by Duncan

We won’t be on Kenmount Road in the former McDonald’s much longer. This Monday (March 29), we’ll be moving to new digs on the other side of St. John’s, to the second floor of Argyle street. As a result, we’ve been cleaning up the office, and packing all the gear that’s destined for the move this Friday into boxes.

One thing will remain the same however- our view of Signal Hill and of Cabot Tower.

Update: We’ve moved, and we’re settling into our new offices at 18 Argyle Street, Suite 200. We’re no longer on Kenmount Road.

Posted on Mar 22, 2010 - 05:20 PM

by Lesley

Over the holiday season the town of Torbay, NL held their 2nd annual Winter Lights celebration and raised money for Young Adult Cancer Canada through their Make it Light event for the second year in a row. Through donations from local individuals the third party event raised over $1,200! This money will go towards YACC's support programs for young adults dealing with cancer.

We wanted to send out a big THANK YOU to all involved with the Torbay Town Council and to all who donated! A very special and significant thank you is also owed to Kristina Roche, a wonderful YACC volunteer who helped initiate and organize this event. Thanks so much Kristina, you rock!

Posted on Mar 04, 2010 - 10:49 AM

by Karine

Looking back at 2009, I started to wonder how many hours we actually put in to pull off the year we just had. 2009 was the year of two Retreats (East and West), our first pilot of our one day workshops for young adults, and the biggest Survivor Conference to date. This had to take a lot of our time but how much is a lot?

Because I love what I do so much, while doing it, I never really took the time to stop and look at the big picture. It is now, while my job load is not crazy (yet ), that I am realizing what came with this past year. Between myself, Lesley, our Managing Director and my coach throughout the year, and Geoff, our Executive Director, we worked a total of 41 weeks, fulltime to organize all the events. You are probably thinking, "well that sounds about right, a year, fulltime to organize all the programs," and you would not be wrong. What stunned me was realizing that the majority of these hours were jammed over a five-month period, not 10 months. Kind of like giving birth to four babies at 20 weeks instead of 40. Surprising and a little exhausting, but bringing so much joy and love that you forget all about the pain and want more (that's what I am told having babies is like anyway).

Passion gets you to accomplish a lot, great teammates also support and help you always do a little more a little better, but what keeps us going is who we are doing this for. The energy, love, strength, inspiration, and courage that young adults bring to each of our events is what makes us go. They are the gas to the engine along with all our supporters, donors, professionals helping throughout. It may sound cheesy, but it's the simple truth.

After taking some time to rest and gear up for 2010, I feel definitely ready to take it by the b*lls and make it even more amazing than last year. The tiredness left my body and I now feel grateful and privileged that I will get to do this all over again this year, with some minor changes.

First stop, Retreat Yourself May 27-31, 2010 in Abbotsford, BC. Registration is now open and we still have few spots left. For more details check our Retreat Home Page.

Watch out 2010, here we come!

Posted on Mar 01, 2010 - 02:06 PM

by Duncan

I firmly believe in the necessity of fully embracing the medium. So, instead of railing against the shortcomings, incorporate them into the design. Make them part of your strategy, and, as far as I can see, you’ll end up with a much strong end result.

I haven’t consistently done this at Young Adult Cancer Canada. Most notably on my to do list is the plan to redesign the newsletter to make it less dependent on the header images, and take advantage of colours and tables, much like Facebook’s new Friend Request email notifications.

But on the web, what is the medium?

Boston Globe’s Big Picture shows how great photography can be on the web, compared to on newsprint.

Hulu has shown how made for TV video can succeed on the web.

The New York Times has made mixed media reporting shine on the web.

Blogs have become a ubiquitous publishing medium, native to the web.

Twitter has shown how 140 characters make sense on the web.

All of these are the web, and yet, they’re also not. To date, Young Adult Cancer Canada has only really begun to explore the blog format. Shorter form essays with a single thesis. That is, until now.

With the new Shave for the Brave website, we’re experimenting adding a second format to our news feed, what we’ve been calling internally “short form.” We’re publishing the same content to Facebook (max 420 characters), Twitter (max 140 characters), and our own news feed (no such limit).

We’ll be pushing out all sorts of quick updates about the Shave, new locations, milestones, and really, anything that seems to suit the medium.

Twitter seems to be both a dream and a nightmare. A dream in that it allows us to directly connect with the people we care about in a meaningful way. A nightmare in that they seem to be buried in a sea of PR specialists, Viagra ads, and snake oil salesmen. But we’ll stick another toe into the water and see what happens. I know I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Posted on Mar 01, 2010 - 05:43 AM