The Baseline Cowboys were catapulted into the local celebrity spotlight over the past few weeks as bloggers blogged, reporters reported, and photographers photographed them. They’ve been in the Ottawa Citizen twice, on MajicFM radio (did I spell that right?), all over Facebook, and of course, on the couch on their front lawn, drinking beer and being friendly.
And now they’ve decided to put their unexpected celebrity status to good use raising funds for Christie Lake Kids!
Christie Lake Kids is one of my favourite local charities. It provides summer camp and year-round recreational opportunities to kids in low-income neighbourhoods. GC and I volunteer in their after-school art program, which is just a tiny part of what CLK does. There’s also guitar lessons, yoga, martial arts, cooking, homework club, and many other programs. (Plus summer camp, of course, which is where it all started, almost a hundred years ago.)
Kids growing up poor face some pretty tough obstacles. Not only are they poor, but they tend to live in crappy neighbourhoods, and some of them are living in families that struggle with a lot more than poverty.
Christie Lake Kids offers these kids somewhere to be, something to do, and reasons to feel good about themselves. It gives them encouragement and opportunities to develop their skills and build solid friendships. It provides them with role models, leadership opportunities, and reasons not to succumb to the downward pressures of their neighbourhoods.
Tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday August 3rd), instead of drinking beer on their front lawn, the Baseline Cowboys will be raising money for Christie Lake Kids. They’ll be in the parking lot at the Beer Store at College Square (corner of Baseline and Woodroffe), collecting empties and cash. So if you have some empty beer bottles or wine bottles, or an extra $5 or a jar of pennies, please bring it by between 2:00 and 6:00. Christie Lake Kids will put it to excellent use.
Thank you.
I read about this in the Citizen! I will be taking them my empties, as I hate waiting in the line at the Beer Store to return them. I rinse my empties out with water right after they are emptied so they don’t leak sticky dribbles on me when I take them back. But not every body does that and the Beer Store return boxes are rank and full of fruit flies.
There’s a tip for anyone who doesn’t rinse (yet) – since you usually empty the bottle or can near the kitchen (assuming you pour into a glass but even if you don’t, how far away is the kitchen anyway?), it is very simple to stick the bottle or can under the tap and swish a little water around it, and then drain it upside down in the sink or drainer. It’s easier on you too, to not have yucky dribbles coming out of your returnable containers on the way to the Beer Store. Smells better and no fruit flies! Of course, all the people who read this blog are probably already rinsing.
I rinse them once in a while when I think about it but you make good points re fruit flies and sticky dribbles. I think I’ll be a little more diligent. Thanks for that reminder JR.
Actually, I don’t rinse my beer bottles. But I’m sure the Cowboys and the beer store will appreciate your squeaky clean beer bottles Julia!
I got us covered Zoom Zoom – well, some of the time 😉
Thanks for posting this, you are such a good person Zoom. I will be bringing my wine and beer bottles over tomorrow, and of course a donation to the cash jar. What a great organization and charity Christie Lake Kids is.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHLEEN!!
Happy Birthday Kathleen! I’m putting my party hat on!
Actually, these days I am drinking cans of cider. Cans are lighter to carry on a bike and I am enjoying the apple of the cider. Plus I fool myself into thinking it is not “bad” for me, being light and made from apples.
I finally met them! Nice guys. I blogged briefly about it here: http://juliaringma.ca/?p=533
They said you were awesome, Julia.
Hi Zoom, I took your advice and dropped a bag of pennies off this aft to the Baseline Cowboys. They were sitting on a bench along the road to the side of The Beer Store. One was playing a guitar. It was only 1:30 pm but they were happy to jump up and take the pennies from me as I drove by.
I mentioned that I’d read about them on your blog. They were pleased.
I hope they do well with this fund-raiser.
All best, Shannon
Thanks Shannon. I think I almost ran into you twice on Wednesday. Once at College Square with the Cowboys, and once talking to Sunny Newswire on Bank Street. (He said you had just come by.)
Nice to have met you yesterday. I would love to hear how well they did. Simple idea but it seems to be growing into something good.
It was good to meet you too Rebecca! I understand they raised about $300!