Jo-Anne's blog

Jo-Anne's blog

It's a DirtyGirl's World

We posted a link to a video for an all-woman owned and operated trash hauling company earlier this month as they are in the final selection stages for their own reality tv show. The company is called DirtyGirl Disposal and is run by a remarkable woman by the name of Katherine Fairbanks. When the link came into the office last week I passed it around to my co-workers to gauge their reaction because it's a little rough around the edges and I wanted to be sure that nobody would be offended by the language.

Golfing for Pink

On Monday I had the pleasure of playing golf in the American Cancer Society's West Michigan Golf Classic event here in Grand Rapids. It was a well run event and lots of fun - all focused around the goal of raising $80,000 for ACS. It was a beautiful day and I had the honor of playing with a group of men that I work with at Cascade Cart Solutions. I was very nervous at first as I got partnered with Scott who is undoubtedly the best golfer in our company which is never a good thing because I am a complete hacker with absolutely NO TALENT but fortunately he was in a gracious mood.

Wishing you a Very Happy Mothers Day

A year ago I blogged on Mothers Day weekend while my family was driving in from Toronto to be a part of our daughter's college graduation. We had a magical weekend together and since then our son has also graduated from college and now one lives in Romania and the other in Canada. I guess we are now the preverbial empty nesters which all my friends and family warned me would be awful but I have to be honest...I kinda like it.

We Need Pink Advocates!

Two weeks ago I wrote a blog about the frustration I am sensing from our friends on Facebook who are trying to figure out how they can get Pink Carts on their curb. Some people have haulers who are non-responsive or uninterested in doing something new. Some people can't order a Pink Cart online because the shipping is too expensive, despite our efforts to bring the price down. Others want to start petitions and have campaigned to their City Councils but haven't been able to show enough support from their neighbors and community members to bring Pink Carts to their curbs.

A Pink Sisterhood

You know those people movers they have in airports? The ones where you think ‘should I or shouldn’t I’ because you know that you really do need the exercise and you should walk but they are so appealing. The way they stretch out for as far as the eye can see, and you don’t really have to move a muscle to get from A to B if you don’t want to. I certainly need the exercise but succumb to its lure almost every time.

Pink Cart Needs Your Help!

Our PINK cart community continues to grow by leaps and bounds. When we first launched our facebook page last spring, I asked all my friends and family to 'like' our page and as it turned out I had exactly 19 people in my circle that could do so. 19, how pathetic, but it didn't take long before we hit 1,000 then 10,000 and now we are approaching 30,000, which is remarkable. I love reading everything that people write and I spend too many hours paining over the stories and experiences that people share because I am compelled to listen.

I'm in love with another

Last Friday our friends at Borden Waste Away drove their garbage truck all the way up from Elkhart, Indiana to Grand Rapids, Michigan to be part of a photo shoot for INC magazine. Their truck is special, unlike any other garbage truck in the world, as it is wrapped with a huge photograph of four cancer survivors circled around with their hands on a PINK cart. Is it possible to love a garbage truck? If it is, then I definitely have a love affair going on with this truck. I remember the first time I saw it on an very cold and overcast fall day.

Betty and Gilda should have been friends

This week in Grand Rapids the wonderful Betty White came to town for Laughfest in support Gilda's Club which, most of you know, is a free cancer and grief support community offering children, adults, families and their friends emotional and educational support. It was a wonderful evening with an informal feel to it as Ms. White sat up on stage and casually chatted in front of an audience of over 2,000 people.

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