Cure By Design

Welcome back!  A lot has happened since the last time I wrote, and I will update about the book soon.  Most importantly, on June 22nd, I was invited to be a “model” in the American Cancer Society’s Cure By Design event (http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/Gala/GalaFY10SouthAtlantic?pg=entry&fr_id=26814).  This was, by far, the most incredible ACS event that I’ve been a part of.  Cure By Design is an event that incorporates a fashion show, a reception, and both live and silent auctions, and this event took place at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.  The fashion show itself featured only cancer survivors or those currently undergoing treatment as the models.  We also had great designers.  My favorite designer was Sondra Falk (http://www.sondrafalkcouture.com/).  She and her husband really made sure I looked great.  The show was produced by Krystal Ugo at KUgo Productions (http://www.kugoproductions.com/index.html).  I know how hard she worked, and the show was a reflection of it.  The whole event was powerful, and I was honored to be invited.  Even more humbling, my mom was asked to speak during the mission moment (more on that later).  I met some great people, and I’d like to share a little bit about them now.

First is Gloria Fazio.  I’m not going to lie, when I first saw her, I thought ACS had lied and hired actual models.  I clearly had to talk to her and get this picture!

Gloria was diagnosed with tongue cancer in May, and it’s been great getting to know her more.  She is the prettiest badass I know.

Benjamin Rubenstein had cancer twice.  He’s done exactly what I’m looking to do, which is to write a book.  His book is titled ”Twice: How I Became a Cancer-Slaying Super Man Before I Turned 21.”  It’s available on Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/TWICE-Became-Cancer-Slaying-Before-ebook/dp/B004VS3RWA/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291249560&sr=8-1.  Scott Hoaglund was diagnosed with stage II colorectal cancer in July 2008.  He and his wife, Stephanie, were great to meet.  Ben is on the left, I’m in the middle, and Scott is on the right.

Paul Strzegowski is next.

He was diagnosed with stage 3B Hodgkin’s lymphoma in May 2008 and works as a sports producer at FOX45 in Baltimore.

Burr Hannon was diagnosed with testicular cancer in May 2002.  He was pretty hilarious and helped the guys figure out what poses we were going to do.

And here is the other person who could pass as an actual model: Mackenzie Nalewenski.  She has a crazy story of being diagnosed at 17 months with a brain stem tumor.  We found out that we were camera hogs during the final runway walk!

Two people really put this event together, and I am so glad to have met them.  ACS is lucky to have Sarah Cox and Terrianne Zeifman.  This picture is from James R. Brantley Photography (http://www.jamesrbrantleyphotography.com/).

Finally, here is a picture of me on the runway (taken by Jason Dixson photography: http://blog.jasondixson.com/?p=699).  I was feeling the music …

I was genuinely honored to be a part of this event.  I’ll be posting my mom’s speech later this week.  I’m saving the speech for later because it deserves it’s own post, and the follow-up to what she’s done has been more than what we could have imagined.  Thanks again to Cure By Design for this event, and I really look forward to next year!

About these ads