This past Saturday, the women of Connor House hosted their 10th annual Bosom Buddies gala. This event, which raised over $35,000 last year, netted $50,000 on Saturday. “In the fall, we set a fundraising goal of $40,000,” said Connor Service Chair Sarah Troutman ’10. “We far exceeded our expectations, raising over $50,000 and rising.”
The Bosom Buddies gala aims to spread awareness about breast cancer and raise money for Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test. Friends is a Greensboro-based non-profit organization which focuses on funding research to find an earlier detection test for breast cancer.
“The research that this money goes to support could be the one that discovers an earlier method of detection of breast cancer,” Troutman said. “The necessity for research devoted to early and effective detection is becoming more and more obvious as the limitations of mammograms are revealed.”
In addition to the dinner each spring, the women of Connor House promote breast cancer awareness throughout the year, and planned for the event for months.
“It takes such a tremendous effort from all the girls of Connor House to pull off such a major fundraiser,” said event committee chair Ellen Viser ’10.
This fall, 50 Connor girls participated in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure in Charlotte. The house has also hosted two “Drink Pink” events this year – mini-fundraisers held at the Brickhouse Tavern. One dollar of every pink drink purchased on “Drink Pink” was donated directly to Friends, in addition to the donations received during the event.
Connor House’s commitment to Friends was honored earlier this year by the foundation, which named one of their research grants in honor of Connor House, in addition to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at UNC Chapel Hill.
This year the gala, which consists of a dinner, live and silent auctions, and a speaker, hosted Lauren Perny Pragoff ’03 as its guest speaker. Pragoff, a Connor alum and breast cancer survivor, was one of the original founders of Bosom Buddies in 2001 and shared her story with the attendants of the event. The speaker brought many to tears tracing her fight with cancer through photos, anecdotes and a meaningful quote from the children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit: “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
“Pragoff demonstrated the universal vulneability of women to breast cancer. No one expects to be the ‘one in eight,’” Troutman said. “However, Lauren explained that breast cancer is blind. It doesn’t care if you are physically active, eat a healthy diet or have a family history of breast cancer. No one is invulnerable. A better, earlier breast cancer test must be found.”
“We’ve been so successful in the past few years, largely because of the tremendous support we get from the other PCC houses and from the faculty and staff. We’re so grateful for the generosity we see from the Davidson community especially for such an important cause that has affect so many women,” Viser said.
Troutman agreed: “The success of this year’s Bosom Buddies depended on the support of the entire Davidson community, students, faculty, staff, administrators, family and friends.”
Bosom Buddies a success
Published: Friday, February 26, 2010
Updated: Friday, February 26, 2010
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