Two weeks ago I wrote a blog about the frustration I am sensing from our friends on Facebook who are trying to figure out how they can get Pink Carts on their curb. Some people have haulers who are non-responsive or uninterested in doing something new. Some people can't order a Pink Cart online because the shipping is too expensive, despite our efforts to bring the price down. Others want to start petitions and have campaigned to their City Councils but haven't been able to show enough support from their neighbors and community members to bring Pink Carts to their curbs. Bottom line, there aren't enough Pink Carts on the streets to go around and we've got to do something about it!

There are over 11,000 trash and recycling haulers in the United States and while we believe every single one of them should be offering PINK, we just can't get to them all fast enough even though we are trying. We realized we needed help, and lots of it, if we were going to make real progress with the many haulers across the country. And who would be the best person to do that? YOU! You have so much passion for PINK and commitment to this cause, it makes perfect sense to empower you to be our PINK ADVOCATES! One by one you can reach out to your haulers, to your neighbors, friends and peers, promote Pink Carts and rally others to join the cause of spreading Pink Carts across North America.

I know that many of you have been advocating for us since we started this program. Your dedication inspired us to do our part to support your efforts to Kick Breast Cancer to the Curb in your community. The Pink Cart team got together to brainstorm about what we could give you to make your jobs as Pink Advocates easier and we came up with our Breast Cancer Advocacy Toolkit. This toolkit has some great tools to help support you and maximize your efforts to go PINK on trash day;

• A Letter to Your Hauler - this template gives your hauler the key information they need and also gives you a way to express your passion for Pink Carts. Distribute this template to neighbors, friends and family and have everybody write in. Haulers will take notice!
• An Email to Friends and Family - this template gives some information about the Pink Cart program and also tells them how they can get involved. Attach the Letter to Your Hauler template to your email so everyone can get started right away.
• Social Networking - templates for Facebook and Twitter posts are a great way to get the word out to a lot of people very quickly and as often as you'd like. Link them back to our Breast Cancer Advocacy Toolkit to broaden your impact.

Please take a moment and check out our new toolkit. This is a brand new venture for us so we need your help in fine-tuning these tools so that they're as helpful as they can be to you and your networks. Leave a comment here or email us at info@pinkcart.com and let us know what you like, what you don't like, what else you need. And of course, please tell us about your Advocacy Success, too! I know you all will be great advocates for Pink Carts and most importantly that you will continue to do all you can to support the fight against breast cancer. I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

~Jo-Anne