This Fundraiser was SPLENDIFEROUS!!!

It was an absolute honor to be a part of the SPLENDIFEROUS shirts fundraiser!  Last night the final round of preorders closed.  A total of 825 shirts were ordered!  That’s $8,250 that will go towards our favorite Sports Announcer Jim Nielsen! 

I could not be more proud of all our surrounding communities and how we all pull together like family and show support!  It was so awesome to see all the splendiferous shirts on Friday and even on Saturday I saw quite a few in the gym at Districts! 

I’d like to take you down the path of how this all got started and how it all came together!  The beginning of February Plentywood and Fairview played each other in Basketball and had a SPLENDIFEROUS night showing their love and support for our favorite Sports Announcer Jim Nielsen who was recently diagnosed with cancer and has a long road ahead of him.  The Plentywood and Fairview teams sported shirts that read “that was Splendiferous” which is a phrase Jim used often!  They were so perfect.  After their pictures were shared I had someone reach out to me to see if I could do some of those shirts for other teams as well.  I wasn’t sure who had done the design and definitely didn’t want to step on any toes so I did some searching to find who had done the previous shirts.  Once I found out who, I immediately got in touch with her!  Melissa Gackle from Fairview made this oh so perfect design and had done the shirts for those two teams.  I visited with her about doing shirts as a fundraiser for Jim and opening the orders up to other fans and teams. We talked about how great it would be to all wear them at districts one day and dedicate that day to Jim.  She was very willing to allow me to use the design as it wasn’t something she was able to take on with the time crunch we were on.  Immediately I got off the phone with her and got everything set up on my website and the preorder went live On Tuesday February 7th at about 9pm. As I said before we were on a time crunch we had to order the shirts and prints so the preorder was only able to be open for about 30 hours.  In that 30 hours social media passed around the link and orders were pouring in.  I had set a goal of selling 500 shirts as I thought that would be so wonderful to be able to present a $5000.00 check for Jim.  Within less then 20 hours we had passed that goal.  However I had to shut the orders off to get the supplies ordered in time so that everyone could get their shirts before Friday the 17th.  At that point I had 636 shirts I knew I had to complete and get delivered before Friday the 17th.  All this time I kept the vision in my mind of the gym on Friday and all the players and fans wearing their SPLENDIFEROUS shirts. I think that vision is what kept me from thinking I was loosing my mind and worrying how I would get it all done.  On Thursday morning the shirt order and print order were submitted.  I had a few days to prepare as nothing would arrive until Monday the 13th.

But low and behold, Shortly after closing the orders I started receiving messages from people asking about getting a shirt.  They were bummed they had missed the cutoff and they were ok with not getting it in time to wear for Friday.  They just wanted a shirt and they wanted to support Jim.  I knew I couldn’t add to my supply order that had already been submitted so I decided to reopen the preorders and quickly 49 more orders came in and of course over the weekend even more have come in now bringing us to a total of 825 shirts.

Honestly it went much smoother then I thought and I think it’s because I kept that vision in my head and kept thinking about how awesome it was to see all the people in support of Jim!

On Monday February 13th I headed into town that morning to pickup 10 large boxes from UPS to get them home and go through them to be sure everything had arrived.  That in itself is always a process.  But going through 600+shirts was really a process.  Thankfully Amy Folvag came out and helped that day as we sorted tees and got the proper colors and sizes divided into each town.  While Amy sorted and folded I began pressing.  A solid 7 hours of pressing and the last hour my husband getting home and saying I’ll help press so we pulled out my second heat press and got it going and he helped as well.  Then we were off to bed to get a good nights sleep as I knew Tuesday would be another busy day as I had about 200 shirts left to press and get everything packaged up and ready for delivery.  And attend a basketball game that evening.  Around noon I had a couple of my great friends Keela and Jakkie show up to help me write on labels and get the items packaged into the bags.  And all into the correct boxes to be delivered to their towns!  That evening I was able to take RedHawks, Savage Warriors and Fairview Warriors boxes with me. Im so grateful for the contacts I had with each town to be able to help get them all delivered definitely wasn’t a task I would have been able to accomplish on my own.  So a huge Thank you to those of you that helped.  The next day I was able to bring over Fusion, Bulldogs, Thunder and Culbertsons boxes and get them all into the hands of some wonderful helpers.  And on Thursday I was able to get Plentywoods to them. 

It all seemed like a whirlwind but it took a team to make it all come together and I feel it came together very smoothly!  I can never thank you all enough!!  From all of you that ordered, to those who helped make sure they got into the recipients hands and to those who helped me stay organized and get this all done.  Im so grateful for each and everyone of you but most importantly for a man who has touched the lives of so many to make this possible!!!

On Friday morning I got up and headed over to Sidney for the Basketball tournament and right away started seeing people with the Splendiferous shirts on as the day went on the gym continued to fill with the shirts and seeing some of the teams wearing them as their warm up shirts it was such a beautiful sight.  

Then that evening between the boys and girls game Sarah Marsh and Dylan MacLean shared some great history about Jim and how he was announcing way back when he was little starting with the cows in barn.  It was a wonderful story.  Jim’s wife Charlotte and two of their children were there and I was able to present them with a check for the shirts that had already come in totaling $6,850.00. It was quite emotional.  I’m an emotional person anyway and I had to hold back the tears.  It’s just so amazing how people pull together and support all those around us when their is a need.  I’m so proud to be where I’m from and just love all the surrounding communities.  They all are truly so wonderful!!!  

Now that number has climbed even higher since Friday morning.  That number has now reached 825.  Which means you all helped raise $8,250.00 for this Splendiferous man!  Words cannot ever express the gratitude!  

Jim you’ve got so many people in your corner cheering you on and supporting you and that is because you have been such an amazing and inspirational man to so many!  Keep fighting!  We all have you and your family in our prayers!!!