With a Little Help From Friends, She'll Make It to Brother's Wedding

Cynthia Nelson, of Basking Ridge, knew August was going to be a hectic month: she is in the process of changing locations for her business, Starfish Aquatics, while also making plans to attend her brother's Aug. 20th wedding in Portland, Ore.

But then she was advised not to fly to the wedding for medical reasons, leaving her scrambling to try and schedule—and finance—a cross-country trip while relocating her business.

It's a good thing she has friends like Monica Giglio, of Warren, and Maria Parliapiano, of Chatham, who came up with a plan to help raise funds for the trip, as well as make it more fun: The trio will be driving cross country in an RV from Aug. 13-25, creating a videolog of their travels.

And to help finance the journey, Giglio and Parliapiano, both business owners—Parliapiano is a Lactation and New-Moms Consultant in Chatham, and Giglio is an Interior Designer and artist in Warren—are holding special sales events.

To start, they've organized a multi-family, multi-location garage sale Friday and Saturday at Giglio's home at 42 Fairfield Ave. and also at Parliapiano's shop, The Postpartum Place (55 Main St. in Chatham). 

"Friends have been asked to donate their crap, junk, unused items that have been sitting in their basements for the last 10 years—items that have been re-gifted to them that they’ve had no idea what to do with, Cabbage Patch Kids from the 1990s, or whatever other items they just don’t want any longer to sell," Giglio said.

Proceeds from the garage sales will go directly to helping with trip-related expenses.

When these three friends get together, they tend to enjoy themselves and find humor in everything—including traveling through 15 states. They'll start in Philadelphia on Aug. 14 and document their travels with nightly video and photo updates of their cross-country adventures and the people they meet along the way on their "FriendsWithMonica" YouTube channel. 

Become friends with CynthiaMariaMonica (all one word) on Facebook, you will get an event invitation to watch follow their trip on Facebook. When you respond  "attending" to the event invitation, and post comments on the page, you will be entered to win signed original artwork of your choice (see www.monicagiglio.com for art available).