Watch video below to learn more about our 2012 Family Fundraisers:

Click list below to see details on any of our events:

MISS FAMILY FUNDRAISERS:

MISS Family Fundraisers are simple activities you can do to support MISS while taking time to connect with friends, family and the community. They are designed to raise awareness and enable others to honor the memory of your loved one by contributing to MISS. MISS will feature one national Family Fundraiser every two months so that you can join hundreds of other families across the country united in furthering our mission. Design your own event, or choose from the ones below and take advantage of our tools and templates.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY: Sweet Memories Bake Sale

Concept: Hold a bake sale with delicious treats to raise money for MISS in a local high-traffic area like a school, shopping area or community park.

Tools: A variety of homemade cookie recipes, templates to print with your personalized information for your table, community service credit sheets for students who need hour for school/organizations, printable tags to tie to your cookie/treat bags.

You'll Need: A location, ingredients and a space to bake, a table and some chairs, two to three helpers, plastic baggies, ribbon and paper/office supplies.

Great Additions: Seasonal Cookies for Valentine's Day or the appropriate holiday.

For full PDF flyer including FAQs, click here.

Brewing Up Hope

Feb 25 | 12:00pm - 4:00pm

Papago Brewing Co.
7107 E. McDowell Road
Scottsdale, AZ, 85257
(480) 425-7439

We're tying up beer week with an amazing outdoor festival celebrating the camaraderie of the beer industry. All of your favorite breweries will be here pouring specalty beers in honor of the 10 year anniversary of Little Guy Distributing. We will be donating all proceeds to the M.I.S.S. Foundation. M.I.S.S. is a foundation that offers bereavement support to families that have lost a child. It is a great charity please come show your support!

Cost: $20.00

See map and other details here: http://arizonabeerweek.com/event/?id=32

MISS FAMILY FUNDRAISERS:

MISS Family Fundraisers are simple activities you can do to support MISS while taking time to connect with friends, family and the community. They are designed to raise awareness and enable others to honor the memory of your loved one by contributing to MISS. MISS will feature one national Family Fundraiser every two months so that you can join hundreds of other families across the country united in furthering our mission. Design your own event, or choose from the ones below and take advantage of our tools and templates.

MARCH/APRIL: Yard Sale Extravaganza!

Concept: Out with the old! Get motivated for spring-cleaning by cleaning out your closets and hosting a yard sale fundraiser – invite neighbors on the block to do the same! Come home to a cleaner house and full heart.

Tools: Text you can use to promote the yard sale locally, on craigslist, or any community calendar, template letter explaining concept.

You'll Need: A few family members to help, determination to spring clean, neighbors to host simultaneous sales (optional), signs, outreach to local media to promote, petty cash.

For full PDF flyer including FAQs, click here.

MISS FAMILY FUNDRAISERS:

MISS Family Fundraisers are simple activities you can do to support MISS while taking time to connect with friends, family and the community. They are designed to raise awareness and enable others to honor the memory of your loved one by contributing to MISS. MISS will feature one national Family Fundraiser every two months so that you can join hundreds of other families across the country united in furthering our mission. Design your own event, or choose from the ones below and take advantage of our tools and templates.

MAY/JUNE: Swing Away for Father's Day!

Concept: Professional golf trainers donate their time to help eager golfers refine their skills. The trainees donate the price of the session to MISS.

Tools: Email copy to invite friends to participate

You'll Need: A few friends who love to golf and or can't wait to learn, the donation amount.

For full PDF flyer including FAQs, click here.

July 2012 Kindness Project Day

Every July 27th is International Kindness Project Day. From July 20-27 each year, you'll be able to download free templates to print out your own Kindness Cards. And then we encourage you to go out into the world and do kindnesses in the name of the person you love who died!

Click here for full information including ideas, video, press release and more!

MISS FAMILY FUNDRAISERS:

MISS Family Fundraisers are simple activities you can do to support MISS while taking time to connect with friends, family and the community. They are designed to raise awareness and enable others to honor the memory of your loved one by contributing to MISS. MISS will feature one national Family Fundraiser every two months so that you can join hundreds of other families across the country united in furthering our mission. Design your own event, or choose from the ones below and take advantage of our tools and templates.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER: Letters for Love

Concept: Send letters to family, friends and contacts telling your family's story and educating them about the MISS Foundation. Letter will include an appeal asking them to support and an envelope to help them contribute.

Tools: A letter template to get you started, reply envelopes and guidance crafting your letter

You'll Need: Paper, envelopes, stamps and a pen to sign!

For full PDF flyer including FAQs, click here.

SAVE THE DATE FOR
THE MISS Foundation 2012 CONFERENCE

October 4, 5 & 6, 2012
Fiesta Resort
Tempe, AZ
Room Rate: $99/per night

Want to do a presentation at Conference?
Click here to fill out the Request For Proposals online! 

See more details here:
http://missfoundation.org/conference

MISS FAMILY FUNDRAISERS:

MISS Family Fundraisers are simple activities you can do to support MISS while taking time to connect with friends, family and the community. They are designed to raise awareness and enable others to honor the memory of your loved one by contributing to MISS. MISS will feature one national Family Fundraiser every two months so that you can join hundreds of other families across the country united in furthering our mission. Design your own event, or choose from the ones below and take advantage of our tools and templates.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: Online Art Auction

Concept: Many bereaved parents use art as an outlet for grief and a path to healing. This online art auction shares those special gifts and enables others to purchase a meaningful handmade art piece while supporting MISS. Anyone can donate a piece of art with a brief description of their story, and community members bid on the artwork throughout November.

Tools: Online platform for auction, templates to share your story, specs on contributing.

You'll Need: Artwork you've created, a camera to take a digital photo, a brief description of your art and your story, postage to mail to the winner.

For full PDF flyer including FAQs, click here.

MISS FAMILY FUNDRAISERS:

MISS Family Fundraisers are simple activities you can do to support MISS while taking time to connect with friends, family and the community. They are designed to raise awareness and enable others to honor the memory of your loved one by contributing to MISS. MISS will feature one national Family Fundraiser every two months so that you can join hundreds of other families across the country united in furthering our mission. Design your own event, or choose from the ones below and take advantage of our tools and templates.

DECEMBER: MISS Money Pots

Concept: Label a bin, can, jar, box or container of any kind and collect! Change adds up, and with enough handmade MISS Money Pots around the country, we will raise significant funds!

Tools: A special MISS label for your money Pot and envelopes to send in your earnings as you collect.

You'll Need: A hand-selected container, a label and a few high-traffic places (schools, convenience stands, community centers, stores) to collect money

For full PDF flyer including FAQs, click here.

MISS Foundation will host another
Barefoot Walkabout to Remember (tm)

2011 - specific date TBA

Who: Anyone interested in hiking in memory of a precious child

Date: TBA

Time: Check-in and Walk-Up Registration 11:00 am;
Hike begins promptly at Noon

Place: Brewer Trail – Park at Wesleyan Church – 580 Brewer Road, Sedona, AZ 86336 (see map below)

Registration: $25 per person * (must be 18 or over)
Please download Barefoot Walkabout ™ Pledge Sheet to invite donations from friends and family.

Online Registration at:
When date is confirmed, we will offer registration via eventbrite.

Walk-up Registration: available day of event

After the hike there will be a Barefoot Gathering discussing the Walkabout ™ experience at 490 Brewer Rd, two doors down from the church at the Center for Loss & Trauma

For more information: Call 623-979-1000.

View Larger Map

Mindful grieving is being fully present, in the moment, with the mourning experience, nonjudgmentally with our own emotions and the emotions of others. This mode of being with grief includes unconditional acceptance of where we are in that particular moment.

The Barefoot Walkabout is a grief coping strategy discovered by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore in 2007. Since then, she's become an avid barefoot walkabouter. She found that along the treacherous path during the barefoot walkabout, many metaphors manifested, and she began to understand her own journey of grief in relationship to the deaths of her daughter, both her parents, and her best friend in very different ways. These metaphors began to take on powerful meaning to her, and each time she went through a barefoot walkabout, she discovered something new about her self and the process of mourning.

For those are spiritual or religious, the walkabout is an opportunity to be in both silence and solitude with God. Some of Dr. Cacciatore's patients feel they've experience an encounter with God during their own silent walkabout. Others have merely felt the grounding of the experience with the Earth. For the secular, it's an opportunity to allow nature to teach about the journey of grief. Either way, the Barefoot Walkabout facilitates an encounter with meaning in a profound way for many.

The Barefoot Walkabout is an intentional practice of being fully present, in the moment, with our current state of mind and heart. It's a journey no one will ever forget.

If you'd like to collect pledges and sponsorships for your Walkabout, you can use our MISS Foundation Pledge Sheet, by clicking here (opens PDF file).

***

Put off the shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
~book of Exodus

Various spiritual faiths view bare feet as a sign of both humility and respect. According to DeMello (2009), in both Jewish and Christian faiths, tradition valued barefoot mourners, and barefoot pilgrimages were not uncommon. In Buddhism, being barefoot connects people to nature and can lead the people to the path of virtue.

***

Supplies for Barefoot Walkabouters (tm):

• Backpack with power snack and plenty of water
• Sunscreen
• Bandaids
• A photo of your beloved child, grandchild, spouse, or other loved one.
• Your open, humble heart.

About Brewer Trail:

Brewer Trail is a moderate to difficult hiking trail up to the airport mesa in Sedona, Arizona. It's a fairly steep climb uphill so those with heart conditions or other health ailments should consult their physician prior to the hike. The hike is approximately 2.5 miles.

It's an amazingly beautiful panoramic view from the top.

Those who are feeling ambitious can continue up the trail, around the airport mesa.

Location:

• Brewer Trail in Sedona, Arizona
  
• Parking available right across from the trailhead at the Wesleyan Church 580 Brewer Rd.
  
• Meet in the parking lot NO LATER THAN 11:00 a.m. for registration. The hike will begin promptly at noon.
  

BAREFOOT WALKABOUT (tm)
DISCLAIMER AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY

• I declare I will be 18 years or over on the day of the event
• I am fully aware of the actual and potential risks in participation in this event
• I declare that I will not participate in this event unless I am medically fit on the day of the walkabout and that, in any case, I will participate at my own risk.
• To the extent permitted by law, I accept that the organizers of the event, or any of their agents or representatives, will not be liable for any loss, damage, action, claim, costs or expenses, which may arise in consequence of my participation of the event.
• I grant my permission to MISS Foundation to use or authorise others to use photographs, motion pictures, recordings, data or any other record of my participation in this event for any legitimate purpose without remuneration
• I have read and understand the above and by registering online or on-site have agreed to the terms
• If I am in violation of the terms, I agree to bear the financial burden for my own legal expenses and the expenses of the MISS Foundation
  

The Barefoot Walkabout (tm) began with Dr. Joanne Cacciatore in 2007 and has been used therapeutically as a mindfulness practice with many of her patients. There are risks involved with the walkabout including encounters with cacti and sore feet. If you participate in this walkabout, you do so at your own risk. If you are reluctant, please bring along a pair of shoes in a backpack.