BayToday Picture Play: Showing their naughty bits

Local Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) showed off their naughty bits Friday as they launched the 75th anniversary calendar at the Northgate Shopping Center.

The calendar, a fundraiser for the Dr. Herbert A. Bruce Chapter IODE Educational Bursary for Woman of Nipissing Transition House, features teasing yet tasteful pictures of the ladies plus local author Patty Fedeli and will be on sale July 14 throughout locations in the city.

For Project Manager Laura Nichols the whole process has been a labour of love and amazement but says the end product was all worth it.

“I am so relieved that we’ve done it, now the easy part comes I know we will sell no problem they are a beautiful product that everyone will want.”

“I guess I am a little bit amazed that we’ve done this, but at the same time when I think about these women I shouldn’t be amazed because they are amazing people,” she said.

Nichols says reading through the calendar will give everyone a sense of the all the work that the members do every day.

“those people have been running the victory shop for 65 years all volunteer, what other group can do that constantly … just continue to invest in the community,” she states.

Nichols says the IODE is a team and works tirelessly for the betterment of North Bay and putting the calendar was proof perfect of that team effort.
“When I was told how much it was going to cost for us to produce this calendar I thought ‘oh my god’ I have to go to them and tell them the amount of money I need to raise for this calendar and they are not going to like it at all … and they listened and said okay what do we need to do and they divided up the tasks and they did it -- they got the money.”

“So it was so important for us as a non profit organisation to not be in debt doing this, we don’t want to start out having issues and we’re not we can raise that $20,000 now and not worry about having to pay for the calendar (production) itself,” says Nichols.

“I think I’m proud because this is an opportunity for us to really sell the IODE to North Bay so they can see what we’ve done not just this project, but see what we’ve done over the last 75 years and everyone should just be proud.”

The calendar was a family affair in the Nichols’ household with Laura responsible for the administration and her husband Ross as creative director and photographer. He says it was a pleasure to work with all the IODE ladies and credits his wife as the true visionary on the project.

“Actually I must give credit to Laura, my wife, as far as the staging and the ideas go. Each of the 16 months is representative of a small piece of the good work that the IODE does so she’s the creative genius behind it. It’s her vision and I am just happy to have a small part in it.”

“The women in the calendar were most patient with me, I don’t do this for a living it’s my passion as opposed to my profession, so they were very patient as we set up light and fine tuned.”

The models ranged in ages from 26 to 89 years and he says each photo session had a dry run where everybody would get in place with their clothes on in order to ensure everyone was comfortable. Nichols says he had a blast and if asked would do it all again tomorrow.

“And we’d see where the props and the things to cover up the naughty bits worked best and then I would leave the room. The women would remove their clothes and Laura would make sure everything was covered up and I would come back in and take the images and then leave again. So it was very discreet and I believe they all felt comfortable.”

“I am very pleased with the final project.”
There are other IODE Victory Shops (Opportunity shops) in Ontario in Canada but Laura Nichols says the North Bay shop has a real connection with the community and does more than just sell used items.

“The great thing about the shop is that is allows us to continuously provide for the community, not just through the monies raised, but we have a certain clientele downtown that really appreciate the service we provide there because we provide clean clothes, house wares and we make sure that everything in there is worthy of having. “

“So people coming in that cannot afford to shop at retail stores can get decent clean clothes,” she adds.

“I couldn’t think of a better investment in our community than our Victory Shop it just goes in the cycle; it provides a project for our members as well to stay involved constantly they work together as a team. “