By SALLY YORK, Argus-Press Staff Writer

On Wednesday morning at the Senior Center in Edgewater, the Annapolis SPCA held an event to try to connect senior citizens in the area with older pets, which are sometimes difficult to adopt. The event, “Seniors for Seniors,” was accompanied by a bake sale, raffle and other fundraisers. All of the money from the event went to the SPCA in Annapolis.

According to the Humane Society, older pets have several advantages, including:

• Older pets have great manners, mature personalities and quieter habits.
• Older pets are very loving, affectionate and devoted companions.
• Older pets are usually housebroken and less likely to chew, scratch and damage possessions.
• Older pets are focused to learn and most often, know basic commands.

In addition, some studies show that people who live alone can gain physical and emotional benefits from having a pet, including lower blood pressure, improved social skills, an increase in physical activity and reduced stress.

The SPCA brought four dogs and four cats to the event. One of the dogs was adopted, and there was definite interest in the others. Each adoptee has to undergo a background check in order to get a pet from the SPCA.

There were several tables for other fundraisers. One was run by Monica Hardesty of Severn, who has a “stuffed pet adoption” business, wherein people buy a stuffed pet for $5 and the money goes to charity.

“I pick them up for $1 or 50 cents at yard sales, clean them up and resell them. We give the money to SPCA,” Hardesty said.

Mindy Nelson ran a booth that was selling Macys August 27 “Shop for a Cause” coupons. Customers get 25 percent off and a portion of the shopping proceeds go to charity, in this case the SPCA. The coupons will be available for sale at the SPCA on Bay Ridge Road until August 27.

There was a 50-50 raffle, a free lunch, a bake sale, a silent auction and doorprizes for the seniors in attendance.

Extortion never looked this flamboyant.

A toilet, spray-painted pink and decorated with flowers, has recently been making the rounds in front yards across Nevada County.

Homeowners who find the porcelain throne stuck in their yard can choose to pay $10 to have the toilet removed to a friend’s lawn, and an additional $5 to make sure it never appears on their property again.

The gimmick is the design of Bear River sophomore Emily Dyer, a 15-year-old south county resident.

She is participating in a hunger fundraiser sponsored by the youth group at her church, Sierra Presbyterian. She got the toilet from Habitat for Humanity and spray-painted it bright pink.

Dyer’s father transports the toilet from location to location, and so far she’s estimated the plan has raised more than $1,200 since they began in May.

Proceeds from the toilet removal service (victims can opt out if they don’t want to play along) go to an organization called World Vision, which feeds starving children in Africa.

“Hopefully, we’ll keep it going until the end of summer,” said Dyer.

Students in the youth group have been working on a hunger initiative recently, which included a 30-hour fast in order to better understand the effects of hunger, she said.

You can contact the church to find out how to help at (530) 265-3291.

Source: http://www.theunion.com/article/20110701/NEWS/110639974/1001&parentprofile=1053

Margaret Watson

Students were arrested by DPS as part of Jail and Bail, a prank Relay for Life used to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

“I answered the door in my bathrobe,” Smith said. “They told me I had to get dressed because they had to take me away.”

Luckily for Smith, he wasn’t really arrested. He was just a target of Jail and Bail, one of the latest pranks carried out by Brown’s Relay for Life committee, which organizes an overnight walk each year to raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society.

Jail and Bail “is an event where, if you give us five dollars and give us the location of a friend at some point on Saturday, we will have a DPS officer go and arrest them,” said Margaret Watson ’11, co-chair of Brown’s Relay For Life committee and a Herald senior business associate.

DPS officers presented all detainees with a warrant for their arrest and brought some to a “jail” in Wilson Hall 205, Watson said, where they had mug shots taken while wearing handcuffs. Other captives were released on the site of their arrest, after posting a $2 bail.

The committee decided to promote awareness for Relay for Life across campus through unusual fundraisers, as a sort of “publicity stunt,” Watson said.

“Part of the idea behind doing these fundraisers is to get the word out for Relay for Life and make sure people are signing up for teams,” she said.

The officers explained to the targets of Jail and Bail that they were not really under arrest, but a few people “got really scared,” Watson said. “Once we explained everything, they were fine, though.”

Akira Rattenbury, who was visiting friends at Brown, witnessed the arrest of his friend Adam Epstein ’09 and was “definitely scared” by the prank.

“We had hosted a party the night before, and I was lying on the couch, in and out of sleep, and I woke up and looked up to see police out the window,” Rattenbury said. “I just thought, ‘Uh oh. What did we do last night?’”

According to Campus Police Officer Elayna Boucher and Security Officer Jarret D’Amato, targets of the prank were all “good sports,” but some were disconcerted at first.

The most disoriented were “the ones who had a long night last night,” D’Amato said. “They look at the arrest warrant and say, ‘Okay, I’m still confused.’”

Some targets of the Jail and Bail prank were not scared upon arrest, because they were aware of the fundraising effort.

When Ethan Risom ’10 was arrested in his room in New Dorm, he said he was a “little confused at first,” but, he added, “One of my friends from Relay for Life was with (the DPS officers), so I figured it out pretty quickly.”

Some victims of the prank decided to get even with their friends by issuing a “counter-warrant,” Watson said. She added that, in total, DPS officers “arrested” about 30 people Saturday.

Brown’s Relay for Life committee also organized another “out of the box” fundraiser last week, Watson said, when it “chicken cooped” 16 rooms on campus.

The committee thought it would be “funny and hilarious” to charge students $5 to cover the doors to their friends’ rooms in duct tape, Watson said.

“People got really excited about it,” Watson said. “We had a table in the mail room, and people signed up.”

Roxanne Knapp ’11, one of the targets of the chicken cooping prank, said she was alarmed when she heard strange noises outside her door late at night.

“I heard creepy ripping noises, and we’ve had people try to get in our door before drunkenly, so I was really creeped out,” Knapp said.

She was relieved when she opened her door and found members of the Relay for Life committee covering her door frame in tape.

When she woke up the next day, Knapp had to “army crawl” under her tape-covered doorway to leave her room, she said.

The committee’s co-chairs – Watson, Greg Young ’11 and Dominique Ferraro ’11 – came up with their “crazy fundraising ideas” at a Relay for Life summit last November, Watson said. At the convention, the committee learned that the chicken cooping and Jail and Bail are common fundraisers for other Relay for Life chapters.

Participants in the relay, set to take place April 10 from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., form 8- to 15-person teams, which then collect donations.

Past Relay for Life events at Brown have raised over $100,000, Watson said.

Many of life’s little wrinkles can be rolled out along with a pie crust.

Just ask Phyllis Straut, the Women’s Association president at Harrisena Community Church in Queensbury, who seems to have been cast in the role of chief crust maker for the summer pie sale.

“We definitely get to know each other better over pie making. We share things about our kids or our grandkids. Sometimes we even discuss church events,” Straut said. “We’ll talk about Obama or the terrible floods. We just share.”

The annual pie sale, held every Independence Day weekend at the Cleverdale Country Store, is not only a chief fundraiser but also an opportunity for the ladies of the congregation to bond over a few simple ingredients.

The pie sale cements long-time relationships and helps to form new ones.

“You go to church, you sit in your pew, you go through the service. You have coffee hour, but you don’t have the expansion of seeing everybody. Here in the kitchen, it’s small enough that you can talk around and share. It’s been fun,” Straut said.

People can sometimes identify who made a certain pie just by looking at the style of the crust, according to Straut, since each woman brings to the table her own skills passed down from mothers and grandmothers.

On a summer morning near the July 4 holiday, the pie-baking brigade went into action in the church’s kitchen layering pans with pie crust and filling.

Come early afternoon, the baked, cooled pies were boxed and ready to be transported early the next morning.

The $15 pies with fillings of berry, cherry, pecan, apple and pumpkin are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis and are the “upper crust” among a variety of other baked goods.

Straut said she always sends happy buyers off with the instruction to pop the pie in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes to crisp the crust so it tastes fresh.

The Harrisena church July bake sale has been around for many years and was a staple under the leadership of former Women’s Association President Toni Higgins, who died a few years ago. Pies have become the main focus since Straut took over.

“They’re the best sellers. People are not apt to make them themselves,” she said.

The lucrative fundraiser brings in about $800, with the money going toward emergencies in the church.

“Like all other organizations that I have seen, the churches are hurting financially. People aren’t able to keep their pledges up, and this old church is needing repairs. The costly things we at least help with,” she said.

The pie bakers can show off their culinary talent at more than just the Independence Day weekend event, however.

During the third week of July, they contribute their favorite recipes to the summer barbecue, and at Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Women’s Association takes advance orders for pies.

Straut said the group has even begun buying pie tins and boxes for their sales, so the goods are uniform in size and have a professional flair.

Of course, the end result is just as satisfying as a slice of pie a la mode.

“It’s exciting to us to see the excitement in the customer’s face – ‘Oh, a homemade pie!’ – and their willingness to support us,” Straut said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a complaint.”

Read more: http://poststar.com/lifestyles/article_73585f84-a1db-11e0-aa7a-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1QgzCDykt

If you were asked to name the most powerful political fundraising industry in the U.S., who would you list?

Big Oil?

Big Pharma?

Attorneys? Defense contractors?

We can almost guarantee that you’d never guess what profession contributed more to House and Senate candidates in 2010 than any other: Retirees.

Individuals who labeled themselves as “retired” contributed almost $279 million to federal candidates in 2008 and over $159 million in 2010. By comparison, the next-largest industry, lawyers and law firms, donated $234 million in 2008 and almost $138 million in 2010.

Political fundraising has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry. And it’s no secret why: In a country with an increasing number of special interests vying for the favor of only 100 senators and 435 representatives, the stakes have never been higher.

We’ve used information gathered by The Center for Responsive Politics to list the top-20 industries by amount donated to federal elections (as of April 25, 2011), along with an approximation of which party the industry tends to lean toward:

source: http://www.investinganswers.com/a/most-powerful-group-political-donors-america-2979

AUSTIN, Minn — A unique fundraiser has people trying to help flush away cancer.

The Mower County 4-H Ambassadors are holding their Second Annual Purple Potty Fundraiser this year.

When people make a donation to the Relay For Life, they can have the purple potty put on someone’s lawn.

Then people can pay certain amounts of money to have it removed, move it to another location or be told who placed it on their property.

Organizers say they have had good feedback on the program.

“We’ve gotten a lot of complements about how creative it was,” Mower County 4-H Ambassador Cassandra Hanson said. “The person who gave us this idea she said she’s heard it worked in other counties and this is the first time someone has done it in this county.”

All the proceeds will go to the Relay For Life and last year’s fundraiser raised over one thousand dollars.

Small Army for a Cause announced that it has opened registration for its 3rd annual nationwide fundraiser for cancer charities, Be Bold, Be Bald! being held on October 21.

Unlike most fundraisers that are limited by physical requirements, time constraints or geographical borders, participants in Be Bold, Be Bold! simply need to wear a bald cap for an entire day to honor cancer survivors, and raise money for their act.

“Wearing a bald cap may see like a simple thing to do, but it is more challenging than most expect. It’s not a physical challenge, but a vanity challenge. One that many cancer survivors courageously endure without choice,” says Jeff Freedman, founder of the event. “In a small way, this bold move puts participants in the shoes of cancer survivors for one day, and is truly an eye opening experience for those that take part.”

More than 2,500 people across the United States have participated in the event, many as part of student, corporate or organization teams. In two years, the event has raised more than $250,000. For a small participation fee, participants receive a free bald cap to wear on the day of the event, t-shirt and a variety of online and off-line fundraising tools, including personal online fundraising pages for each individual participant and team. When registering for the event, each participant is able to identify the charity to which his/her net fundraising proceeds will benefit. In previous years, proceeds benefitted The Jimmy Fund, LIVESTRONG®, The Prostate Cancer Foundation, The Susan Love Research Foundation, and The International Multiple Myeloma Foundation. This year, the event proceeds will help even more organizations all around the country, to help them achieve their unique missions and unite in this one-day nationwide event.

Participant registration is now open on the event website, BeBoldBeBald.org. An early-bird registration fee of $15 is available until August 15, 2011 at which time the fee will increase to $20. Special registration packages are also available for student organizations who would like to participate in the event.

Be Bold, Be Bald! is managed by Small Army for a Cause, a 501c3 organization committed to helping raise awareness and funds for medical-related causes. Small Army for a Cause was founded in 2008 by Boston Advertising Agency, Small Army, in honor of its co-founder, Mike Connell, a 2-time cancer survivor who lost his life to the disease in November 2007.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebcancercharityfundraiser/beboldbebaldopen/prweb8595028.htm

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/23/prweb8595028.DTL#ixzz1Q8JvU5Ng

By Courtney Flynn,Associate Editor

The local Fraternal Order of the Police have introduced a new fundraising effort to help support their causes.

This fundraising effort takes place at 9:30 p.m. on the last Tuesday of every month at Green Street Tavern in New Baltimore, and the name of the game is Jack of Spades.

Those interested can purchase a raffle ticket for $1. Then, on that Tuesday, four different names will be pulled from a bin. Whoever has their name drawn automatically wins $50, but they also have a chance to win a lot more.

Once a person’s name is called they then have the chance to pick one of 54 envelopes. Each envelope contains one of 54 cards; this deck includes both jokers. If the person picks a joker they win another $50; if they pick the jack of spades, though, they win 60 percent of the pot.

“It was kind of my brainstorm to do this,” New Baltimore Mayor Larry Smith, who also serves as the FOP Lodge 112 president, said.

He said he heard about the Jack of Spades fundraising format from a neighboring community and thought it might work well for the mission of the local FOP.

Bill Gray, the president of the FOP Associates 112 Lodge, said the group has many different fundraising efforts, including their most profitable – a September golf tournament, to support their mission of helping others.

“We’re hoping the Jack of Spades beats that out though,” he said of the golf tournament.

Gray said the group has only held one Jack of Spades raffle thus far, and ticket sales brought in about $1,000. Gray and Smith said they have heard of jackpots reaching the $100,000 range. This may be possible for this jackpot as long as the Jack of Spades wasn’t picked at the last meeting.

“Whatever we sell now continues to make the jackpot grow,” Smith said.

While winning money is exciting for most, Gray said what really is important about the Jack of Spades fundraiser is helping others. From the annual Cops and Kids Christmas shopping spree to providing food, clothing and other essentials to area families, Gray said all they want to do is help.

“We try to give to the needy families in the area and we try to keep it in Macomb County,” he said.

Contact Courtney Flynn at (586) 716-8100, ext. 301 or courtney.flynn@voicenews.com.