Past Events For the fourth year, Bisque Imports is pleased to offer our BI Ribbons program to support our studio customers with their fundraising and community endeavors. Here are stories and pictures of the events that BI Ribbons helped make possible. Each studio that contributed a story about their event with BI Ribbons within one month of it occurring, received an in-house credit for their ribbons purchase. These stories are truly inspiring and uplifting. They remind us that we each have the power to make a difference. Thank you to all the studios that submitted these heart-warming stories! Charity Starts at Home Grace from Clay Cafe Chantilly in Chantilly, VA For the second year in a row, Pam Jenkins, of Chantilly's Franklin Glen community, raised money for ovarian-cancer research, along with the children for whom she provides daycare. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about each of my daycare kids," said Jenkins. "The kids should be proud of themselves and what they've done." Their efforts, yielded $450 to the cause, and she presented it Saturday at the walk. To raise this money, the children sold ovarian cancer ribbons, door-to-door. Jenkins's daughter Kennedy, a seventh-grader at Franklin Middle School, explained what they did. "In July, we went to Clay Cafe in Chantilly [in Sully Plaza]," said Kennedy. "They donated 100 ceramic ribbons and we painted them teal blue because that's the color of ovarian cancer awareness." Tara said she wanted to do it be- cause "it sounded like fun, and I wanted to raise money because I care about cancer." As for Kennedy, she said, " There's a lot of cancer in the world, and everyone wants it to stop, so it's important for us to raise funds for ovarian cancer research." Telling why she participated in the project, Hayley said, "It's just sad seeing people have cancer, so I wanted to help stop it, too." Each ceramic ribbon they sold was 2 1/2 inches long. The children sold the ribbons during July and August, "They knocked on doors, showed people their posters and told them what they were doing," she said. "I don't think anyone turned them away - everyone donated." They carried bright posters decorated with photos of Pam's cousin, Melissa and her family, plus the words, "Team Melissa," and told that she died of cancer at age 37. Also written on them were the words, "Last year we raised $500, let's raise more. We need your help and Melissa does, too." The children helped in another way, as well. "I'm very proud of them, once again, that they put so much time and effort into such a good cause," said Jenkins. "Everyone came together to help us; and what really put the icing on the cake was that - after painting the ribbons and going around selling them - each child put their own money into the jar." The Bonds of Community Marie McCarty from Potter's Alley in Covington, IN. As a former art teacher at a local school I have a lot of former students that come in to paint and visit at my pottery store. Many of the young girls in the area know that I am a mother of three boys and that I always love a good conversation about all things "girly". As the school year came to a close last May I was informed that one of my former students and avid pottery painter had been diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. I was shocked, Lexi had been in just the week before to discuss " how short is TOO short on short shorts?". My heart broke for Lexi, only 12, and her family. The small community that my store is located in has worked hard all summer to have benefits, auctions, and fund raisers of all sorts to help with the mounting medical bills. In September Lexi was lucky enough to receive a donor liver and is working hard on her recovery. She has been relocated to a hospital far from her friends and family and expenses have been mounting due to travels put upon her family, infections, chemo and constant hospital care. When I read about the opportunity that BI was giving to store owners to raise awareness I thought that this was my chance to give something to this amazing, strong, creative, girl, Lexi. During the week of October 24th, Potter's Alley ran a fundraiser to "Paint for a Cure", the 8" ribbons where available for $10.00, all proceeds were to go to Lexi's family. I was supported by the elementary school, middle school, and high school, where they sent out announcements to Lexi's peers. Local banks, the post office, grocery stores and other local business all hung signs and encouraged the fundraiser. Many young people where able to come in and help, some painted the ribbon using Lexi's favorite colors, purple and lime green! It was a great event and I am proud to be able to write a check out to a help a family so close to my heart. Thank you BI for helping to spread the joy, you are an awesome company. Women's Night Out Sherry Sturner from Alisa's Painted Bistro in Aventura, FL With the help of Bisque Imports' donated ribbons we were able run a breast cancer awareness promotion for the whole month of October at our store. In conjunction with Aventura Hospital Breast Center, we offered people to come in all month long and paint a ribbon for free. In addition, we attended two events at the Aventura Hospital where the attendees were able to paint their own ribbons and donate them for our wall. One of the events at the Aventura Hospital was called "Women's Night Out" for over 250 Breast Cancer survivors. We have attached photos from that event. Our goal was to have 300 painted ribbons in order to create a mural for one of the walls at the entrance to the Breast Center. Thanks to the help of Bisque Imports we exceeded our goals and received over 300 painted ribbons that are ready to be donated to the Hospital. The mural will be created next month. Thanks for all your help!! Helping Beautiful Souls Jeff "JJ" Taggart Jr. from The Royal Brush in The Colony, Texas. The Royal Brush in Texas hosted a Ribbon Painting Party for an organization called Camp Quality Texas. Camp Quality Texas is part of a nationwide Camp for children with Cancer where all of the volunteers work in the medical field. Most children that have cancer cannot normally attend regular camps as they have medical needs, but Camp Quality allows them to have a normal camp experience along with the aid of medical attention. Along with painting Ribbons, The Royal Brush also had a Butterfly Release outside the shop, where a total of 200 flying angels were released, which was an incredibly emotional event. Thank you, Bisque Imports, from the bottom of my heart for allowing us to reach out and help all these beautiful souls. A Multitude of Ribbon Events Tanya Roberts from Ceramic Dreams in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ceramic Dreams hosts a number of Ribbon events to raise awareness for some very special causes. Owner Tanya Roberts loves the BI Ribbons program and uses it as a spring board for a variety of events. With the help of BI's donated bisque ribbons, Tanya is able to donate and hold several events all year long. One event Ceramic Dreams hosted was a group of made adults with autism. Roberts donated 8 inch ribbons to the group to paint for free. They helped to trace the puzzle shapes (Autism's ribbon) onto the bisque, and let the men fill in the spaces with their own unique designs. Once the pieces were painted, Ceramic Dreams finished off each ribbon with a quick outline of Black French Dimensions paint. Another way that Ceramic Dreams uses the BI Ribbons program in their studio is to honor the fallen heroes on 9/11. On the anniversary of that sad day, Roberts gives ribbons to all guests and allows them to paint a patriotic piece. In addition, from September through October 2011, the studio offers bisque ribbons for guests to paint, along with a ribbon color meanings chart. As Roberts says, they promote the ribbons program as a gesture of honor, hope and encouragement. These are just a few of the many programs this amazing studio offers. In addition, Ceramic Dreams hosts groups painting for Cancer Awareness, Relay for Life, and Adoption. Owner Tanya Roberts looks at the generosity of the BI Ribbons program as a way to support their community members. And by the number of wonderful programs she hosts every year, we say she is doing an amazing job! Passion for the Cure Melissa Schultz and Lynn Webb from Practically Pikasso in St. Petersburg, FL Melissa and Lynn (owners of Practically Pikasso) met while working for the American Cancer Society. Melissa is a two time cancer survivor. We are both very passionate about supporting our local American Cancer Society office. Year round we offer the 8" and 4" ribbons for customers to paint and donate all sales of the ribbons back to our local office. This year we are offering a free ribbon add on to any customer that makes a donation in the studio to the American Cancer Society. We are holding a class for the "Fight Like A Girl" platter on October 3rd. Each attendee will receive a free ribbon add on. We will also donate $5 from each attending the the American Cancer Society. Most recently we attended the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Kick Off event and provided free 4" ribbons to all survivors in attendance to paint. An Amazing Cause Amanda Melton from Living Color in Mansfield, Texas When Living Color first opened we knew that we wanted to be very involved with our customers and our community. When we told Annette (our very first customer) that we did a fund-raiser to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and we really wanted to continue with fund-raisers, she told us that she was doing the Susan G. Komen 3-day walk here in Dallas. Annette was participating in the Breast Cancer walk with her mother, who is a survivor of breast cancer. We all instantly started planning! We ordered the set of ribbon bisque from Bisque Imports, we also ordered mugs, plates, and ribbon banks so that we were able to offer plenty of variety for our customers. When the day came for the fund-raiser we were completely blown away. There was such a large turnout. It is really amazing to see all of the people that showed up to support a great cause. Our store stayed packed all day, everyone had a great time! It ended up being our busiest day since we had opened. We could not be more proud to take part in such an amazing cause. We were able to donate $350 to Annette and her mother's team to help them complete their goal. This is something that we hope the be able to help with every year from here on out! Glazed for a Cure by Sheri Long from Glazed and Amused Mobile Art Studio in Atlanta, Georgia We partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure Atlanta Chapter to host a breast cancer awareness fundraiser. We rented a booth at the East Cobb Festival on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010 in Marietta, GA. We had big and small ribbons as well as the awareness platters available at our booth. Attendees could make a donation to receive a pre-painted pink ribbon or we also had ribbons that they could paint themselves for donations. Proceeds went to Susan G. Komen Atlanta who also provided us with free bracelets and awareness materials to pass out. Several people seemed inspired to have fundraisers of their own potentially using our business. So we spread the word about our Mobile Art Studio and raised money for a very worthy cause! That's a great day! Paint for the Cure by Dorina Rubio from The Craft Loft in Brownsville, Texas The Craft Loft hosted a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness on October 17, 2009. We coordinated with our neighbor, The Carriage House Day Spa, that offered to paint women's nails & toes pink with diamond rhinestone ribbon (free for cancer survivors and 15% for all other participants). It was wonderful to see all of our customers walking in with pink nails. We also coordinated with a local photographer that took free headshots of cancer survivors outside of our studio. We had a full house the entire day of women, children and even men, painting our 8" ceramic ribbons. The proceeds from the sale of the ribbons were donated to a local breast cancer awareness group called Sisters in Pink. We were fortunate to have a local doctor as well as a few other businesses donate several items for our goodie bags that we handed out to each customer as they left. We provided finger foods and drinks (most of which was donated by a local doctor). Each customer also received a ribbon tot that we painted and added a pin.It was great to see everyone's creativity and support for a great cause." Paint the Town Pink by Grace from Clay Cafe Studios of Chantilly in Chantilly, VA Thank you for sending us lots of pink ribbons - we held our Paint the Town Pink event this past weekend and it was very successful and well received by our customers. We partnered with the local branch of Breast Cancer Network of Strength, a non profit dedicated to providing information, peer support to anyone touched by breast cancer. This event was advertised by this group as well as via press releases to the local papers, flyers attached to receipts, on our website, Facebook page and direct emails to our customers. We advertised that anyone could paint a ribbon for free all weekend, no fee, no studio. We accepted donations only. Over 60 people came in JUST to paint a ribbon and/or make a donation! Several hundred dollars was collected and donated to BCNS and everyone was delighted to participate. We are looking forward to hosting Paint the Town Pink again next year. Ladies' Night by Martina Strehlow from The Clay Corner Studio in Wausau, WI We have a great time at our Ladies' Night/ Ribbon Event. We did a couple of things. One, we made a community platter. We had a list of all the different cancers and their ribbon color. Each lady in attendance picked a cancer and painted an add-on ribbon. I then wrote the cancer it stood for on it and we put these on a big platter. They also had the option to make boobie prints, with $5 for each print going to our cause. There were eight people that did prints and after each person made their print we presented them with a carnation. With the money we raised we made a donation to our local hospital awareness cause. They do free mammograms for people that can not afford them and also have a buddy program to get people remembering to do self checks. Ladies' Night always includes 10%, for any lady willing to donate rather than accept the 10% we matched it and added it to the fund. We also had a couple of ladies make extra donations. The ribbons we purchased from you are on special all month and we have lots of people making them for loved ones and also as memories. I am including a picture of the large platter with the boobie plates around it. Hope you like it! We had a great time and raised money that will benefit many people. |