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Bare facts and figures

WIN's Calendar Girls 2006 draws attention to vital statistics about health

ALL FOR A CAUSE From Calendar Girls 2006

There really isn't enough time or energy to devote towards making ourselves healthier. Health issues can never be dated but here is a calendar that not just helps plan but also realise that some women will do anything to draw attention to vital matters of fitness. The attractive cover of Calendar Girls 2006 has some unusual models holding up bright pink flowers with an inspiring tagline, "We dropped almost everything for a cause."

Produced by the Women's Information Network (WIN) Inc, the origin of the concept of the calendar was the evergreen British movie classic Calendar Girls.

The Women's Information Network (http://www.infoforwomen.org/) was the brainchild of Sharon Baker BSN, MN (Nursing), Executive Director, Affordable Healthcare, Rome, GA, U.S.A, and "is dedicated to providing an educational forum for non-pregnant women". Sharon had always felt there just weren't enough resources or time to individually talk to patients suffering from major illnesses, especially women regarding issues related to midlife, menopause and other problems. She gathered a group of about 30 women from different professions in 2003 and formed WIN. The efforts of WIN are dedicated to informing women about "the latest gender-specific research data in an accurate and non-threatening manner".

Calendar Girls, an intrepid cinematic venture, about the true story of some Yorkshire middle-aged housewives who posed nude for an alternative Women's Institute calendar to raise money for leukaemia research, inspired Sharon to make a calendar similar to the one designed in the movie. The challenge was to develop a format with an emphasis on women's health issues and with the Calendar Girls in the background.

Sheila Dhir, who with Kathy Clements, was a graphic designer for the project, says, "My corporate and non-profit design work, the 30 paise harvest stamp I designed for the Postal Department, the pattern of the book on Gandhi for the World Premiere of the movie convinced them that I could help in the venture." Sheila was also invited to be a Calendar Girl.

Says Sheila, "I had done some modelling as an NID (National Institute of Design) student and during the early years of profession, however, how uninhibited was I truly? So the first thing I did was to check out a video of the movie." Initially, everyone on the board was emphatic about not actually baring it all. But very soon, they got into the spirit of the mission, and were supportive and sportive about the entire venture. The theme was `suggestive' without being lewd and designed primarily as a fundraiser.

"After many brainstorming sessions we decided on a direct takeoff from the movie. So it became we drop almost everything for a good cause and playing on the acronym of Women's Information Network we used Women in Play, Women in Health, Women in Finance, Women in Education and others as concepts. It was certainly a challenge to plan, visualise, be part of several photography shoots and get everything camera-ready in six-eight weeks' time with everybody's crazy schedules," says Sheila.

Each month is dedicated to specific health issues. So, January is "Healthy weight month", July is Alzheimer's Awareness month and so on. Expenses were covered by having businesses put their logo on each of the calendar's months for a fee. On sale at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr, the site is a secure one where credit cards can be safely used.

PAROMITA PAIN

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