The SuperDogs and I have been setting something up for a while now, the announcement was going to be held off for a while, but well, like happens in politics as well as corporations...there was a leak!!! A LEAK!!!! How did that happen???? Well SuperDog... someone who was helping us set up the big surprise ended up telling people about it before we were ready to announce it. CG was kinda upset about it at first, but then she realised that it was actually a great way to turn a maybe not so great situation into a REALLY great situation!!!
As you all know, CancerGirl founded Hats For Happiness in 2009. It was a grass roots effort, funded pretty much solely by SuperHubby and CancerGirl. Don't forget all the chewies and extra treats that SuperDog BanJo and I sacrificed to help out!! Yes SuperDog, and your waist line thanks you for your sacrifice!! Anyway....we were sending out hats (we were a fairly new organization, so we were not getting many requests on a day to day basis, so the cost of shipping was easily affordable by SH and CG) but as we got to be larger we began to get many more requests then CG could afford to send out. Because CG knows that many are on hard times, rather then doing fundraisers and asking those who CG knows support us, but may not have the funds to be able to make financial donations, and because of requests by volunteers to send a hat to a CancerSuperHero themselves I began the program that would not only help CG and SH continue to afford to be able to run HFH but also enable others to help to help CancerSuperHeroes directly!! Volunteers now sign up to directly send a hat to a CancerSuperHero, along with a word of encouragement and any other goodies they want to include. This helped to curb our costs, while still not having to ask those who may not have it for monetary donations. If you would like to sign up to send a CancerSuperHero a hat, please fill out this link I WANT TO VOLUNTEER
Through doing Hats For Happiness, CG would get many requests for other things that were not "hat related", one of the earlier things was when our good friend Abby Acuna's computer broke down and she was in treatment, CG put out the call for anyone with computer experience to help her, she also, in case Abby's computer couldn't be fixed, acquired 2 other computers that would have been shipped to her (luckily the computer help we got her fixed it and she was able to be back in contact with her support system!!) and the other 2 computers were sent to 2 other CancerSuperHeroes who had their computers crash and needed them to get online and access their support system. I tried to get her to give me one of them, you know as a Canine SideKick I need to communicate as well!!
There have been numerous other things that HFH has helped others with (and when she is unable to help them, she has sent them on to other organisations to get the resources they needed, our friends at the Debbie Turner Cancer Center have helped a number of CancerSuperHeroes we have sent their way and we truly enjoy being affiliated with their organization!!
Because CG has wanted to do more for CancerSuperHeroes, and we technically are somewhat restricted to our missions statement, and that mission statement is about Hats and not about computers, or other helpful things, CG wanted a way to possibly make "divisions" of Hats For Happiness.
CG as you all know has been going to college to get her degree in Social Work so as to someday be able to work solely with CancerSuperHeroes in the mental Health field, specifically using animal assisted therapy. Part of that animal assisted therapy that CG herself has received great benefit from is Equine Therapy. After speaking with some of CG most respected advisers and mentors (Including Debbie Turner) about whether this was something that CancerSuperHeroes would benefit from, (thank you Debbie for your wonderful words of encouragement) and finding a wonderful rescue organization to work with, CG decided to add the Horses For Happiness Division to Hats For Happiness!!! It is going to take us some time to develop this division as there is a lot more involved with it then sending out hats, but we have begun the beginning steps of this process and have high hopes for the future of the program!!
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| CancerGirl and SuperDogBanJo with SuperHorseRaven!!! |
Because it didn't make any sense to have Horses for Happiness be a division UNDER Hats For Happiness, but rather should be a division IN ADDITION to Hats For Happiness, the decision was made to reincorporate as CancerGirl Enterprises and have the divisions of Hats For Happiness and Horses For Happiness (as well as a few other divisions which will be worked on in time and introduced as we grow) but this way we can help more CancerSuperHeroes in many more ways!! I look forward to our continued work with the Debbie Turner Cancer Center, and look forward to the day when Horses for Happiness is ready for her to send her clients our way to further their HAPPINESS!!!
Because CG wants to expand, and these other endeavors are going to require more funds then SH and CG can afford ourselves, we will in the future be having multiple smaller fundraisers to help with the costs of building our organization. This has been a hard decision for me because I have tried my best to not ask for financial help in a time when I know many are themselves having financial difficulties, but I think that if we all do what we can when we can, that it will all work out in the end. In the meantime, thank you very much to our supporters, our volunteers, our friends and most importantly to all those CancerSuperHeroes out there, you have all brought many tears and laughs to my life, and for that I am grateful, but I am most grateful for the HAPPINESS that has been brought into my life and my world by being able to "pay it forward".
