Boundless Blessings and God's Grace

I wanted to take a moment today to share a recap on the All About Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Event at West Acres on October 10th.  All of the participants were so thoughtful and brought unique ways to impart information about their organizations. The decorated bra that Bras on Broadway had displayed was absolutely beautiful – thanks to them for bringing it out, having a table, and continuing their event at the end of October to help those facing breast cancer!

Katelyn Anderson from the LiveStrong Program at the YMCA shared a pink basket with us, and Cheryl from West Acres put together a sign because people wanted to make general donations. That little pink basket collected $63.10!  Thanks, Katelyn for heading up a program that is so important to so many following their breast cancer walk. Cheryl from West Acres is also a breast cancer survivor, so I know how close to her heart this event being held at West Acres was to her.

I know that Barb Sherburne and her team from the Edith Sanford Breast Center/Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center had other events planned during the month of October, as did Leah Deyo from Essentia Health Cancer Center, but both organizations had educational displays with us on Oct. 10th, because it was important to reassure people that if they were ever faced with a potential breast cancer situation, their facilities would be there to guide the individual through testing and/or their breast cancer battle – in other words, they would be there to get them successfully through what waited ahead – thank you!

Kristi Lee-Weyrauch from Women’s Way, who hails from my hometown of Cando, ND, and Laurie, who was instrumental in getting me in touch with Kristi when I first reached out about our event, were there to answer questions about the critical role they play in helping women access mammography and other services in North Dakota. Thank you for participating so people could learn more about your organization and who you serve!

Several of my favorite moments on Friday were when I saw four different people from West Acres maneuvering pink bags filled with pink balloons down to the fountain – quite a sight! Pretty wonderful that local breast cancer research will benefit from coins tossed into the fountain during our event.

Another was when I took some time to visit with the tables on the west side of the mall, and I was told by Doug Stetz, American Cancer Society/Relay for Life that the guys from Tradehome Shoes all had on breast cancer ribbon pins, supplied by Doug – thanks for being with us, Doug, and educating everyone about what your organization and your many programs offer to those going through a breast cancer battle. I decided to go into Tradehome to get a photo, which would translate to another $5 donation to local breast cancer research by West Acres. For every photo uploaded through West Acres’ Instagram or Facebook pages on Oct. 10th, West Acres pledged $5 per photo – thank you West Acres! All four of the guys at Tradehome Shoes stopped to have a photo taken. I think I shot some video initially, and then one of them helped me get back to the “camera mode” so I could snap a photo. I then took a moment to talk to them about male breast cancer, which none of them had ever heard about before that afternoon.

Another was when the gentleman who plays Santa at West Acres and his wife stopped by my table. His wife had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. It has been a while since I had a photo taken with a “Santa.” 

There were many moments like that throughout the day as we visited with people from as far away as California – all the more reason I was so thankful that West Acres allowed us to have the All About Pink event in their facility – quite literally hundreds of people from the Fargo/Moorhead area and places far beyond come to their mall and they heard our messages on Oct. 10th. A special thank you to Brad Schlossman for listening to my plea to have West Acres host the event, and Alissa Adams for working with me to facilitate and then get the word out about our Pink event. Everyone at West Acres were such gracious hosts for our event – thank you so much!

From all indications the event was very well received. I lost track of the number of people who stopped by my table who were breast cancer survivors, which reinforced exactly why it was so important to continue to get the word out about breast cancer awareness, dense breast tissue issues through the Are You Dense, Inc./Are You Dense Advocacy (www.areyoudense.org) display table, detecting potential breast cancer early, and if diagnosed with breast cancer, the tremendous facilities and programs available to assist during and after an individual’s breast cancer journey. A special thank you to Jill, Amanda, Pat, Judy, Patty and Mary for helping me throughout the day at my book signing table for “Boundless Blessings and God’s Grace: My Journey through Breast Cancer” and the Are You Dense display table too!

I was so thankful that the local media came out to cover the event. All four television stations, the Christopher Gabriel Talk Show, and the Fargo/Moorhead/West Fargo Chamber of Commerce, helped to get the word out on the All About Pink event. Other media may also have covered the event – if you did, thank you so much! Below are links to the TV coverage I could find online.

To all of the organizations that took time from their busy schedules to have an educational display table and to make the event memorable, please accept my sincere thanks. Hopefully our efforts will have an impact on many people into the future. I’m still smiling today because one of my “dreams to help others” came true on Oct. 10th. Thanks to West Acres, all the participating organizations, and the visitors for playing such an important part in the success of the event!

WDAY TV:  http://www.wday.com/content/all-about-pink

KVLY TV:  http://www.valleynewslive.com/video?clipId=10678870&autostart=true

KX4 TV:  http://www.valleynewslive.com/video?clipId=10678403&autostart=true (The story on this clip starts around the 9:08 mark of the video)

KVRR TV:  http://www.kvrr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29264&Itemid=57