fundraiser

I'm frequently touched to the point of tears by stories... heck, a Hallmark commercial usually gets me. But when I joined this mom's group earlier in the year and heard second hand the story of this mom that was just diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, I felt strange tearing up for this mom of three, just a few years older than me.

I didn't yet know this woman, but I thought of all the ways cancer has affected my family and so many others that I do know. Let me tell you when I did meet her, I had that gut wrenching I must do "something"/ "anything!" to help make some sort of difference.

She is a big advocate for getting screened early and paying close attention. Here are her own words on the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk coming up this weekend:

Why am I walking?
"I'm walking because in May 2010 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. I wasn't diagnosed early when the disease is cureable as the symptoms were missed since I was nursing my youngest son. My future is uncertain so we focus on the here and now. I'm feeling good and fighting this thing with the help of my awesome doctor at Dana Farber but with current medicine this won't always be the case. I don't want to be a survivor, I just want to be with my family and friends and enjoy my life. My future depends on finding a cure!"

Flash forward to this fundraiser I was invited to which was paired with one of those "parties where they sell you something." I was at this party thinking, I should do this - I should host a raffle and donate proceeds from the sales at the party to breast cancer research.

So my friend who sells Silpada jewelry agreed to donate a portion of her proceeds and I planned the party for breast cancer awareness month right before the walk. It's something to help make a difference, even if just a little something.

Aiden napped upstairs at the beginning of the party (thank goodness for white noise), came down to pick our first raffle winner, and then headed to the playground with daddy.

The party ended up earning almost $200 to support my friend's walk. Pretty good earnings for an afternoon hanging out, buying jewelry, and eating pink ribbon shaped food (including lotsa pink drinks!).  I totally let my pink phobia/aversion go for the day, and even frosted my pumpkin cupcakes with pink frosting!  I did not boil my own ribbon bagels, those are a Panera special edition this month (they have strawberries in them).

Besides the raffle, which everyone entered, my friend had given me a simple game to promote awareness.  They were stickers with pictures and names of breast cancer survivors.  Each guest had one on their back and when given clues had to try to guess who it was.  It is remarkable the range of people that have battled breast cancer.  We also all went with the "dress your chest" theme and had beads which could be swiped if they said the forbidden word, "jewelry."

Here was the nice thank you from Lorien to everyone at the party: "Thank you for hosting this fundraiser and thank you to everyone who attended and made it a success!  Not only is the money going to a fabulous cause but you also put me over my fundraising goal.  Team Lorien will have about 70 people walking and showing their support on Sunday and together we've raised over $7000 already! Thank you!!"