My “100 Hearts Project” Fundraiser
From the 15th October 2020 (Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day) I painted 1 rainbow water colour heart, every day, for 100 days with the intention to list & sell each one for $100 each & with 100% of the proceeds (minus postage & handling) to SANDS Australia (now Red Nose Australia) providing much needed funding towards support services for families bereaved by pregnancy &/or infant loss.
I am not personally a part of this community, but it is a community to which many of my friends belong & I am all too familiar with witnessing the devastation that follows in the aftermath of a child loss & how, as a bystander to this experience, I’ve often felt utterly powerless to help. On an impulse I set up this project thinking the least I can do is try to raise some funds for the organisation that can provide support & help in ways I couldn’t. But this project didn’t only raise funds, this project became so much more.
Through this project a whole community was connected & uplifted. Their children, who were very much loved & wanted, were respectfully remembered & honoured. This project acknowledged that their loss & the resulting grief is valid & requires more recognition, more conversations & more support.
By the cessation of the project, I had undertaken well over 300 combined painting & administration hours, was humbled by the honour of being entrusted with & sharing the (sometimes very raw & personal) stories of unimaginable grief people have experienced through their losses & I cried, oh how I cried.
I painted all 100 Hearts (& some) within the 100 day timeframe, but sadly I simply didn’t have the reach or the resources to successfully sell them all. With that said I still managed to raise over $6000 in funding through the sales I did make & I will continue to have the unsold hearts available to purchase for as long as it takes. I asked Red Nose Australia to keep my fundraising page open indefinitely for any future donations (whether through the sale of hearts or the sheer generosity of anyone who would like to contribute to the cause) with the hope that we can one day reach a 10k goal. Creating this project has been my absolute honour, privilege, & pride - I get so emotional whenever I think about it.
FUNDS RAISED: $6575.00 (last updated September 2024)
RED NOSE FUNDRAISING PAGE: https://fundraising.rednose.org.au/fundraisers/LaurenGibson/100heartsproject
