And, we're off...to a great start!

Not only did we get the PLANE ticket, we got 2 nights at a Hotel for Elizabeth as well!

Thank you to BLIND SOCIETY MARKETING AGENCY, owners Jim and Jami Clark, who donated points for a round trip ticket for Elizabeth to fly to Colorado and meet her oldest brother Michael who she has never met! Their efforts also inspired an anonymous donor who donated 2 nights at a hotel for Elizabeth when she goes on her journey! THANK YOU for making this dream come true! I cried when they let me know :)

Last nights meeting was so cool....it just felt charged and put together! It feels like we are all on the same page and you can really tell how much of our hearts and energy are invested in Elizabeth and the Big Give! Its so cool how we are working together to make all these socials and arrangements possible.

The Home Buying Social will be this week...

An insert from my follow up email below:

"This week's BIG arrangement is assisting Elizabeth with getting her truck tuned up and repaired! It is running, but from what I understand, could use a little help. It's an older model Ford that she saved up for and bought. It is not a 4 x 4. We will be working diligently on this!! Lets get this arranged by next Wednesday, I am positive that we can!! If you know of a business that would like to be part of this, please invite them to participate, as we would greatly appreciate their help!"

This is awesome, I can only imagine what we will accomplish by August 16th! We are planning for a fundraiser in July...the group, along with Elizabeth will plan a fundraiser for someone in the Valley that is in need and we will accomplish this together...I think it will feel really good for Elizabeth to be able to give back with us, the gift of giving is HUGE! We spent some time discussing that...

Movin right along!!!

~Our first Social, The Beauty Social~

Sunday Fun Day!

Sunday's Beauty Social was such a success!!! Elizabeth loved her facial, and her one on one time with Jordan! She learned a lot about her skin, and we got her on a healthy skin regiment that she will easily be able to keep up with! She has Jordan on speed dial and is so happy to know a skin specialist. We all had lunch together and then watched Mystic Pizza! Thanks to all the girls that made that possible, it wouldn't have been such a hit with out all of you! She must have thanked me 5 to 10 times, and she also told me that all my friends were so pretty and successful! Such a sweet compliment!

I received a text message from her at 6:30 pm that night saying that she had an amazing day with me and the girls ;) That was very special.

Plan of action has started!

The Story of Elizabeth's Life and where we go from here!


I had picked up the book from Elizabeth and she had given me a photo to share with the girls. This is her book, we are just reading it, we are going to give it back to her at the end of the summer. She said that she had showed her mom, and her mom went out and bought one for herself. I am glad the growth and positivity is spreading!

Now, Thursday's follow up email, holymother had we brainstormed, I had so much to write!


Below is an insert from my follow up email:


"Moving Forward! This is great! The "All About Me" book was such a success and great insight for us to get to know Elizabeth. Her likes, dislikes, opinions and goals! The group has set a goal of one social a week with Elizabeth so that we can get to know her while doing the things she likes and needs in a laid back manner. This will not only give us the ability to get to know her, but also educate her on the things she is wanting to know more about and move us towards changing her life!!! She is so excited!!!! I can't wait for more of you to meet her.

This weeks Beauty Social will be this Sunday, June 1st, at Jordan Bryant's Home in Scottsdale at 10:30am. We will be getting together for a girlie afternoon of beauty, lunch and a chick flick! (And, a professional facial for Elizabeth) Elizabeth mentioned wanting to know more about Skin Care, and Jordan is an amazing Aesthetician. She works for the plastic surgeon Dr. Shaw and also privately out of her home in Greyhawk. For any of you that have not used her services, I highly recommend her, she is fabulous, and her skin shows it!"

(In the center of the email were descriptions of other socials to come, and then the ending...)

"This is just the beginning and we are rockin and rollin! Please reply to me if you are interested in this Sunday's social, and I will send you the details/instructions. Ideally we would like to have only a handful of girls at each social. One, not to overwhelm her with all of us at once, and two, each of us will have more expertise in one area over another.

Next, we decided to work on some big arrangements for Elizabeth this summer! The one I'm mentioning in this particular email are FLIGHT PLANS for her to fly from Phoenix to Colorado to meet her oldest brother that she has never met. We will reach this goal!!! We are wondering if any of you, or your husbands, or your friends, or your families, or your businesses have a free ticket or airline miles that can be donated towards making this happen?? Please reply to me if you are able to make this dream come true or have any ideas! I know many of you are not always able to make the meetings to brainstorm and plan, but can easily help from afar....for that we appreciate you more than you know! Let’s see if we can tackle this before next Wednesday!!!! "

Who is Elizabeth???

We're gonna use "All about Me", by Phillip Keel, and do questionnaires about ourselves!

This meeting was cool! We are getting to the fun stuff!! How were we gonna get to know Elizabeth, and incorporate ourselves into her weekly schedule?

Below is an insert from my follow up email:

"I was able to share my story of meeting Elizabeth on Tues at the FloCrit Center! That was special... she seems very open and also very excited! In brief, I explained to her how it was that I came about being there with her and how she was nominated and chosen. Both Barbara and Todd from the center were there with us. I asked her if she was open to this, and if she would share her story and be willing to cooperate with us. All yeses, and we spent about an hour together. I shared my story, we exchanged personal contact info, and went over some small logistics of the summer.

Last night the group decided that a good start from here would be to do a getting to know you questionnaire with Elizabeth. There is a book, "All about Me", by Phillip Keel...I am on my way to buy it now and I will be dropping it off to her today. We figured this would be a less intense light hearted way of getting to know Elizabeth. I am also going to ask her for a photo today. I have also attached a small questionnaire for all of you to fill out, and in a week and a half, I will pick up the book from her and give her the questionnaires that we have filled out about ourselves. Please get those back to me by Sunday the 25th! The group thought this would able a healthy fun start to forming a relationship with her. "

Shortly after I sent Thursdays email, I headed to the book store to buy the book, and I had it wrapped! (Kristin Hannah was in town from Wisconsin, and was able to make this Wednesdays meeting....she actually refered this book...every girl makes a difference!!)

On the inside cover I wrote "For Elizabeth Our Wishes for you are larger than life! Hopefully your dreams are endless! All our hearts, Shauna & the girls of the Summer 2008 Big Give."

I headed to her apartment and was able to see where she lives. She showed me around, and I gave her the book. She complimented our choice of getting to know her and thought that it was a clever idea. I asked her if she would complete the book by the 26th of May and I would pick it up for her upon my return from Italy! It was a deal, and I told her that I would be bringing questionnaires the girls were doing on themselves as well...

And the winner is... Elizabeth Savage!

Tough Decisions!!

This was such an intense meeting! It was so complex going through the very intense and very little that we knew about each of our candidates! The diversity of our group was so helpful in narrowing it down to one, as a lot of the girls had very strong opinions and passions about our wants and abilities to impact the person that we were going to choose.

Below is an insert from my follow up email:

"We choose one person from six that it had been narrowed down to, and it was not easy! Her name is Elizabeth Savage, and she is 18 and lives in Tempe. She has completed Florence Crittentons Girls Program/System, and is now living on her own. I will meet her for the 1st time next week, prior to the meeting, and hear her story in more detail face to face.

What I know now is she for some reasons or others she was not able to live with her family any longer at an earlier age and was the victim of abuse and neglect. She has dreams of college now, but is working and living to barely get by. From what I understand, she has no family and no support! The administration at FC really believes in her! She has come very far, and the girls from tonight's meeting all agreed that there are many ways we felt we could make an impact with her! We can't wait to hear more from her directly and meet next week to start with the details on how we can add some real positive direction/support in her life! We will put efforts towards changing her life this summer, and move forward with a huge vision in doing that! It will take a lot of attention to detail/creativity as we are still working with a young mind. The completion date for our challenge is Saturday August 16th!"

We took a photo of all of us at the meeting that night holding up the list of names of the candidates on the yellow piece of paper I had used to make chicken scratch! It blew my mind that we had choose one, one person from a whole big city that we wanted to help! I was so excited for Elizabeth, for us, and for the chance to meet her and introduce myself and the dreams the group had for supporting her! At this point, I was hoping that she would accept the offer...

Shortly after writing my follow up email to the group I drove to the Florence Crittenton Center t o share the news with Barbara and Todd, the 2 people from the center that had nominated Elizabeth. That was an amazing moment!! They assisted me in making an appointment with her at the center so that I could meet her among the people she knew and trusted...

Summer 2008 Big Give Begins!

The phone list has begun, and the group is goin!!

"Hello Gals!

Last night's meeting was great! We had an awesome group of girls who were able to turn out, and we are off to an amazing start.

A quick update. There is no meeting next week, the next meeting will be May 7th. We are going to try and stay consistent with the Wednesdays. I will write after each meeting with an update and brief recap, and I will write the Monday before the scheduled meeting with the place and address of the meeting to come.

We were able to discuss our goals and challenges of this summer's meeting and we will define most of them when we meet next. For those of you who weren't here, the inspiration for this summer's group was from Oprah's Big Give. This show created an impact nation wide of learning how to give big of yourself and to your community. We are going to pick one candidate that we will put efforts towards changing their life this summer, and move forward with a huge vision in doing that...we also are going to leave each meeting with one personal challenge...this weeks challenge is to change one light bulb in each of our homes to a new energy saving bulb. Sounds silly, but its all about doing it.

Attached is the start of the phone/email list. I will update it as we go. For those that were not able to attend, we can't wait to have you with us. Please, if you would like to stop receiving emails regarding the meeting, reply to me here and let me know. Also, if you are interested, please try and attend as many meetings as possible to stay committed and to be supportive.

For the girls that were able to attend last nights meeting, thanks for your energy and the personal challenge suggestions, they were great. Again, if you have any suggestions toward the candidate base please send them to me before Sunday. This will give me the time to interview and follow up. Also, feel free to call me and discuss if that works better!

TTFN-Shauna"

**Phone list is not attached here, this blog is meant to trace the steps and feelings of the growth of the group**

At this meeting, meeting # 1, sweet gal named Dede attended, most of us had never met her, and suggested we journal our thoughts and feelings surrounding this summer's give. Until now that was in discussion, and this blog is my attempt to bring that idea to fruition!

Bringing back to LIFE Shauna's Women's Group!

This is where it starts! With an idea, an urge...intention! Yay!

"Hello Everyone!

Not many of you know, and I did not know many of you, but 7 years ago when I moved to the Valley, I had a Women's Group that would take place at my home in Chandler every Wednesday night. It was small and quaint but it had a purpose and was great while it lasted.

By now I have shared with a few of you that I will be restarting that group for the summer, and with TONS of passion and conviction! If you are ready to be inspired, to inspire, and to be challenged then don't miss being part of this go round. Personally I love to, and I am ready to do things that are bigger than myself and the immediate world that I live in, and also make some amazing changes for myself, and for others. I know some of you are part of local charities and clubs, and others not, either way we would love to have you, your good vibes, and energy part of ours.

The first "pre-liminary" meeting will be held this next Wednesday April 23rd at Marisa Stockwood's home in Scottsdale. Her address is 7452 E. Quill Scottsdale 85255 It will be from 6:30 to 7:30. No need to bring anything, it is not a happy hour or a dinner. There will be tea and water, we will get in sit down and get to the point :) Its gonna be tons of fun and very fulfilling!

Please let me know if you will be making it by simply replying to this email. Also, feel free to fwd this email and invite any other ladies that you think would like to be part of this. The more the merrier. I will look forward to seeing you there!

TTFN-Shauna"