2012 ACS Gala

Last weekend, our local American Cancer Society held their annual Gala event. This year, our goal was to re-brand the event to encourage additional participation from the community.

We went along with the theme of “Helping Create a World with Less Cancer and More Birthdays” and that’s where Candles and Cocktails came in!



I love Gala and I love getting dressed up! Perfect combination! I’ve attended Gala the past two years and this year I volunteered for the planning committee.

2011 ACS Gala
2010 ACS Gala



Patron party food. No, not Patrón party food, PATRON party food. Someone at our table was mad because they weren’t invited to (what they thought was) the Patrón party as listed in the program. Jason and I wanted to die laughing but we held it in!



Anyway, the food was awesome!!



The dinner room floor – we wanted to have a lot of color but not overpowering. When the room was complete, I walked in and said “WOW!” – it really looked great!



Centerpiece #1



Centerpiece #2.

While we were decorating, the discovery was made that I tie bows well – therefore, I tied bow after bow after bow! I didn’t mind – it was for a worthy cause! :0)

 

The stage



We had a few “extra” fun activities – the #1 most popular was caricatures!



I’ve never had one drawn before so I was excited. Jason, not so much. He gave the lady a ton of compliments so she would make him “look good”. He’s such a mess!



I liked it!! :0)



We also had a silent auction with a lot of really neat items. We raised quite a bit during the silent auction which was a great thing!



Katie opened up the evening with a few words…

After Katie spoke, three of us got on stage and lit a candle – all of our stories were from different perspectives. The young boy who spoke first was diagnosed at a young age (now 18) and is an ACS college scholarship recipient. He lit a candle for all of the scholarship recipients.



I spoke about the transportation grant that we receive for patients and how our department provides ACS with patient referrals for assistance. I lit a candle for all of the patients receiving assistance from ACS.

The guy who spoke after me had all of the survivors in the room stand up and we sang Happy Birthday to them. He lit a candle for all of the survivors.

After I got back to our table, the Hospital administrator told me that I am going to be the “new face” of our hospital. (He was kidding.) Jason then piped in and said, “Oh she LOVES being in commercials.”

I
WAS
MORTIFIED!

My face was red and I wanted to kick him. I could not believe he said that!

Anyway,  moving on….



This is the crew from my hospital. We are a bunch of goofballs!



Our entertainment came from a group called Bottoms Up out of Hammond, LA. They were incredible!!! REALLY good band!

  

We had a fabulous night and really enjoyed celebrating with the survivors in the room. I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to work with ACS in such a close way!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! Stay tuned! Giveaway coming soon! :0)

Blog Swap: The Importance of Cross Training

Welcome to my very first blog swap! When asked if I wanted to participate, of course I jumped on the band wagon! The best part? This blog swap is between several Sweat Pink Ambassadors!

 

My blog swap partner is Samantha from Losing Weight Gaining Life. Read on to hear her take on Cross Training! :0)

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My name is Samantha and I blog over at www.loosingweightgaininglife.com. I am a wife, a new mom to Grace who is two months old, a youth pastor, and a working woman. I love the way working out makes me feel, but like anyone else, I don’t always have ample time to do all the things I would love to do. I have made working out a priority so I always try and fit something in. I have some favorites that I always go to that give me a great workout while not using a whole lot of time.



Samantha’s After/Before shos

For cardio I love trying new things. Currently I am starting a Couch to 5k Program that is helping me to learn to run. I think if I can learn to love running then that would definitely be my go to cardio routine. I also love taking boot camp classes at my local gym. It is forty five minutes filled with high intensity circuits that are guaranteed to kick your butt. I have taken one Zumba class and thought it was fun; I need to add that back in the rotation. I would love to take a water aerobics class too! Cardio is fun for me and something I look forward to weekly.

Strength training is something that empowers me. It makes me feel strong and makes the biggest difference in my body. Since training, I can see new muscles develop, feel more energy, and feel like a strong woman. It has also helped me to carry around a baby in a car seat all day long. Strength exercises are something that everyone can do at home, anytime. I put Grace in her chair and she watches me while I work out in our living room and I even bring her to personal training sessions with me. Gaining muscle is very important because muscle burns more fat for a longer period of time.
Since I attend boot camp classes, a lot of my strength training ideas come from the exercises that we do in that class. I like being able to keep it simple using body weights, dumb bells, and resistance bands. Every other day I focus on two different body parts: abs, shoulders, arms, legs, etc. A lot of my inspiration for some exercises also comes from blogs. You can Google certain workouts or go to your favorite blogs and search their workout routines or even YouTube videos to do. The internet has vast resources of all kinds of work outs we can all do.

The key to gaining muscle and loosing weight is consistency and dedication. It took however long to put on pounds and will take some time to shed those pounds and gain muscle. You can do it!! Eat clean, stay focused, and give yourself a break every once in awhile!

Let’s face it guys, strong is the new sexy.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and at my blog!



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To check out the other great blogs participating in this swap, head over to Katie’s blog at Healthy Heddleston and check them out!! :0)

Thanks Katie for hosting this swap!