Cranes for Hope - Fundraiser!

Today I woke up at the bright and early hour of 4 pm (yes, you read right, definitely not my finest hour!) During my fifteen-hour slumber, I had dreamt of the most amazing day. In my dream, more than 100 students had come together to fold cranes and fundraise for the victims of the Japanese disasters. Together, they fundraised more than $5 000. Even in my mind this was a lot of dream dollars!

And then I realised it hadn't been a dream at all, that it really had happened.

On Tuesday the 19th of April, enthusiastic and inspiring students from schools all across Sydney folded, smiled, got rejected (ohhh, how we felt the burn of rejection!) but, most importantly, made a difference in the world. 

The world is crying out for our help (not literally). There are people in Japan right now who are suffering in abysmal conditions. They have no homes left. They have no hope left.

These young people answered their call for help and roved the streets of Sydney, braving the sting of rejection and valiantly asking the public to donate to our cause. 

There were many many smile-lights for the day and this is to just name a few:

=)    When Sharon Mo was on her way to the toilet, a couple of punk-ish teenagers called out to her "Girl, why you in school uniform?" After explaining our project, one of them reached into their bra (her BRA, I say!) and pulled out $10 in coins and gave them to Sharon, filling her entire hand full!

=)   As Bella and I were walking along with our basket of cranes and collection cup, a frail voice called us back. We turned around to see an old man who seemed unfortunate - his clothes were old and tattered and he was sitting by himself. When we walked back to him, he pressed 40c to us, insisting that we take it and telling us what a good thing we were doing. After we thanked him profusely and were walking away, we heard him whisper "God Bless You."

=)   The many, many people who didn't have spare change... and donated $5, $10 and even $20 to us! The sheer generosity of the people overwhelmed me and I was reminded again and again that there are so so many selfless and amazing people in this world.

=)   When the day began, we only aimed to reach $1000. By the end of the day, because of everyone's amazing perseverance (as well as their sheer charm of course) and generosity, we managed to raise more than five times our target.

There were a lot more smile-lights but I don't think words can quite capture them. So I just want to thank everyone who came out today - you're ALL amazing and awesome people and, without you, the event would not have been such a success! I'd also like to thank Abby Hatami and Brad Timms who supported us on behalf of the Red Cross, putting in so much effort to reply to my incessant emails haha! Finally, thanks definitely has to go out to Officeworks and all the people who bought and donated today - thanks for believing in us!

You ALL inspired me and made me realise that dreams really do come true.

I'd like to leave you guys with some photos from the day (credit goes to Anu Ganapathy, Blair Wang, Cheuk Lam, Joanne Kim, Kelly Tran and Michael Ma for these beautiful shots!).

Since a picture is a thousand words, consider this our 10 000 thank you's to you!

Lined up and waiting to hit the streets!

How can you say no to that?

One of our charming teams!

Folding cranes with all their might.

We raised almost $3500 in coins alone.

Our sweatshop of crane folders. Just kidding!

Sharing a well-deserved hi-5.

On our way to depositing first $2000!

People of all ages joined us in our plight.

A generous lady who donated $20!

Folding cranes at Cranes for Hope HQ.

Cranes for Hope posters

There's always time to pose and look awesome.

Our beautiful hand-made cranes!

Late night preparation for the event.

Gorgeous coloured paper donated by Officeworks.

Ready to become beautiful cranes.

At Central at the ridiculous hour of 7am.

Ready to take on terror in the world!

Our all-nighter team!

Always, always remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)

Sydney Train for Cranes

This Tuesday, the 19th of April, come join Happiness Equals Bracket as we take 'Cranes for Hope' to the streets and trains of Sydney! We'll be coming together with youth volunteers from near and far to approach the public, sell some of our gorgeous cranes, and show Sydney exactly how cool we can be!

Although its a little late notice (although we do have a facebook group running, please guys, keep up with the goss :P), if you aren't planning anything except a stint in front of the computer, or finding out if the guy finally kisses the girl in that k-drama, we implore you to come!

What's that you asked from your computer? Why should you spend a perfectly good Tuesday on this?

Because this is your chance. Since this blog started, we've slowly been getting more and more people involved, trying to contribute to a world that needs help, as much as we can.

For the first time ever, we actually have the resources and the support to effect change in a BIG way. For the first time, we can join with other inspired young people in Sydney, high school students like us who will prove that we can do it.  This is your chance! This is our chance!

This is also the first major project that Happiness Equals Bracket has organised, with support from brilliant, brilliant organisations such as Officeworks and Redcross.

We want you to be there. Please.

If you are interested in coming, please shoot us an email at happinessequalsbracket@gmail.com , or comment below asap and we'll put you down on our lists. You'll be fully equipped on the day with a volunteer badge, and organised into a special group! So:

When: Tuesday 19th April, 1oam (although if you can make it before, please do. We'll be there from 8am!)
Where: Meet at Central Station, at the exit near Eddy Avenue
What to wear: School uniform. Yes I know its super lame because its holidays, but trust us on this one. We'll look suaaaaaave :)
What we'll be doing: Roaming the city, trains with baskets of cranes, selling them to the public - and of course, making new friends!
What to bring: Your smile. Don't forget, you'll need that.

 

I can't wait to unleash these babies into the world.

Always remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)

Volunteer Opportunity!

Exciting news everybody! Cue the trumpets! Raise the flags! Huzzah!
Alright, there's a volunteering opportunity available which I think netball fans will absolutely LOVE :)

Now I've posted about Beyondblue before, but I'll just tell you a little about them. You all know that this blog, is something Lindy and I started because after seeing so many people around us believe in the worst, we wanted them to believe in the best. It didn't matter if they were close friends or strangers, we wanted to raise self-esteem, raise hopes and raise some smiles! I don't know if we've achieved that yet, but Beyondblue definitely has. It is a charity group that is involved with helping people overcome depression, but they also prepare friends of those suffering from this illness on what to do.

Maybe we overlook depression sometimes in favour of more serious illnesses like cancer, but the truth is depression hurts just as many people - and like cancer, depression can kill. Even worse, it's so easy to hide that you never know who is in pain and who isn't. It could be affecting one of your close friends right at this moment - how scary is that?

Although this isn't a superhero, lifesaving event, if anything, Lindy and I have learnt that it's the little things that eventually count! So here's the lowdown from Sam Walker, event coordinator for Beyondblue:

"Through our partnership with Netball Australia beyondblue is lucky enough to be involved with the 2011 Netball Festival of the Stars & Round 6 match between NSW Swifts & Queensland Firebirds in Sydney on Sunday 20th March 2011.

Netball’s Festival of Stars is a fun and exciting family event that features a celebrity charity match. The event is a joint venture by Network Ten and ANZ Championship and will be held at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre on Sunday 20 March 2011. Netball’s Festival of Stars will again raise funds and awareness for beyondblue and National Breast Cancer Foundation. Network Ten Commentator Luke Darcy will captain the beyondblue team and the game will be broadcast on ONE. This will be followed by the state versus state battle as the NSW Swifts take on the Queensland Firebirds.
 
beyondblue will be utilising this association to hand out resources to the large crowds expected to attend the event and further promote our message and awareness to this key audience.

We are currently looking for 6 volunteers to help for a 4hr shift. Each volunteer will be given a ticket to watch this expected sold out event after they finish their role."

So if you have a love for netball, want to help out and spread Beyondblue's message and are free on the 20th of March (Year 12's you are FORBIDDEN TO GO as it is the day before exams start!) , email us at happinessequalsbracket@gmail.com  before Sunday and I'll forward you all the details you need!

Always remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)

Nothing like the Present

Presents. Split it into two and you got pre-sents, which suggests things you send to someone beforehand - ironic considering what 'in the present' means. Why am I analysing vocabulary? I don't know but it's Christmas Eve so all in the spirit of Christmas :)!

In the holidays, a few friends and I decided to try out the annual Myer Gift Wrap, which supported Vision Australia this year.

What is Myer Gift Wrap? Basically in every Myer store, there was a charity gift wrap counter where customers could get their gifts wrapped. Depending the size (and how pretty they thought we wrapped!), we suggested a donation and they could chose to pay that. If not, they could pay whatever they could afford, so the great thing about it was there was no pressure.

All the money went to aiding children with vision problems to help them lead normal lives. To volunteer for this, I had to attend a training session where a lady really put it in perspective.

"Imagine" she said quietly, "if you had never seen somebody use a fork before. How would you know how to hold it?"

"How would you be able to eat like everybody else? How would you ever fit in?"

It made me value my ability to see a little more. And try as we might, I don't think anyone of us can ever imagine what it would be like to have the same dreams, insecurities and worries that we teens have.

Only you also live in darkness.

We also were specially trained to wrap the queerest things. I won't give away the secrets, but there ARE ways to wrap giant teddy bears and lumpy toys.

To the actual event - I had two five-hour shifts after I got back from NZ which sounded pretty scary to me. But everything surprised me. Some smilelights:

=) Every customer gave us a donation of something. Most customers handed us notes and then with a cheery smile, told us to keep the change.

=) The gorgeous wrapping itself! I think you all know I'm not the best person to wrap gifts - Let's just say they don't survive the process. But with all that practice, I got good enough that Nayoung Lee complimented, "Hey, that's not half bad." I know, amazing!

=) Meeting Laily, the new girl that had her shift with us. She was very nice and very, very good at tying ribbons.

=) The fact that there was a free gift wrapping service right outside myers, but people still chose to come to our charity gift wrap. Maybe they didn't know, but I'm sure some people made the choice. That inspires me.

All in all, it was a great experience. Definitely next year if you have the time, or you have an incredible eye for gift wrapping, do it.

For some more information on Vision Australia and what it does (there's a very endearing picture of a child on the homepage), visit http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/

And now it's 4 minutes to Christmas by my clock! Merry Christmas everybody, keep safe and happy!

And remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)

Pink Ribbon Day!

On Friday, Bella and I volunteered for Pink Ribbon Day selling at Parramatta Station. If you saw us in our flamboyantly pink gear, spouting the most ridiculous lines to persuade people to buy merchandise... please don't judge us. It's all for a good cause, reputation and coolness be gone! =P

Now, all your preconceptions about volunteering? Throw them out the window. Throw out the "it's so boring", the "I'm too hardcore to volunteer" and, my favourite, the "it'll look good on my resume."

Volunteering isn't about any of those things. It's something so pure and simple - it's almost like medicine for the soul. And, as a bonus, it's fun. =)

After being completely right-out rejected the first few times and having to pick up the broken pieces of our pride (I'm kidding, it wasn't that bad haha), we really started to enjoy ourselves. In fact, Bella and me were having the time of our lives kidding around with everyone we approached.

Just a few of the smilelights included:

- the guy who bought one of the $10 pins. Then, after Bella and me told him it was a good choice and that it attracted the ladies, his friend bought one as well haha. Just a note to all the ladies out there, if you see two young studs with Pink Ribbon Day pins feel free to say hello to them. ;)

- the many people who donated without wanting anything in return.

- the guy who, when we said a pink pin would go perfectly with his black shirt, said "It'll match my undies as well!" and lifted up the bottom of his shirt to reveal the bright pink band of his boxers. I cracked up so hard hahahah.

- this one man who stopped me and seemed a little unstable. He asked me what I was doing whilst clumsily stumbling about a bit . I told him all about Pink Ribbon Day and what we were doing, a little hesitantly. However, after he bought a badge, he stopped us before we went and told us that what we were doing was really really really really really really really really really extremely good and that he was going to tell everyone to buy something. Yes, with that many 'really''s. It turned out to be the oddest, most unique experience of that day.

- joking around with the seemingly scary security guards and, after rebuffing their many excuses, managing to convince them to buy some merchandise haha. Persistence pays off. =P

- just the fact that it was generally the guys (the tougher looking, the better) that seemed to be buying the most merchandise. It was actually really touching and so awesome to see so many people defying stereotypes - hardened tattooed men sweetly buying pins for their girlfriends or seemingly uncaring teenagers supporting the cause.

But don't just take my word for it. Try for yourself. Volunteer.

Just grab a couple of your friends (that way, its not as scary!) and volunteer your little hearts out. None of that "it's boring" or "it'll look good on my resume" business! In fact, if Bella and me hear anything about another event, we'll tell you guys about it. =)

Don't hold back either, comment with events and chances to help as well!

In the meantime, Pink Ribbon Day is coming up on Monday! Buy a pretty pin (there's a $3 ribbon one, a pretty $5 one and this really bling $10 one), a pen (for $6) or a super-cute bear (for $10)! Haha, as you can see, Bella and I are seasoned experts. ;P

Oh, and the cup I fill with my faith in humanity? Overflowing. =)

Until next time, Happiness Equals Bracket. =)