It’s the time of year when people start looking for next year’s calendars. It’s the rise of celebrity-based (often home-grown celebrities) nude calendars that fascinates us. We have produced many of them ourselves over the years, all for good causes.
Yorkshire Women’s Institute produce a tasteful nude calendar to raise funds for leukemia research. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis (BRITAIN SOCIETY HEALTH IMAGES OF THE DAY)
There is no doubt about it, nude calendars get a lot of press and generate a lot of cash. It all began in April 1999 when the Yorkshire Women’s Institute produced a tasteful nude calendar to raise funds for leukemia research. Charity nude calendars have gained popularity in the 1990s and the 2000s. Proceeds usually go to various health or social causes. They feature everyone from celebrities, sportsmen and sportswomen, of course firefighters, and… well, anyone with a hook. For example, the Framingham Church Seniors.
If you do a web search on fundraiser ideas, you will find pages of sites suggesting nude calendars as a top rated choice. You can easily find websites dedicated to listing all the nude fundraising calendars possible. The UK fundraising site has pages of them.
We thought we would show you a couple of our favourite campaigns over the years.
Who doesn’t love a good sweeper. A truly Canadian tale, the Women of Curling is a great fundraiser. For the 2009 calendar, thirteen female curlers from around the world dared to go bare. The 2009 calendar featured two Canadians, including a former Calgarian. The calendar was started in 2006 by competitive curler Ana Arce of Spain. You can purchase the 2012 calendar in support of Shoot for the Cure at http://www.micalendardemo.com/woc.
Canada female biathletes use a nude calendar to raise money for training and competition. (Rachel Boekel photo)
In 2008 Canada’s five elite female biathletes stripped down to raise cash for training and competition expenses heading into the 2010 Olympic Games. The team said it was “in dire need of funding” and that they hoped the calendar would “empower women and girls through inspiring quotes and expressing the beauty of an athletic body.”
If you have a cause you want to celebrate or raise funds for, get in touch with us. We can help, with nude calendars or other fundraising support ideas.
