In the summer of 2009, Revolve was tapped to work on launching a signature breast health fundraiser like no other.
On January 30, 2010, hundreds of participants will raise a minimum of $1,000 each to complete six hours of consecutive fitness including dance, aerobics, Pilates, and one hour with the King of Short-Shorts himself, Richard Simmons.
This one-day event in Halifax, Nova Scotia will launch two attempts to break or set new Guinness World Records and every cent raised will help purchase new digital mammography equipment that will instantly increase Nova Scotia’s screening capacity by 75 percent.
The prize at stake here - 75 percent more women getting screened every single year - is one too powerful to be ignored, especially when you consider that Halifax currently has the worst wait times in the province for mammogram screenings - the only source of early detection that can improve a woman’s odds against breast cancer.
That said, we couldn’t just show up, ask people to exercise for longer than your average marathon on top of spending weeks raising money, and then go out for job-well-done nachos. Far from it, actually. We needed to be sensitive of other fundraising initiatives, respectful of the many people who are so passionate about beating this disease, and let the community - on whom we are relying to make this event a success - define how we will get there.
As we began genuinely reaching out to others for support and suggestions we found, more often than not, that people truly adopted this cause as their own. Dancers and choreographers started to meet in secret to rehearse a flash mob dance; the Halifax chicks - influential bloggers and Twitter users - entered a team and took Bust a Move to a whole new level online; avid fundraisers and volunteers rallied to ensure their involvement; local students got to work on developing promotional content.
During the launch week we saw over 100 participants and 100 volunteers sign up for Bust a Move, 300 new members joined our Facebook group, and Bust a Move received over 500 mentions on Twitter.
While the numbers are all lovely, the best part of this experience is watching communities come together to create a genuine movement that will benefit us all. We still have a way to go before the big day but those days are already booking up with pancake breakfasts, bake sales, gift-wrapping services and many more fundraisers in support of better breast health services in Nova Scotia. We couldn’t be more thrilled.
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