So this is the part where I teach my daughter about community responsibility

Only I'm failing miserably. For the last two years Kamryn and I have walked in the Mother Daughter Walk Heart and Stroke. I started with a neighbour who dropped out after the first year and have continued on my own (with Kamryn of course). I saw it as a good way to be a little active, have some fun but most importantly teach Kamryn about community responsibility.

Okay there is a slight problem here. I like walking. I love doing stuff with Kamryn and I am community minded. The problem -- I HATE asking people for anything much less money. So I dread it every year. But I made this pledge you see. To do it for Kamryn.

So this year's walk rolled around -- they've changed it to a "family" walk now. and back in August I dutifully signed up and began to dread asking for pledges when I saw an out and leapt at it. I signed Kamryn up for swimming lessons and her first lesson clashed with the walk. I seriously considered having her skip that first lesson but I had specifically siged her up for this session because they had 12 classes in a row and I thought with this good block of classes there was a small chance of her learning how to swim. So I decided we would forgo the walk this year (yay! no asking for pledges!!!!) and find something else equally civic minded to do later in the year. Today they called to tell me that the first swimming class is cancelled. My excuse vanished.

So here I am 1 week to go before the walk with no excuse not to participate and exactly $0 in pledges. Pathetic. Actually I have $50 in pledges because I'm about to go and sponsor myself. Truly pathetic. Last year we raised $530 which I was proud of until I saw that the two people I sponsored for the Breast Cancer Run for the Cure both collected pledges in excess of $1000. Obviously I need to get over my problems with asking for money.

Everywhere I look in our family (and both kids birthfamilies) there is heart disease so there is personal link here. Okay I'm off to pledge some money to myself. If you are interested in doing likewise (for which I would be eternally grateful) here is the link to the Heart and Stroke pledge form.