Clearly, the Do Gooders of Pay It Backward Day love to do nice things - but who says they don’t like to win nice things too? Hence, the Pay It Backward Day Contest was born! As a way to say THANK YOU to all of our lovely Do Gooders out there, Daily Challenge offered any person who ‘took action’ on the Pay It Backward Day website the chance to enter to win 1 of 5  free iPod nanos. Yippeeeee, doing good rocks!

After all of the hooplah and excitement of Pay It Backward Day settled down, we randomly drew the winning names from our marvelous list of Do Gooders - and we are now prepared to reward a few of you (5 to be exact!) for being so awesome. So, without further adeiu, I’d like to announce our five lucky, lovely, glorious, amazing, totally cool winners of their very own brand new iPod Nanos! (Oh and by the way, they come in really pretty colors, too). Drum roll por favor?

And the winners aaaaare: Ms. Joann Lim, Mr. David Feldt, Mr. Jamie Franks, Ms. Carolyn Johnstone, aaaanddd….Mr. Eric Floresca!

Wahooooooo, congratulations guys! And thank you again for doing your part to help make Pay It Backward Day such an amazing event! Please consider this as a small token of appreciation, courtesy of the Daily Challenge team Go PIB Go!

Well well well, the numbers are finally in and it’s safe to say that Pay It Backward Day Happened again – in a very BIG way!

As most of you know, this past September 30th, Daily Challenge embarked on one of its most exciting adventures yet. Because our last Pay It Backward Day - all the way back in April (wow, time flies) - was so successful, we paired up with The Second Cup Ltd, Silk Soy Beverage Canada and our Donation Partner Ivanhoe Cambridge to put on a second (and extremely awesome) Pay It Backward Day event!  The difference? WELL this time around, we took it across the entire province. Do Gooders were invited to visit any one of the Ontario’s 170+ participating Second Cup cafes and buy the order for the person behind them in line.  The even cooler added bonus? Every time somebody Paid It Backward on September 30th, our sponsors agreed to donate $5* to SickKids Foundation!

As you can see, we were amped up to make this event a tremendous success! We had a goal of inspiring 3,000 acts of “coffee kindness” on this glorious day – and frankly, you guys blew it out of the water. The official count of generous Do Gooders who came out to Pay It Backward for SickKids totaled at a whopping 22,287! And what’s better – those 22,287 small acts of kindness benefited SickKids in a BIG way – raising $15,000 for SickKids Foundation in a single day!

A SUPER HUGE thank you goes to our amazing event sponsors, media partners, and donation sponsors for all of their generosity in helping bring Pay It Backward Day to life! And of course, a big shout out to our dedicated Pay It Backward Day committee members and incredible team of helpers on the big day. Finally, thanks to all who came out to make the Head Quraters location the massive celebration that it was, specifically: Team FLOW from FLOW 93.5, Julie Crochetiere, Leo Stakos from FishTV, Talia Russo, Freestyle Soccer, and Canadian Beat Boxer Champion Scott Jackson. Without any of you guys, this event would not have been what it was!

If you weren’t able to stop on by yourself, do not fret! Our fantabulous videographers Kenway and Jon Lim were at the event ALL day capturing the magic. Check out the excitement of Pay It Backward Day below:

GO PIB GO!

* Pay It Backward Day is brought to you by Daily Challenge. Second Cup and Silk Soy Beverage Canada are proud sponsors of Pay It Backward Day. These sponsors as well as our donation partner Ivanhoe Cambridge will be contributing a total of $5 every time a customer buys the person behind them their order for a maximum of $5000.00 Canadian per organization. All dollar contributions go to SickKids Foundation. This offer is available on September 30th, 2009 in participating Second Cup locations in Ontario. © 2009 WhiteWave Foods.

As most of you know, our Pay It Backward Day event to benefit SickKids Foundation went down last Wednesday (September 30th) at over 170 Second Cup cafes across Ontario. And yes, there was TONS of hype and it turned out to be an AMAZING experience!

So…We realize you may be saying to yourselves ‘Well. What’s the hold up Daily Challenge?? We want to know how Pay It Backward Day went!”

The truth is - we have experienced a slight delay in announcing the results, as the numbers have come in a bit higher than we expected! So, trust we are doing our best to get the grand totals secured and stay tuned for the final numbers, official press release, and wrap-up video - all of which we will be pumping out very soon!

GO #PIBday GO!

Amongst several other local celebrities - including, one-time VJ and head of the YummyMummyClub Erica Ehm, TSN’s Michael Landsberg, local actress Talia Russo, the lovely singer and model Anaya Hayes, and Team FLOW on-air personalities Jus Red, J-Wyze, Jeni, and Taboo - the extremely talented singer/songwriter/musician Julie Crochetiere will be making an appearance at the Pay It Backward Day HQ (Queen St. & John St in Toronto) tomorrow to join in the excitement!

Julie, who was featured in our Why do YOU Pay It Backward? video, is an incredibly warm-hearted and gifted jazz singer who is eager to give back to the community in all sorts of ways. Recently, Julie  created and launched her very own intiative, Play It Forward, which combines live entertainment with community building and fundraising for children’s music programs. We are so very excited to have her on board, helping make the Pay It Backward Day heaquarters location even more hoppin’!

Below, have a listen to one of Julie C’s most recent singles, “Precious Love” - nominated for Best Mainstream AC Song at 2009 Can Radio Music Awards and Best New Song at Smooth Jazz Awards:

Gotta love Pay It Backward Day! See ya out there tomorrow ladies and gents!

As you may know, the Second Cup cafe located at Queen St. and John St. in downtown Toronto has been deemed the Pay It Backward Day headquarters on September 30th. As the place that all of the #PIBday action went down last time (April 4th), it only seemed right that we blow the second #PIBday out of the water at this location! Now - of course - you can visit ANY participating Second Cup cafe across Ontario to Pay It Backward. But if you get a chance to stop by the HQ location, I highly suggest it…because it’s going to be a darn good time!

The line-up, you ask? Well…

Alongside a host of celebrity servers, live street entertainers, media gurus, a special surprise in the evening, and much more - we have just confirmed that FLOW 93.5 will be DJing LIVE at the HQ location from 2:30-5:30 pm. Team Flow made it out to the last #PIBday and generated tons of buzz with their music and onsite live-to-air stream - so we are pumped to have them joining us again! Additionally, several of their on-air personalities, including Jus Red, J-wyze, Jeni, and Taboo, will be behind the counter as celebrity servers throughout the afternoon!

I don’t know about you, but I’m pumped! Stay ‘tuned’ (ha ha) for more updates about day-of entertainment and other fun #PIBday tidbits! Oh, and a humongo THANKS again to The Second Cup Ltd and Silk Soy Beverage for sponsoring this soon-to-be awesome event!

One…More…Day!

Contrary to popular belief, September 30th’s Pay It Backward Day isn’t just about coffee. Though we are hoping to encourage thousands of acts of ‘coffee kindness’ in order to raise money for SickKids Foundation, it is important to keep the bigger picture in mind.

In truth, the heart of the Pay It Backward Day movement goes far beyond buying a single cup of coffee for somebody one day of the year. Really…take a moment to imagine if every person in every country did something kind for somebody else every day of the year. What would the world be like? Pretty powerful stuff.

Ultimately, the Pay It Backward Day movement aspires to positively impact a community. ‘Paying it backward’ can (and usually does) mean something special and unique to everyone who comes out in support. Whether it be to cultivate a compassionate awareness in the community, to encourage people to be proactive, or to reign in a sense of social consciousness - people everywhere pay it backward for a greater purpose. There’s no right or wrong answer to the question “Why do you pay it backward?”

Peep this brand new #PIBday video featuring a mix of local celebrities, influencers, and every-day Torontonians telling us why they will be paying it backward next Wednesday:

So… Do Gooders of the interwebs…why do YOU Pay It Backward? Let us know!

**Super huge thank you to Notable TV for all of their amazing work on this video! And of course our all star Do Gooders line up that helped us film the shoot.

Attention ladies and gents! The ‘old hollywood glamour’ themed TwestivalTO in support of MealExchange is THIS SATURDAY(that’s tomorrow)!  Talk about an awesome way to help out a charitable cause,  make some amazing memories, and look like a hottie in the process!

Here’s the lowdown…

For only $20, you get to:

• Cruise aboard one of the Mariposa cruise line’s most spectacular ships (from 8-11:30 pm, woo!)
• Mix and mingle with the finest of Toronto’s social media crowd
• Enjoy free appetizers courtesy of the lovely team at Sprouter
• Jam out and do a lil’ dancing to music spun by local DJs Duarte Da Silva and Aaron Kaufman
• Have a chance to win some sick prizes, including: the new Palm Pre, tickets to an exclusive TIFF event, a subscription to Freshbooks, two brand new uCorders, and a Molson CFL Tailgate Prize Pack!

…But want to know the best part of all?! 100% of the $20 ticket sales go directly to MealExchange, an intiative fighting hunger in Toronto. TwestivalTO hopes to raise $5000 for MealExchange - which would be enough to provide 178 youth leaders and over 6,200 meals to the hungry.

So far, just over 200 tickets have been sold for this epic event. Help TwestivalTO reach its goal of selling 500 tickets by spreading the word! Tweet it. Facebook it. Blog it. Also, get YOUR tickets today! You have until tomorrow at 5pm to score your tix, so chop chop!

Together we can make a huge difference for the fight against hunger in our local TO community. Please visit the TwestivalTO website for further deets and info.

Hope to see ya out there, hollywood style.

After Michael Jackson abruptly passed away this summer, millions of people spoke out in memory of one of history’s most incredible song artists and performers. In honor of the late MJ’s recent birthday on August 29, I’d like to share with you one of the coolest ‘memorials’ that I’ve come across… (Thanks Dee for the tip)!

On July 8th, people in Stockholm paid their tribute to the King of Pop in their own unique - and might I say, AWESOME - way!

On the afternoon of the 8th, over 300 dancers gathered at 3:30 pm to learn the choreography for Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ in less than half an hour. A few short moments later, they were spontaneously performing in a crowded city square in Stockholm, to the delight of thousands of unsuspecting passersby. The effect was…enormous.

Peep the video on YouTube here!

‘Seconds’ anyone?

Apparently we served up a pretty nice Pay It Backward Day. Ah yes, it’s a beautiful thing… as it seems we successfully whet the appetite of Torontonian Do-Gooders with our record-breaking pibTO this past April 4th. Ever since we broke the world record for coffee acts of kindness at a local Second Cup café and donated 100% of the proceeds to SickKids Hospital, the community’s demand for more ‘good’ events has been exponential.

Whether it’s via tweets, blog posts, or the ever-so-traditional email, we have heard your cry for another opportunity to do some good in your ‘hood’. And so, this September 30th, we present you with Pay It Backward Day 2.0! Bring your party hats, because it’s going to be a good time!

Alongside our amazing sponsors, Second Cup and Silk Soy Beverage, we invite Do Gooders across Ontario to join us on Sept. 30th at any participating Second Cup location to “pay it backward” by buying the order for the person behind them in line. Every time this happens, our sponsors will donate $5* to SickKids Foundation! We’re shooting for the stars here - hoping to inspire 2,000 acts of “coffee kindness” in order to raise $10,000 for SickKids Foundation in a single day!

So, the moral of the story? Help us make a BIG impact for SickKids through small acts of kindness by visiting a participating Second Cup on September 30th and offering to ‘pay it backward.’

Be on the lookout for the launch of www.dailychallenge.org/pib, where you’ll be able to find out more information about the initiative and JOIN THE MOVEMENT!

*Up to a maximum of $5000 per sponsor

I Choose Love, how ’bout you?

Okay, so I know it’s a bit early to start going all ‘lovey dovey’ on you - as that glorious February 14th date is still a bit far off. But hey, guess what? Valentine’s Day isn’t the only day that there’s room in the air - or, in the blogosphere for that matter -  for love to float around. And thank goodness for that…or 364 days of the year would be bad news bears.

Anywho, a special thanks to Stephanie Miller of livelighter for introducing Daily Challenge to I Choose Love, an inspirational video that simply begs the rhetorical question, “I choose love. What do you choose?”  As I watched it, I felt lulled into a sense of humbled self-reflection. Yes, this video provides its viewers with a refreshing and motivating perspective on the world - helping us to, well…choose to love in the midst of what can seem like a crazy, mixed-up life at times. Definitely a message worth spreading 365 days a year.

If you’re looking for something to propel you through that ‘hump day’ afternoon lull at the office, I highly suggest that you check out this video or pay a visit to the I Choose Love website to learn more about this thought-provoking movement.

Enjoy - and keep checkin’ in for more good news from the Do Gooder Daily! Cheers to loveeeeee!