Up for the challenge!!

Katrina during her first shift!!

Today we started our campaign at Kelowna mall. It is a very busy mall, which is awesome! It was also Katrina's first shift. So, we where all set for a very special day! We started early, setting up the booth and, when people started showing we begun fundraising. It took us maybe two hours to get our first sponsor, a very nice lady named Tara who has thought about sponsoring for a long time. Today was her day, she sponsored a cute little girl who's favourite subject is drawing. "I am an artist also! I have to sponsor her" Tara said. Being a musician myself I love to see other artists giving children the opportunity to pursue their passion through the sponsorship program. The day started very well.

Mel with her incentive! (she had highest SPH at Cherry Lane!!)

Later during the morning we had someone from the mall staff approaching us with a complaint. I was very surprised about it to be honest; but in situations like that there is not much you can say. It turns out that we can only smile to people, we cannot say "hi", even less try to stop them. Mall staff was very nice to us, and I am sure that, like us, they are only doing their job.

I believe that in such a situation there is only one thing you (specially as a leader) can do: turn the plate around! Everything is about attitude! Yes, we had a complaint, and this mall is going to be more challenging; but that is it! It is not the end of the world! It does not mean we cannot get sponsors! It doesn't mean we cannot have fun! And it definitely doesn't mean we have to stop believing!

Katrina and myself set out to keep pushing for sponsors using our smiles instead of stopping people (the usual way) and we never stopped believing. The second sponsor came an hour later, and before Katrina  finished her shift she got a sponsor!! We finished the morning  helping three children!

When you face a challenge and all the odds are against you is the perfect time to push through and keep believing. Think about bodybuilders, if they don't push their muscles don't grow! Yes, we will keep pushing to reach our target for this mall (with our smiles); everyday we will show up to the booth believing that we can do it, that every child is worth and that the battle is not over! We have something that no one can take away from us: our HUGE smiles and champion attitude! We are the BC Touring team and we will succeed!


The Lantern Project
-Javier Cuellar-