Exciting Times

I have been trying to find a moment to blog this all weekend, but it just didn't happen. So here we are on Monday and Sawyer is finally taking a nap on Peggy's bed so now is the time!

Last Friday was a very productive day. It just so happened that we had a bunch of Legs all here at the same time - private hires, As, and Bs - so I took advantage of the big group to throw some ideas around and get some feedback.

First of all, let me just be frank with you all. We need money. The business has not been doing as well as we had hoped this past year. Even with all the wonderful press from The Watercolor Cat, sales have been down. This is true everywhere, all of our wholesale customers tell us that their sales are down. I've been wanting to do an email newsletter for Peggy's art business for sometime and so what better time than the present to get this started. You can all help by signing up for the newsletter (as many of you have) and also by spreading the word to everyone you know - we love grassroots marketing!

Back to our financial situation. We also need money for Peggy's care. We are running low on Peggy's medical funds and only have enough for possibly 4 to 6 more months of care. We need to fundraise.

So, we need money for the business and money for Peggy's medical care. I presented these facts to Friday's little group along with our first big idea - turning the March 8th art sale into a BIG Peggy Chun Art and Yard Sale on Saturday and Sunday. Our idea is that we ask friends and family (and anyone else) to donate items that they want to get rid of to help raise funds for Peggy's care. We can also do a mini raffle - oops, make that "donation opportunity" for a framed giclee with $20 tickets as we have done in the past. We're thinking that this will help raise some quick cash to buy us time as we think about and plan other ways to raise funds.

This idea was well received and so we will be going ahead with this sale March 8th and 9th. I will be working on an email requesting donations for the sale that we hope you all can send out to friends as well as info about the sale. We plan to post it on Craigslist and the newspaper. Of course, this a huge undertaking and we can also use any help with sorting, pricing, setting up, and selling.

The group also had other fabulous ideas for raising money. Through some creative brainstorming, we came up with a few more ideas that we will be implementing. Lisa told us about a girl that paid her credit card bills by "cyber-begging" which is essentially asking strangers online to donate bits of money for a cause. She raised over $13,000 by asking people for just a few dollars at a time. This gave us the idea to try this for Peggy's medical expenses. I am currently adding to our website a place where you can donate money to go towards Peg's care, totally secure via Pay Pal. If we can spread the word out to a large enough network, even little donations can add up.

This led to discussion about how to spread the word out about Peggy. The idea came up that Peggy should have a MySpace page! So Kelly set this up for us. This is a HUGE networking system for us to utilize. So check out Peggy's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/peggychun!

I really feel so grateful for everyone's enthusiasm and creative ideas. Managing Peggy's business, finances, and medical care can get so overwhelming, but after talking with Friday's group, I feel energized and hopeful. Thank you, Legs.

So that's where we're at and now you know what will be taking up our next few weeks! Peggy is working hard on her letter to all of you. She will have these words that she has been writing ready for Wednesday's meeting. I can't wait to share it with you all. I know that sometimes communication with Peg is challenging and leaves us feeling disconnected and unsure of how she is feeling. We are really working on new ways for Peggy to communicate her thoughts (not just medical needs) to everyone so that all of you (near and far) can feel more connected.