issue of Canadian
Living Magazine. And John Lee wrote about the spread of the bowl movement in the November
1, 2002 National Post.
Why Porridge and Why Now
We want to help find a cure for this
nasty progressive disease, and so we are raising funds to go directly to
research. Marg was diagnosed in June 1999 when our son, Mac, was 18 months
old. (Marg was 43.) The rapidity of the progression has been scary and
being proactive feels right.
We admire the huge number of
fundraisers that the various Parkinson's organizations hold, but we wanted
to do something that worked with Marg's medication "on" times and
worked for our family. Noel came up with "Porridge for
Parkinson's." It's a variation on a breakfast benefit our friends
Carol Denny and David Jiles have held for 19 years for First United Church in Vancouver .
It is always such a friendly, simple party, and we thought it would be an
ideal fundraiser for our cause. (David originally came up with the idea
because he loved the porridge at the Stock Market at Granville Island in Vancouver so
much.)
Porridge for Parkinson's is a "we
can't just sit around waiting for something to happen with this
disease" grassroots event. Parkinson's disease sucks - so let's help
get rid of it. Researchers have a better understanding of PD and are close
to a cure. The fact that the science is ahead of the money encourages us to
get cooking.
Our first breakfast turned into a huge
deal with close to 200 people, but we firmly believe that whether you serve
10, 30 or 300 guests, you will have done something significant towards
increasing awareness, and you definitely will have had some fun.
And did we mention it is cheap? The
costs are remarkably low for the return. Our total cost that first year was
about $200, including cards, envelopes and postage for a huge mailing,
masses of superb porridge and dense
and delicious Dried Fruit Poached in Port
compote. We could have done it for much much less (in a subsequent year
we used www.evite.com for our
invitations but now we're back to printed invites--citing the fact that
folks love to stick something on their fridge). Our favourite statistic is
that the steel cut oats cost $10.81 to serve 200 people.
Our party continues to be large--we
sent out about 450 invitations in 2006, many to regulars who salivate at
the mere mention of porridge. Our expenses were about $1000.00 and we
brought in $50,000.00. (And because of the SNOW that day, we had a lot
smaller turn-out but many people sent in donations. Good thing the kids had
a snowball fight that day cause that was more or less it for that year!)
The Bottom
Line: We raise a lot of money in a morning for the Pacific Parkinson's Research
Institute, which funds the Pacific
Parkinson's Research Centre (formerly known as the Movement Disorder
Clinic at the University of British Columbia ).
Their work is well known worldwide.
So, if you have
Parkinson's Disease or know someone who does, or just feel like putting on
a fun, inexpensive and profitable event for this cause, go for it. You're
guaranteed to get lots of kudos for these great recipes, it is pretty
minimal impact entertaining, and you will have remarkable results both
financially and for raising public awareness. Our guests were eager to
learn something about this rather bizarre brain disorder and keen to
contribute something. It all adds up.
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