The Girls@Heart calendar features photos of 12 partially disrobed Ottawa grandmothers, including Miss October, shown. Photo courtesy of the Girls@Heart calendar.

Like a page out of the screenplay for the movie Calendar Girls, a group of Ottawa grandmothers has disrobed to raise money for local charities.

The 12 women — ranging in age from 78 to 98 — have assembled a naughty 2010 calendar featuring partially disrobed photos of themselves in cheeky, seasonally appropriate poses.

A flip through the calendar reveals Miss January wrapped in a mink coat lounging by a fireplace, Miss September looking sultry lying under pile of leaves while a man looms in the background with a leaf-blower, and Miss October holding two strategically placed pumpkins.

The calendar's models, who all live at the same Ottawa retirement residence, hatched the idea for the Girls@Heart calendar last spring. They invested $6,000 to have 1,000 calendars printed in the hopes of raising $10,000 for the Ottawa Food Bank and Cornerstone women's shelter, which was damaged by fire in November.

Hundreds of the $20 calendars have already been snapped up.

Positive feedback

Doreen Wood, 85, who posed as Miss February in the calendar, said she wasn't nervous about having her photo taken with little more than a feather boa to conceal her, and has had nothing but positive feedback about the calendar.

"Once people see it, they're completely taken with it," she said. "They see all these old ladies who've still got spine and a sense of humour and a will to live … and help others."

Freda Lithwick, 91, who appears wrapped in a Canadian flag in her pose as Miss July, said the experience of being a pin-up girl was exciting.

"We didn't think we were old, that was the best thing," she said. "We all thought we were young."

The women are considering a sequel to the calendar, but in Miss January's words "who knows who's going to be around next year."

The Girls@Heart calendars are available for sale at the Abbotsford House at 950 Bank St., Cornerstone women's shelter at 172 O'Connor St. and the Beaudry Silk Greenhouse at 1761 St. Laurent Blvd.