we've moved!

year one is all but complete. with our preparations to make this a long term project comes a new site. check us out at dailyinspiredproject.wordpress.com and follow our progress!

interactive preview

for those who are interested in previewing the calendar, we have created an interactive preview of it which can be found here. it only shows the girls and the last couple of pages (leaving out the actual calendar part, but you can imagine the rest.)

Pre Order your Daily Inspired Calendar

The first batch of calendars have been sent to the presses. Now it's time to get the orders.

There are a few ways to order the calendar. You can click on the link to the right and order a calendar through the f/8.3 photography website. This is the one way we are able to take credit cards. But please remember that there is a $1 transaction fee which will be one less donate-able dollar we can use for the cause.

The best way to order is to let us know directly and pay by cash or check. We will be having different calendar events in the weeks ahead where you can drop by and get your calendar on the spot. The first event is on Dec. 11th at the Lyon's Den in Bothell, WA from 4 - 7pm. I'll make sure to post a list of all future sales locations as they become available.

Something else you can consider would be to become a Daily Inspired Ambassador. These are individuals who are out there helping us take orders. This is a great way to save on shipping as well because we can ship the entire order to one person and the calendars can be distributed locally. As of right now, we have ambassadors in Portland, Phoenix, Seattle, and Yakima. If you are in any of those areas and would like us to contact the ambassador for you, let me know!

Sincerely,

Cari Fukura

cari@f83photo.com

Thank You

Many people on our journey have told us how thankful they are for what we are doing. We are proud to be a part of this journey but want to convey that WE are the ones who are thankful.

There have been so many people who have been so kind and gracious to us. Sharing their stories, finding friends to be a part of the calendar, pledging money to help cover the cost of printing and support in helping to sell the calendars so that we can make our goal!

To our calendar girls, Melissa M., Roro, Debbie, Gerri, Jeni, Melissa R., Michelle, Laurie, Lynn, Karol, Kristina, Shirly, and of course (most importantly) Mom: Thank you so much for sharing your stories. The profound affect you have had on us is priceless and we hope that this project was in some way a blessing to each of you as well. Your stories are truly inspiring!

Shirley Sims

Shirley is a breast cancer crusader! She embodies everything we've come to know about the fight against this disease and we are thrilled to have her be the final shoot for this year's Daily Inspired Calendar.

Her battle against this disease has been with her her entire life. Seven of her family members have had cancer, either breast or prostate, and she is fed up with this being the thing that plagues her family. With four children of her own, she wants nothing more than for that word, cancer, to disappear for good!

The setting for our photo shoot was the Kubota Gardens in South Seattle. It is there that her sister has her final resting place, under a tree at the entrance, where she can see all the people coming and going. Shirley lost her sister to breast cancer and telling us their story brought many emotions to the surface. The same day that her sister went in for surgery for her mastectomy, Shirley had the mammogram that discovered her cancer. For Shirley, she was diagnosed in such an early stage that her cancer was thoroughly removed and she is now an eleven year survivor. Her sister on the other hand had breast cancer three different times and didn't have the strength to beat it again.

You can hear in her voice the love she has for her sister and how much she misses her. But it is for her sister and the rest of her family that she agreed to do this project with us. Having her picture taken isn't exactly something she looks forward to, but for the cause, she will stop at nothing to do her part.

Shirley, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for offering your support. And thank you for being Dale's friend on her journey. Shirley is a dear friend of Jason's mom and we are both incredibly grateful that Dale has such comrades in battle like Shirley who understand her pain and cheer her on to put this behind her.

Mom

The reason we started this project was that the disease finally hit home.

I had done the Susan Komen Race for the Cure with my family on several occasions, and it was always a great experience. I knew of several people who battled the disease, some who lost and some who won. When your mom tells you in passing ‘I have breast cancer,’ no matter how early they caught it, no matter the prognosis, it hits you a bit. And it hurts.

Many people say ‘know your body,’ ‘check for lumps,’ and so on. The message my mom has is ‘get your mammogram.’

Her diagnosis was so early that there was no way to physically tell she had anything wrong, the ‘specks’ that showed up on the screening were hardly visible, but they were cancer. After a very mild treatment (surgery and radiation) she was done.

She told us that she never really had the thought of ‘I’m going to die.’ And driving to treatments just became part of her day: get up, eat breakfast, go to radiation, go to work.

The biggest thoughts she has taken away from this battle are a concern since now there is a family history of breast cancer (where there once, was not) and a realization that although there are groups, and friends and family, this is still a very lonely disease. If sharing these stories somehow helps one person, we have made a small victory in the goal we set out to achieve.

Karol & Kristina

Meet Karol and Kristina, a mother daughter duo bringing awareness to the BRCA.1 gene and how to live in spite of a horrible prognosis. This family knows breast cancer on a very personal level. Karol, a passionate family historian was able to trace the gene back to her great grandfather. Every single generation of her family has been plagued by this disease and rather than letting fear take over in her own life, Karol and her daughter Kristina took a stand and made a decision to not let the cancer ever have a chance to take residency.

Research shows that Women with a mutation, have up to an 85% lifetime chance of developing breast cancer and up to a 65% chance of a recurrence of breast cancer. They also have a 60% chance of developing ovarian cancer as well. With stats like this, testing positive for BRCA.1 is nothing to mess around with. Both Karol and her daughter, after having tested positive, decided to undergo a complete mastectomy and reconstruction. With their surgeries behind them, they were both very pleased with their results and better still, breast cancer will never be a diagnosis they have to endure!

Both women are avid scrap bookers with a passion for family and memories. In this picture they're holding up a photo of a little girl. That is Kristina's daughter. Their hope is that the gene stops with Kristina, and her baby never has to make the decision she and her mom had to make. But also that science continue to move forward and take the power away from this disease so that if the gene is passed on, medicine of the future will be able to beat this disease before it even starts! Prevention is key. Know your family history, and if you think the BRCA.1 gene might be in your family, get tested! Today, the test is expensive, but there are many organizations to turn to for assistance and advice. And I am sure that if you had questions, Karol would be more than happy to share her story with you herself.