Welcome to Shinerama 2012!

Welcome to Shinerama 2012! 

Our Shinerama Blog will serve as a great source for all things Shinerama and Cystic Fibrosis Canada related over the course of our 2012 campaign.  As Chair I get the chance to break the ice and be the first to post to our blog (perks of the job).  Apart from a big welcome to all of you, I would take the first blog post to introduce myself and tell you my Shinerama story. Hit the jump to hear all about it!

I'm from the gentle island of Prince Edward and when I entered UPEI in 2002 (yes, I'm ancient compared to most of you Shiners) I took part in my school's Orientation Week - at the command of my parents who both thought that it was important to go and meet people and familiarize myself with the school. 

During orientation week I participated in something called Shinerama.  For the opening kick-off of Shinerama I was asked to come up and Shine the shoes of some local politician - I embarrassed the heck out of myself.  I didn't realize that the shoe shine brush needed to be opened so here I was rubbing this guy's shoes with the plastic handle of the brush... Needless to say it was a little awkward but funny.  My friends from high school and I jumped in our cars and drove out to our hometown area to canvass in some parking lots, went to our old schools, and had a blast raising as much money as we could.  We ended up with a couple of hundred dollars and had a great time.

I had such a blast doing Shinerama at o-week that the very next week I volunteered as an orientation week leader.  It was so much fun being a leader but sadly the next year I couldn't get out of work during Shine Day and missed it which really sucked! However, we set a new record that year at UPEI raising almost $8,800!

  

Going into my 3rd year at UPEI I decided that I was going to apply for the summer job of orientation week coordinator and for some strange reason they actually hired me (which I was pretty excited about as usually it was only students going into 4th year who were selected). That's when I attended my first National Shinerama Conference.  What a blast!  That was my first chance to mingle with students from across Canada and I couldn't believe that there were so many people out there who were willing to give so much to a cause... I was hooked.

I spent the next several years running and helping the UPEI campaign (shout-out to the Panthers who are now a $30,000/year school!!) and serving as a Campaign Advisor on the National team. In 2009 & 2010 I was the Regional Director on the East Coast and it was so great to be able to work with all the east coast schools for those two years. For last year and this year I've been the National Chair - hopefully bringing a bit of knowledge to the table and helping Shinerama continue to grow.
 
I never would have thought after that May long weekend conference in 2004 that here I would be gearing up for another record-breaking unforgettable Shinerama season - but here we all are, and I couldn't be more excited to have each of you on board.  I'm confident that the National Conference will blow your socks off and the National team is the greatest group of folks you'll ever get the chance to work with - so I'll leave you all with that - and I can't wait to meet everyone in London!

Ryan McDermott

Shinerama National Chair