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BLR PLAY IT FORWARD 2016 KICKS OFF TONIGHT!

Here we go year #5!

Doing good feels good with all the bad and sad news in the world. Tonight we will kick off our 5th Annual event starting at 7pm at Ramunto’s with our Welcome Back Party:

BLR Play It Forward 2016

Ramunto’s will donate 10% of all sales from anyone joining us, back to the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund! Come one and all for craft beer, wine, great pizza, lots of specials and fun! 7pm until ?

Tomorrow we will award scholarship funds, play some soccer, the kiddos will do a fun run at halftime of the game, and we will have Celebration Cocktails to wrap the weekend at Pangaea Lounge. Pangaea will also donate 10% of all sales from anyone who joins to the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund. They’ve whipped up a special menu of BLR inspired craft cocktails, too. Yum…

ALL ARE WELCOME FOR EVERYTHING! Bring yourself, your lover, your friends, your dog, your kiddo’s, your former coach, neighbor, grandparents, and whoever else you can think of. THIS IS A COMMUNITY EVENT. (Rain or shine!)

Three cheers for the Bennington Banner and writer Adam Samrov who put out this article about our event, today. Thank you, Adam!

Want to get involved, donate/sponsor, or have a question? Great! See event info. here, or call/email Diane:

804.339.6514

Diane(@)BlueLollipopRoad.com

See you this weekend!

#RememberCelebrateLive #StrongMojo #PlayForwardGiveBack

 

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today is the day; play it forward 2015

Huge thanks to The Bennington Banner for this article about our event today!

Play It Forward is so much bigger than just a soccer game. It is about bringing people together, honoring loved ones no longer here, and celebrating memories and time together. It is a reminder about what’s important, where we came from, and is meant to inspire us all to truly live while we are living.

All hands in

This is year four, and I can’t believe it! Countless hours and efforts have been put in and I as I type this with a big smile I could not be more proud. I am humbled and honored to host this event, and so thankful for all the love, support & help from so many friends, family, alumni and community members.

BLR Play It Forward 2015…here we go!

Remember. Celebrate. Live.

#PlayForwardGiveBack #StrongMojo #Community

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live, uncut, and unfiltered; warn the children

Can I get a whoop whoop?! Tell-ya-like-it-is, soul-sister in not being afraid to throw eff-bombs when necessary, and Author of You are a Badass, Jen Sincero- linked to Blue Lollipop Road in her blog post yesterday!

Boom chicka BOOM!

Naturally I’m thrilled to potentially have some of her readers eyes here on BLR considering they’re probably total badasses, or soon-to-be total badasses after reading her book, but mostly todays linkage is awesome  because as I have always said (and Jen writes to this point in her book)- when you take a step towards life, the universe responds. (Translation; Do things you love, are good at, and that feel natural to you, because when you do, traction and movement just starts happening. Period.)

I wrote this blog post on January 19th, because I was genuinely pissed off at myself for not posting here regularly like I used to/not working on my book more, for wasting my time working with a ridiculous client over the past 6 months who was not worth my time or energy, and for being apprehensive about generally writing in the tone I most enjoy; my actual own voice! I’ve been skittish about really throwing my eff-bombs and uber opinions around like I used to, since starting the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund and BLR Play It Forward in 2012: What if a parent of these girls applying for my scholarship read my blog posts that are often littered with cuss words and over-the-top-sass and thinks I’m crazy? 

As I read Jen’s book it was like she snapped her fingers in my face to wake me up from some kind of filtered trance that I had put myself in when I decided I wanted to launch Play It Forward. The do-gooder in me worried about community members and parents shunning their children away from “Crazy Diane who has that event and scholarship fund.” So I haven’t been living like my awesome badass self as much as I have wanted to, writing freely. (Blasphemy!)

So there I am a few weeks back, reading Jen’s words, getting all fired up thinking Bitch stole my book! I’m the one that get’s on my soap box spewing everything she’s talking about! She took the words out of my mouth! That’s how I usually write! Then I wrote that blog post, giving Jen props because hey- while I’ve been being all sissy and filtering my words, she was taking action actually writing her book, and well- the early bird gets the worm, baby. After writing my post I popped on over to good ol’ Facebook and put the link on Jen’s page with a “Thanks, Jen!” – and didn’t think another thing about it because I was busy focusing on kicking my ass back to myself. Meanwhile, in pops a response from Jen that she was going to share my link in her next blog post (yeah!) and here we are.

I did what was genuine and made me feel good by writing that blog post about Jen’s book, and the universe (Jen in this case) responded with some payback love.

Pretty awesome. That’s how it works!

I decided long, long ago to ride the badass train of living it up after losing 2 of my best friends who all of this Blue Lollipop Road awesomeness is dedicated to. I think I’ve managed to do a great job with that…most of time. As I look back at the past few years, I can see myself falling off that train here and there. Learning big time stuff about your adult self and leaving the younger you behind is no easy task, but now- especially after reading Jen’s book which made me feel like I was looking in a gargantuan mirror of my own words, I’m back to the game plan, laser focus, and reality that was burned into my brain back in 1994; there’s no time to be filtered or afraid. Life is too short for any of that crap. 

Today is February 11, 2015 and this day would have been my friend Maria’s 37th Birthday. Here we are in 6th grade before a big field trip, all badass like we owned the world. We didn’t care about a thing (including how ridiculous our hair or fanny packs looked) other than being happy, and feeling alive like we could conquer the world:

6th grade class trip

We were #1 for sure that day. Talk about dance like nobody’s watching. LOVE. THIS. PHOTO. The two of us were always uncut, unfiltered, and having a blast when we were together. That’s how I fully intend to live the rest of my years, inspired by people like my friend, who I wish more than anything, was here to celebrate with today.

Who inspires you to take your filter off?

#BadassBook #BeYou #Unfiltered

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go, be, do, see

Well happy Wednesday to me! This just in, Another Best Day interview posted. Check it out here!

I learned of ABD this summer and think their message is totally awesome. It was founded with a simple idea:

To serve as a consistent reminder to make the most of every day.

Alaska ir Bust

Amen!

I agree with the Another Best Day crew, that we CHOOSE our thoughts, the same way that we choose our clothing. We choose to think positively, or negatively, we choose to think that we are capable of going, being, doing, and seeing anything imaginable, we choose to sit on our asses, or kicking them into high gear. Luck has nothing to do with accomplishing goals. Goals take hard work and making the choice to stick with them no matter what.

Think of the last time you had “the best day ever” and imagine it happening again and again because you wake up each day choosing that it will be. Seems pretty simple, right?

Thanks for working to spread a great message and including me in your awesomeness, Dave & Brett!

How do you pursue Another Best Day?

#ABDLife #Choices #GoBeDoSee

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so many things to cherish

I meet a lot of people in my travels, but my favorites are the ones who are truly following their interests and passions like Alicia Mohr, Designer of Ali’s Collection. I connected with Alicia in 2011 when I was living in Chicago. Funny story, I used to babysit for her in Vermont over 20 years ago. We grew up in the same neighborhood. We never stayed in touch, but the power of social media brought us together and we quickly became breakfast buddies during my Windy City time. Let two foodie, travel-loving entrepreneurs loose in Chicago with all those great noshing spots? We managed to eat our weight in indulgent pancakes at places like Bongo Room many times as we shared stories of each of our adventures around the world and in business.

Alicia started a series about Female Entrepreneurs on her blog Things to Cherish and asked if I’d be interested in doing an interview. (Of course I would!) Here I am. I’m excited to be in the mix of interesting and driven ladies doing things they love. I’m equally excited to have reconnected with a fellow Vermonter unexpectedly, who’s creativity and savvy way are great example of what can happen when you work hard and believe in yourself.

Thanks Alicia! Here’s to following your dreams and making things happen:)

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we supply the mojo

Check it:

BLR Play It Forward is a feature story in the Bennington Banner today! Read the article HERE.

We are thankful that our hometown is excited and supports our event. 2 weeks from today we will be reconnecting with old friends, reminiscing , sharing life experiences with local youth, honoring lost friends, and playing the sport we love. We can’t wait!

Thank you Bennington Banner for a great article!

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