Last Friday, we held our first annual Focused on a Cure event - Piggin' Out for Pink. The event was held at the Propst Farm in Concord, NC. We have been in intense planning mode for a little over two months to make sure everything flowed as perfect as could be and I'm confident we can say it was a success.
Our goal for the event was to raise $10,000 and we named NorthEast Foundation as the beneficiary. Focused on a Cure is dedicated to local breast cancer research, so we also plan to raise money for our local Avon Walk and Relay for Life as well.
In order to meet our goal, we recruited Sports & More Auctions to help us with our silent auction. They provided some wonderful products that brought in some high bids! We appreciate all their help.
We put together a variety of raffle baskets. We were inspired by the number of creative raffle baskets at the 2009 Cabarrus Relay for Life. We got a great variety of items donated and we raised a lot of money from these so we appreciate everyone who donated little goodies for our baskets!
Clearly Carolina provided a ton of water with custom Focused on a Cure water bottle labels! Special thanks to them!
Chelish Moore of Chelish Moore Flowers was the one and only person we ever considered for decorating and flowers. She's the best at what she does and we knew we wanted this event to be "over the top" as Renda says. She did an AMAZING JOB down to every detail.
Concord Printing provided Piggin' Out for Pink's programs on a beautiful pearl paper, in addition to the tickets for the event. They are wonderful people and we've used them our studio newsletter for years. Definitely recommend them for local printing!
Our survivor portrait display was a hit! H&H provided all our prints on metal this year. It was hung with chain and was an eye catcher! The color pops off the metal and it looked fabulous.
In addition to providing our survivor portrait display, H&H flew out our one and only Ginger (our customer service rep). We were so happy for Ginger to be a part of our first annual event. She's a part of our IP family and it was only right for her to be there! Thanks H&H!
Brandy Haithcox of Sugar & Spice Sweet Treats baked and served all the desserts for the event! How cute is this cake?! She's very talented. Everything was delicious!!!
Punchy's catered our bar-b-que dinner. It was delicious as well! We are very grateful for their generosity. They gave us GREAT deal on the food for 200+ people and we can't say thank you enough!
Chloeann Durham is one of our 2009 survivors. She has two very talented children with phenomenal voices! Trenton and Chloe graced us with the beautiful voices during dinner. We heard them for the first time at Relay for Life. We knew we had to have them as a part of Focused on a Cure!
Divina Cook and Jane Jacobs both shared their inspiring stories with everyone Friday evening. Each of them told how they got through the battle against cancer and how life is different since their diagnosis.
Divina seemed to handle her challenges and bad news with humor. She spoke of her daughter throwing a party the night they shaved Divina's head. They shaved it down the middle, then tried combovers. Laughing seemed to get Divina through the tough times, where as Jane seemed to hold on to the future of her children. As a single mother to her two daughters, she knew she had no choice but to survive for her daughters' sake.
We thank both ladies for sharing their stories and experiences. It must take unbelievable courage to get in front of so many people and talk about the most difficult time of your life. But they both did it with such style and grace. We appreciate them both!
We showed a documentary film that we created in June with six of our survivors. The survivors sat with their families as they told their honest emotions and thoughts of their battle against breast cancer. It was amazing to watch and so enlightening.
This wouldn't have been possible without KA Studios. They volunteered their time to film the survivors and then to produce it. You'll never know how much we appreciate this film.
We hope to have the film on our fan page soon, so that those of you who weren't able to come to the event can view it. It's amazing. Be sure to have some tissues close by.
You can tell by the intensity on Janet's face that she felt the emotions in the film.
Here's the Sloop family watching the film together. We hope they realize how much their participation in this film meant to us.
After the tears were shed, it was time to tear up the dance floor with Too Much Sylvia. Of course, Renda was the one to break the ice... before she jumped on stage to steal the mic! We're used to it!
Tara's the same. There's no stopping her! Needless to say, the band was great and everyone seemed to have a GREAT time!
We had to have a group shot before the end of the night. Too Much Sylvia, IP, and Ginger!
Thank you to everyone who came to the event. We're setting our goals higher for next year, so you won't want to miss out on it. Thank you to everyone who made donations, even though they couldn't make it that evening. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to help the event flow nicely!
And most of all thank you to our sponsors! We couldn't have done it without you.
Thank you to ...
C.C. & Company - Girls Night Out donation
Chelish Moore Flowers - Decorations
Clearly Carolina - Water
Concord Printing - Programs & Tickets
H&H Color Lab - Metal Survivor Display
KA Studios - Documentary Film
Party Reflections - Tent
Proofcast - Website
Punchy's Diner - Dinner
Sugar & Spice - Desserts
Sun Drop Bottling Co. - Drinks
RL Imprints - T-shirts
Too Much Sylvia - Entertainment
Thank you to our sponsors with monetary donations...
Cabarrus Dance Academy
Designs by Stephanie Anne
Gio's Tire & Wheel Service
Tina S. Merhoff, DDS, PA
B.E. Kluttz Lumber
Brother's Tire
Club at Irish Creek
Dream Dinners
Gary's Bar-B-Q
Hope's Bridal Boutique
Hurt & Associates
iConnect
K-Town Cars
Live Well Charlotte
Mirror Mirror Hair Design
Progressive Builders
South Ridge Veterinary Hospital
Sports and More Auctions
Steve Cook Nationwide Insurance
Wayne's Tire Service, Inc.
Whitaker Plumbing Inc.
Save the best for last...
We have to give our praises to God for blessing us with Focused on a Cure. We never imagined that we could have come this far in our first year. He has blessed us beyond belief. He laid this on our hearts and it's our job to make it the best we can. It is with his grace and your support that we will continue to progress towards a day when cancer no longer exists.
