BLR Play It Forward 2013

July 9, 2013 In Be active, BLR Play It Forward 2013, Vermont

free vermont voltage soccer tickets to everyone who attends blr play it forward this weekend!

Here’s a sweet deal:

Come out to Howard Park in Shaftsbury, VT this Saturday July 13th, be our guest at BLR Play It Forward and get a ticket to attend the Vermont Voltage game on July 17th- free!

Vermont Voltage Logo

I was thrilled to learn about the Bennington Sports Center as I’ve been spending time back in my hometown this summer. Owner of this facility and the Vermont Voltage Premier Soccer Club Bo Vuckovic welcomed me to drop in for a tour last month after I emailed him about hanging up event posters. The instant I walked in I was impressed; the space, Bo’s vision, his positivity and obvious drive to create this incredible community space for sports and more in Southern VT are in a word- awesome. If you are reading this and are like me, who always had the desire to stay active and entertained growing up as a small town kid but often felt “bored”, you know what mean when I say- I wish this kind of place was around when I was young! In fact, I would love to see this kind of place available in every town in America and beyond! The Bennington Sports Center has taken over a gorgeous old elementary school and renovated it into this clean, beautiful, and inspiring place that I believe will change lives, and keep kids healthy & active for years to come. BLR is all about that!

Bennington Sports Center Logo

Bo was quick to offer any help I needed with BLR Play It Forward (for this year and the future) as he toured me around the grounds. I thought the free ticket to the July 17th Voltage game was a perfect idea for this years Play It Forward event. I hope to work with Bo on future BLR events. He is definitely my kind of people. It was very clear to me from the minute we met that he really cares about doing good for the community. Three cheers for that!

Come out this Saturday and cheer us on as we play soccer and award a scholarship to a local youth female athlete at Play It Forward, and get your ticket to go see the Voltage play next week!

Thanks to Bo, The Vermont Voltage and The Bennington Sports Center!

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July 1, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, News & Updates, Photos

takin’ care of business

BLR Play It Forward updates in no particular order:

1.) Artist, coach, mentor and great friend Traci Molloy made a special piece of art for Play It Forward and still has a few prints available. The piece is titled “With love – Strong Mojo.” Size: 10×10 unframed. Material: Silkscreen on paper with hand coloring. Date: 2012. Edition Size: 30 (10 in each of the below editions are still available.) The prints are worth $250 but Traci would love people from our MAU soccer community to own them so she’s offering them for just $50! If interested please send me a note here, or email Traci directly: [email protected]

With love - Strong Mojo by Traci Molloy

With love - Strong Mojo by Traci Molloy

2.) BLR officially has Euro stickers. Whoop! Now you can help me blanket the earth with Blue Lollipop Road love and raise $ for Play It Forward & the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Travel Scholarship fund! Click here and donate $3 or more and I’ll send your sweet sticker right out in the mail!

The BLR-Mobile with Euro sticker love!

3.) BLR Play It Forward 2013 tees are being printed this week and are for sale! Available:
*Youth white tees sizes SM-L ($12)
*Men’s white tees sizes SM-XXL ($12)
*Women’s cut white tees sizes SM-XL ($15)
Please send a note to me: Diane(@)bluelollipoproad.com or call 804.339.6514 if you’d like to purchase any. Checks can be mailed to:
Blue Lollipop Road
PO Box 276
Shaftsbury, VT 05262
~or~
You can click here to pay with PayPal.

Without your support and involvement, BLR Play It Forward and the scholarship wouldn’t be possible, so as always- a huge THANK YOU for all donations and support!

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June 27, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Donations

thank you!

A big thanks (and big hugs) to my friends Jen and Chris Ponessi for their donation to BLR Play It Forward/Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund 2013! Not only are these two donors, but they insist to keep an open door policy 24/7 for me to have a BLR “Headquarters” when I am in Vermont. They feed me, house me, and help prep, and schlep for event weekend too. Jen and Chris are the best kind of good old friends a girl could have! (Not to mention they’re super fun and have a ridiculously comfy couch:)

Thanks guys! Lucky me. I love you.

If you’d like to donate, please click here.

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June 21, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, News & Updates

i like good news

I really like randomly meeting strangers who are fun, doing great things, and willing to help support BLR and the Play It Forward Event!

Whoop!

This first day of summer brought an unexpected meeting that resulted in more good news for our July 12th weekend of fun. Happy me. I will share soon so stay tuned! 3 weeks from today kicks off my favorite weekend of the year and one I’m so proud of.

Here’s to doing work you love and never forgetting where you came from.

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June 12, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Donations

thank you mike cutler!

Lucky me to have perfect strangers like Mike who’ve continued to be generous with their time & talents volunteering 2 years in a row to help make BLR Play It Forward possible.

Mike Cutler of MHC Photography was introduced to me by and old friend early last spring and jumped right in to edit all the video footage from our big event for free. He created a DVD that captured a day of great moments which will always remain precious to me. This year Mike will be the photographer for Play It Forward, so if you’re coming to Howard Park on July 13th- get ready to smile! I couldn’t have a nicer guy to work with.

Thanks Mike! I cannot thank people like you enough for donating all your time and great energy.

BLR Play It Forward Sponsors

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June 10, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, News & Updates

extra! extra!

Days fly by and lots happens before I get a chance to fully share here, so today’s post is a partial list of what’s been shaking in the world of the blue lollipop lately.

(In no particular order)

In BLR Play It Forward news:

1.) I had an interview last week on WBTN to share information about our event.
2.) The Town of Shaftsbury (VT) has generously donated the use of Howard Park once again. They’ve also posted information on their website to support us.
3.) Clear Brook Farm is once again our food sponsor. They will provide fresh organic foods for our event guests. (Yummy! We love fresh and local.)
4.) Price Chopper and Hannaford Supermarkets will again both provide gift cards so we can stock up on all the plates, napkins, bottled water, and other items we need for the big day.
5.) Willies Variety and Bakery in Bennington, VT will again be providing boxes of our beloved Blue Razz Blow Pops. (Get ready for blue tongues everyone! If you are coming to play in the alumni soccer game or watch from the sidelines, we might try to “force” you to eat one at some point during the day:)
6.) One of our Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship 2012 winners, Hannah Patterson will be sharing a guest post and some photos here on Blue Lollipop Road in the next couple weeks about how she used her travel scholarship funds.
7.) Mike Cutler will be volunteering his photography expertise this year to snap all event photos.
8.) Tracy Bushee (alumni/friend/designer of the Play If Forward logo) is whipping up an event poster again that will go up around Southern Vermont this week.

How awesome is it that so many of the sponsoring individuals and companies that helped make BLR Play It Forward 2012 possible, jumped at the chance to support us again this year? VERY. THANK YOU EVERYONE!

In other news: 

1.) My work with AGA continues. I will be sharing information as we go. For now, if you are reading this and are a grant writer- we’d love to talk. Drop me a line: Diane(@)bluelollipoproad.com
2.) I’m going to be featured in a series about female entrepreneurs on a blog called Things to Cherish by Alicia Mohr. Check out her gorgeous jewelry designs. Stay tuned for link to my interview.
3.) I’ve been asked by the Women’s Sports Foundation to be on their Travel & Training Fund committee. In partnership with Gatorade, a total of $100,000 will be awarded for their 2013 grant cycle and I get to judge a few of the 94 applicants for this year.

How awesome is all of the above news? VERY.

Put your heart in the right place, work hard, then ask…and you shall receive.

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June 6, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Donations, Maine, Million Mile Joe, People, Photos, Videos

donation!

I’m happy to share that my friends Sharon and Joe (AKA “Million Mile Joe“) LoCicero have donated once again to the BLR Play It Forward Event and Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund! Since meeting Sharon and Joe in the fall of 2011 during my Honda sponsored road trip and fun in Maine, they’ve been incredibly supportive of me and BLR which I am so thankful for. (Fellow road warriors stick together!) Joe and Sharon are tried and true hard working, sweet, generous New Englanders, and a great example of why I have so much pride for the part of the world I came from.

I had to go through the archives to find a few photos from my time in Maine with them. Here I am at their house behind Old BLUE (Joe’s 1990 Accord with 1,000,000 miles on it), giving a thumbs up to Honda:

Me with Old Blue and a thumbs up to Honda love

…and check out Joe with his blue lollipop!

Million Mile Joe with a blue lollipop!

Here are the three of us after the big parade Honda put on to give Joe a new car back in October 2011:

Million Mile Joe LoCicero, Diane Peacock and Sharon LoCicero

(A bit blurry but I love this one. That was a seriously fun day.)

Joe and Sharon are soon embarking on an adventure of their own that I will write about later this summer. Besides that, they’re coming to BLR Play It Forward on July 13th in Vermont! Yay! That’s right, Joe and Sharon are road tripping from Vacationland to come watch and support my big annual Blue Lollipop Road event. Awesome!

Thanks for the donation and constant support Sharon and Joe! Looking forward to seeing you soon.

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May 28, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Inspiration, News & Updates

a cookie monster hailing taxi cabs

You know that after wedding, after a 3 day holiday weekend Tuesday thing when you feel a combination of happy, giggly, indulgent, and way behind on work, sleep and totally irresponsible but kind of Ok with it because you’ve just had so much fun? That’s today.

Hello after big weekend Tuesday!

Chicago has been a blast of a week and my past few weeks from Charlotte to Nashville to Columbus have been the same. As I sit in a Starbucks with my 50 fellow “I can work from anywhere-er’s” I feel like a mischievous kid who snuck too many cookies from the cookie jar: full belly, big smile, and wondering if anyone is going to “bust” me for feeling so good. There is a price to pay for feeling so good; I sleep in my car in between cities, I don’t own Manolos (mine are the same $15 strappy black ones that I bought at a Rack Room in 2004) I schlep boxes in and out of my car weekly because I usually don’t have a home, it is often exhausting I but I wouldn’t change any of it for the world because I really feel like I actually live my days.

From the Windy City I’ll be returning to the green mountains for the month of June for the last weeks of prep on my event I am so very proud of, I’ll get to spend time with more people I love (lucky me), reward another travel scholarship to a deserving soccer playing high school student (lucky them), and I’ll be working from countless other coffee shops like I do today between cities and towns where I make it all work to continue a life that most consider crazy. I have certainly slowed down a bit and shifted certain life wants and wishes over this past year or so, but the core of me will never change as I approach my mid-July new home base city because you can take the girl “off the road” for a little while, but you can’t stop her from exploring. (Yep- you know me well, there’s already a Blue Lollipop Road get’s a home base project that’s in the works.) Until I share more on that, I reflect on my 6 hour drive from Columbus to Chicago that started this fantastic week, when an old Alanis Morissette number came across the radio. The sun was hot beating on my left arm as the windows were down, and I blasted her tune that describes me pretty perfectly:

I’m broke but I’m happy
I’m poor but I’m kind
I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah

I’m high but I’m grounded
I’m sane but I’m overwhelmed
I’m lost but I’m hopeful, baby

And what it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be fine, fine, fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving a high five

I feel drunk but I’m sober
I’m young and I’m underpaid
I’m tired but I’m working, yeah

I care but I’m restless
I’m here but I’m really gone
I’m wrong and I’m sorry, baby

And what it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be quite alright
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is flicking a cigarette

And what it all comes down to
Is that I haven’t got it all figured out just yet
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving the peace sign

I’m free but I’m focused
I’m green but I’m wise
I’m hard but I’m friendly, baby

I’m sad but I’m laughing
I’m brave but I’m chicken shit
I’m sick but I’m pretty, baby

And what it all boils down to
Is that no one’s really got it figured out just yet
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is playing a piano

And what it all comes down to my dear friends, yeah
Is that everything is just fine fine fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is hailing a taxi cab

Here’s to being high but grounded, and free but focused.

What makes you feel like you’re really living your days?

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