The Little Give Toronto

TEAM SKIPPING ROPE Blog Post #5 - Down To The Wire

A not-so-secret fact about me: I’m the crazy plant lady who hovers over her balcony garden and keeps an eleven-year-old beast of a Christmas cactus.  Really, it’s like a sickness.  And so when it was announced that my team for the Little Give would be paired with the Green Thumbs Growing Kids initiative, I was pretty stoked, to say the least.

Now, coming down to the last six hours of the Little Give 2011, we’re finding ourselves still pretty busy tying up loose ends and readying our (winning) presentation, but we know we’re going in the right direction.  After getting Laura’s fantastic wrapup email around midnight last night (without even being aware that Cam was still working away in the office, and would be there until 3:30 AM!), it’s pretty clear to me that not only did we have an awesome nonprofit initiative to work with, but an awesome team in general.  The combined powers (and spectacular resources) of Team Skipping Rope really came together to create something amazing for Green Thumbs Growing Kids.

How amazing, you ask?  You’ll find out this afternoon when we present our results to everyone (and win the coveted Little Give trophy!).  See you at Labatt!

- Caitlin

TEAM SKIPPING ROPE Blog Post #4 - It’s All Coming Up Roses…Err, Vegetables)

On a glorious Friday afternoon, the awesome members of the sure-to-be-legendary Team Skipping Rope headed to Green Thumbs Growing Kids’s flagship location, the community garden at Winchester Junior/Senior School in the Parliament/Wellesley area.  And for those of you in the Toronto area: Could you ask for a better day to be outside gardening?!  The answer: No, you could not. (And as awesome as the Edelman TO office is, it was fun to get out and enjoy the sunshine while doing “work”!)

Anyway, I digress - this massive and well-kept Cabbagetown garden seemed like a great place for kids from Winchester and the community to both hang out and pitch in to help maintain.  But now it was Edelman’s turn!  Under the watchful eyes of curious parents and locals alike, our team set about doing a variety of tasks to help with the gardening and get a feel for the initiative we were supporting.


Intern Meghan takes us on a “tasting tour” of the garden - cilantro, spinach and garlic, oh my! (Don’t fear for our breath - the garlic wasn’t ready to eat)


A beautiful example of a budding head of lettuce.


The students were just getting out of school for the day, and once they saw us mucking about in their garden, a bunch of them were eager to help!  (Cue uterus aches from all female team members.)


Case in point: these cute munchkins giving us a hand with adding layers of mulch to the garden pathways.  (As one of them happily exclaimed, “I love helping!” Who says people aren’t bringing up their kids right these days?)

As I bang out this blog post and upload more pics and do mass amounts of tweeting to help promote GTGK, more team members are still hard at work at the garden site, so here’s to Team Skipping Rope (and the weather!) - may the domination continue!

- Caitlin

TEAM SKIPPING ROPE Blog Post #3 - Winning!

It was a gorgeous early summer morning outside as Team Skipping Rope got down to business back at Edelman HQ.  Thanks to our great start last night and continual follow-ups by team leader Laura, the bunch of us were feeling pretty confident going into a full day of hot (perhaps literally) Little Give action.

Accompanied by plenty of caffeine (thanks Starbucks! #client) and the hard-rockin’ tunes (uhhhh, maybe not) of Paul Simon, we were thoroughly energized and ready to tackle our challenges from Green Thumbs Growing Kids.  Two things were definite bonuses: the power of the Internet (what did we ever do without it? Thanks, Al Gore!) and Hayley’s persistence in hunting down a vital piece for our ask from Green Thumbs Growing Kids.  Again, we’re not offering any hints just yet, but the news definitely perked us all up — and it wasn’t just the coffee.

Time to stash some beers in the fridge — there’ll be some hard work coming later on this afternoon, and Team Skipping Rope will need some cold beverages once all this is done with!

- Caitlin

TEAM SKIPPING ROPE, Blog Post #2 – Music, Manscaping, Minor Injuries And More

Things were looking right on track as Team Skipping Rope worked away through the evening of the Little Give Toronto’s first day – everyone was chiming in with their various talents, favours were being called in from very helpful outside sources, to-do lists were being put together, and fun was being poked at Chris and Cam. (Cam: “I’m going to go get my computer.” *cue Cam coming back lugging his entire Mac*)

Accompanied by the healthy Little Give diet (covering the four food groups: beer, wine, sugar, and pizza), Laura was quick to bucket together team members who would take care of various parts of our challenge (no hinting – we don’t want to reveal our secrets!). Our team was very well-rounded, if I do say so myself – people with talents ranging from media outreach, video production, event planning, and more. All that, and our team was also ridiculously good-looking. A winning combination.

As we wrap up a productive evening of brainstorming ideas and making fun of each other, we’re looking forward to getting the show underway and doing our best work for Green Thumbs Growing Kids.  Tomorrow’s going to be a busy – and fun! – day of hard work.  Go Team Skipping Rope!

- Caitlin