Build Something don't knock something

The 1st year, Act 1 or as I like to call it...
"The missing years"

Cynthia and I have always believed and acted under the principle “actions speak louder than words”. Having the courage to leave our full-time jobs because we felt unappreciated and uninspired, I believe is testimony to our commitment; while others around us in the workplace threaten to leave their jobs, spoke poorly about their work conditions in the back rooms and lunch rooms and often complained to anyone around them who would listen, we choose to take action. I am not suggesting that people should consider leaving their jobs because they are having a bad day; what I am saying is, change has to come from within, positive change does not come from complaining, blaming and fuelling negative fires, or jumping on bandwagons. I always liked the old saying that goes something like this, “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a life time". My personal belief is this, once you are able to inspire a person or a group of people then you inspire action; and by challenging one's self we begin to inspire ourselves; therefore, in order to be inspired we must first challenge ourselves before we can inspire others. The greatest Canadian example of this is Terry Fox, who challenged himself and continues to inspire millions.

Opening the first Genuine Neighbourhood Life is good Shoppe in Canada, in the small community of Westport was such a challenge for Cynthia and I. We were both extremely inspired into action by our first contact with the Life is good brand and philosophy. We were not so concerned about the day to day operations of running a retail business because we knew that we could learn those tasks. We were more focused on the larger picture, the stewardship and responsibility of creating a positive impact in our neighbourhood. One of the first things we learned about John and Bert Jacobs, co-founders of Life is good was that they owned the title in the Gunniess Book of Records for carving and illuminating the most pumpkins over 32,000. So when we had our first opportunity to have a Life is Good event we knew we had to challenge ourselves and inspire others.

We opened our store "Jake by the Lake" on April 4^th, 2008 and by May, 2008 we began planning our first “Life is Good” pumpkin festival which would later become “The Random Act of Pumpkins”. in year one the goal was simply to carve 500 pumpkins, illuminate them by 5 pm and to raise $500.00 for The Children’s Wish Foundation. Our team was very small at the time, it included our store manager, Cynthia, myself and some other volunteers. None of us had and festival planning experience and to make things even more difficult than they needed them to be, we planned way too many events on that day, not to mention the 12 hours of solid rain. We were so busy with everything I often wonder how we managed to get all those pumpkins carved. Here is a quick run-down of how we did it; we started with shifts of carvers at 2 am in and carved into the mid afternoon in the pouring rain. We did a count around 4 pm and there were 503 pumpkins carved on the Westport Island, or as we called it Pumpkin Point. We were officially done, hooray. The only thing left to do was light them, we all agreed that lighting them was probably not in the cards with all the rain so we sent the video guy home. The team headed back to "Jake by the Lake", soaking wet, cold and disappointed, looking out the window at the rain eating cold pizza and drinking lukewarm coffee. None of us had much fuel left in our tanks, it was Cynthia who said around 5:30 PM, “the rain stopped let’s go light the pumpkins”. A blank look came over everyone's face and without a word or hesitation everyone stood up and began gathering what they needed. Cynthia's inspiration, motivated us into action, no inspiration would have meant no action, or should I say no Random Action! When we got to the Island we found each pumpkin was full of water, so we had empty each pumpkin, drop a candle in, and hope the wick did not get wet, then prey to the pumpkin gods that the candle stayed lit.

So you are probably wondering how it looked, well fantastic of course. It is hard to explain in words the atmosphere, the feeling of accomplishment the cheers and applause but let me tell you that everyone was amazed, better yet inspired. This inspiration pushed us forward through 2 more years of pumpkins carving and a series of other similar events. It has not been all sunshine an lollipops, there have been many ups and downs along the way. The most disappointing event was losing, Cynthia cousin Julie Sanders to her courageous battle with Cancer. Julie Sanders was the perfect example of the "yes we can" spirit and she was and still is a key member in our Random Act of Pumpkins. In 2009 we dedicated The Random Act of Pumpkins in her honour.

People often say to us, why do so much work you could just give money instead. Isn't it been hard to do all that in the rain and cold, why bother”? Well that’s easy to answer; it's simply not in our nature. We take great pride knowing that our actions inspire and help others such as our charity of choice “The Children’s’ Wish Foundation”. Kids who face more serious issues than getting wet in the rain, they face life and death at an unacceptable young age. As long as we can, we will continue to inspire, to help others through our efforts and our imaginations. We kindly ask for your help this year by doing the same. Our goal this year is to raise $3000.00for The Children's Foundation, ensure that here is an Act 5 to “The Random Act of Pumpkins ” and last of all have a ton of fun. We encourage everyone to come to Westport on October 29^th and take part in this year’s event. If you would like to make a charitable donation call Cynthia Pringle at 613-273-8292.