My Go Jill Go Dream is a 30 Day vegan challenge. In my original post, I wrote about why I chose this particular challenge. I wanted to share an update on how I am doing just over half way through.

Aside from one accidental cheat, I have eaten only vegan food for the past 19 days. This has been much more of a challenge than I thought. In the first few days, I suffered from cravings, headaches, and extreme irritability. Coffee with almond milk is just not the same a coffee with cream. My usual after dinner snacks were curtailed and if I didn’t have time to pack a lunch, well, let’s just say that there is a significant lack of vegan food at BCIT.

In almost three weeks, I have discovered that there are a lot of disgusting vegan alternatives. Trying various brands of soy milk, tofu, granola bars and other prepared food has been an adventure. What I have found, is that if you want something to taste like the non-vegan version, you will be disappointed, it doesn’t. But, if you try different foods based on there on merit, you can be pleasantly surprised! This morning, I made vegan apple cashew fritters, DELICIOUS! No, there were not the same as pancakes, but they were very good.

My previous sugar/carb cravings have been replaced with an odd craving for Kale (Don’t worry, it disturbed me as well). I am sleeping better, my skin is better and I have more energy. Most importantly, I have proven to myself that I can do this.

With only 11 days to go, I am planning my first non-vegan meal. No, I am not planning on continuing this diet. I believe that I will maintain a much healthier diet than I had before but one thing I have learned is that I can’t live without cheese.

If you would like to support me, or any of my fellow Go Jill Go participants through a donation to the BC Children’s Hospital, please visit our donation page. If you are thinking “I wish I had joined” you still can! Register online and challenge yourself!

This month I have been working on a project called Go Jill Go – a 30 day “dream month” where BCIT students are completing a 30-day challenge of their choice, while raising pledges in support of BC Children’s Hospital.

This project was created and inspired by Jill Vassallo, a student in the Marketing Communications Program, who graduated in May 2010. Jill was ambitious, courageous and a very hard worker, entering the program right out of high school. In September 2010, four months after graduating, Jill passed away from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a disease she had been fighting since the age of four.

It was Jill’s dream to help kids to not feel sick while they were undergoing treatment. She was passionate about the Child Care Department at BC Children’s Hospital, which organizes fun activities for the children and brings in guests to the hospital.

I did not know Jill, but I remember being at SIFE’s first general meeting in September of my first year at BCIT and learning about Jill through a video that her friends had created about her. I was inspired by her story and decided to help with the challenge. Participating in this challenge and working with the Go Jill Go team has been amazing and very fulfilling. We still have about 20 days left and everyone is doing amazing with their challenges and collecting pledges!

 

Week 1: My first DIY project, an incense holder inspired from Pintrest!

Many students have chosen to do health and wellness challenges, like going vegan, or running three times a week. Others have decided to take a photo a day or to not buy any food on campus for 30 days! I have decided to kick my habit of drinking Coke and to make a DIY project once a week.

Last year $6000 was raised for BC Children’s Hospital and the Go Jill Go team made it onto the BC Children’s Telethon! This year our goal is $10,000.

Amy is a blogger for BCIT’s My Life blog. Check out more from Amy here!

On February 1, 2012 I was watching the Ellen Show and she had a guest star named Adrian Romoff. Adrian is a 7-year pianist who has performed at Carnegie hall 3 times. On the Show he shared some wise advice – your heart is like a cell phone, it needs to be charged or you will run out of power. He further explained the way to charge your heart is to do what you love and do it often. I felt this was the prefect way to kick off Go Jill Go Dream Month. I feel his view of the way you should live your life is very much like the way Jill lived hers. Jill once said to me “your only young once”. This was during SIFE Nationals in Calgary when I did not feel like going out dancing. Well, I went, we danced and I will remember that night forever. Jill was that one that convinced me in the first place to attend nationals when Brent, the president of SIFE at the time, called her out in the middle of the meeting to share her experiences from the past year at Nationals.

For Dream Month Jill I will learn to snowboard. I have always wanted to learn but I was a little afraid that I was too old to be a beginner. When I went snowboarding for my first time, I realized what I had been missing by not taking a risk and trying something new. I do have to say even with the advise Jill gave me about only being young once, I still felt like a 95 year old woman the next day but that did not stop me from wanting more. I feel honored to be apart of something this extraordinary person started and I think it is amazing that her love for life has spread to this years 60+ participants. Jill inspired me to live life to the fullest and do what I love because that’s what life is about.

Sloan Vereecken

BCIT Bachelors Of Business Administration

“I believe everyone who breathes air on this earth, regardless of their job or their bank account, must give back more than just carbon dioxide.” – Kelly Cutrone

I may be a week behind, but better late than never.  I guess you can say I’ve been slightly busy the past few days. Then again when you’re a full-time BCIT student, when are you not? With classes, projects, work, volunteering, and trying to sustain a social life, it may come as a stress case for some people.  Personally, there are days where life feels like a constant routine.  School, eat, sleep, then repeat. But what’s life without a laugh, or an adventure, or at least a moment of happiness?  Or maybe there was, but it passed right by without you even acknowledging it…

The purpose of the Go Jill Go Challenge is to inspire people to live life to the fullest!  I realized, I want to live each day with a memory of happiness. It may sound cheesy, but it’s true. Who wants to let a day go by saying “I didn’t do anything”. Though I have to admit those days can feel amazing, there has to be a reason why they were so enjoyable! So why not capture that moment and remember just why life is so amazing. My challenge for the month is to take a photo of something that makes me happy each day!

Now I’m not going to post all the photos I’ve taken the past week, but here are a few that make me smile.

Day 1: After my January challenge of not drinking any caffeine, only one thing could make me smile from ear to ear. My white mocha americano. Obviously!

Day 2: After going for dine out with your best friends, a late night adventure through Stanley Park to Prospect Point is quite the treat.

Day 4: A great morning can always be spent at a “Nice Cafe”. If you’ve never been, well then you’re missing out! Make a visit: 154 East 8th Ave in Vancouver, BC

Day 6: I attended a networking event hosted by an amazing non-profit organization called Five Hole For Food. Never heard of them? Well me either, until that night. Basically, they drive across Canada playing road hockey to raise food for local food banks. A simple thought, but such a grand impact! I had the pleasure taking a photo with Founder Richard Loat. Check their site out here.

That’s all for now.

xoxo,
Stephanie Murao

Hi. My name is Jennifer and I am a member of SIFE BCIT. I never had the privilege to meet Jill but over the past 6 months as a member of SIFEI have been lucky enough to learn of a wonderful, passionate and dedicated person. The Go Jill Go project caught my attention the first I heard of it and I have been honoured to help and participate in any way possible.

I have been training for the past 11 weeks for the BMO Half Marathon which I have chose to do as my challenge for Jill. In the last month, 28days, of my challenge I will be raising money for the Go Jill Go Fund. To continue the support of this cause i am asking everyone to donate their pledges online to Childrens Hospital for the Go Jill Go Fund.

We have so far raised $6,316.35!

Please Donate Now! I will keep daily posts of my progress online here at the Go Jill Go website.

Getting to know Jill through others has been truly inspirational and it because of her that I want to challenge myself and make the most of every day that I have.

Go Jill Go!

Jennifer

Just before the news came that the cancer was back, Jill sent me a message on Linked-In asking me to endorse her. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Linked-In, it is a professional networking website where you are able to endorse people you have worked with, kind of like a reference letter. I never got the chance to endorse Jill and it breaks my heart every time I see the message sitting in my inbox. So for what it’s worth, here is my endorsement for Jill:

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I remember my first SIFE meeting in September. It was 7am and there were about 150 people crammed into a small classroom in SE6. Jess thanked everyone for being there and then said we were going to watch a short slide show in memory of Jill, a SIFE BCIT member who had passed away recently after her fourth battle with leukemia.

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Hi. My name is Bronwyn and I met Jill at BCIT through SIFE. She and I got along right away and shared many giggles and smiles whenever we were together. She was truly an incredible person and friend, and amazed me constantly with her drive and determination.

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I sit here at my computer trying to organize all my thoughts I have about this SIFE project, my personal challenge, and a special girl that brought this whole idea together, Jill Vassallo. Being a member of the GoJillGo has been such a great experience so far. I find I am still, to this day, learning more and more about this amazing individual each time someone blogs or shares a story during a meeting. All one needs to do is go visit Jill’s facebook page to understand and actually see just how many lives Jill touched. She possessed a charisma that stood out right away whether it was your first time meeting her or you had known her for years. When you hear someone’s name, you are usually able to put a couple sentences or words together to go along with that person. For myself, when I hear Jill Vassallo, here are the random words and thoughts that pop into my head: Rix, Jill with a handful of books, huge smile, saying hello to everyone, bubbly, sincere, outgoing and driven.

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I joined the Go Jill Go SIFE Project because Jill was a friend of mine throughout the marketing diploma program at BCIT. I had the pleasure of being in Set B with Jill in first year, and in the same option as her in second year. Jill and I became especially close when we discovered the mutual love we shared for hockey, specifically for the Canucks.

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