Strutting Our Stuff Down the Runway!

I blogged this past Saturday about what it was like to be in the Cure by Design Fashion Show for the American Cancer Society. It was an amazing feeling to look at all my co-survivors, to hear stories of things they went through – some of them multiple times – and to realize this was one more statement to cancer that it did not defeat us. It was one more little act of defiance to this evil beast that tried to kill each of us. One more time to say to the world, to each other, and to ourselves that “I survived!” And to be so incredibly grateful for this fact, for many people are not this fortunate.

A few of my gentle readers have wanted to see pictures, and thanks to a friend who saw a photo on another friend’s Facebook page, I can now comply with that request. Don’t worry, I am not in a thong or anything like that! See below.

The show was pure fun, even aside from the celebratory aspects of it. We spent the afternoon learning about what we were going to do, watching people demonstrate it, and then practicing the whole routine a couple of times. Then we had some free time to eat, relax, read, or chat. An hour or so before the event, we got hair and makeup done. For the beautiful women in the show, this was fairly elaborate, but for we manly men – UH, UH, UH – it was thankfully simple: just some gel in our hair and some light base and lip gloss. Then the men retired to our man-cave to get dressed for the show. Most of we men were in the group of “tail-gaters”, dressed in our team colors and in fairly simple outfits. The women, on the other hand, generally had very elaborate and beautiful gowns and hair pieces, and looked stunning! And the children were just plain cute, also generally in really pretty outfits. Seeing these young innocents that had been through so much suffering was one more reminder to me of how evil cancer is, and how we must figure out a way to cure it without causing so much harm in the process.

Each of us followed a routine where we walked along, with the runway to ourselves, slowly looking from side to side. The lights were very bright, and I had been plagued by migraines all last week, and I was very thankful not to get one from the bright lights, which can trigger them in me. At the end of the runway, we stopped and struck the pose of our choice for a few seconds, then turned and walked back. Halfway back, we stopped and struck a brief pose to the left and to the right, as the next contestant came out on to the runway. We passed each other, and just before disappearing behind the screen, we turned briefly to pose one last time.

At the end of the show, each of us made one last appearance, walking close behind one another in a continual fashion. That is what the photo is from, and I am the one dressed in white (with some dark blue accents). It was a fun event, and a great experience to be a part of. Many people at ACS and in the clothing business and other places worked very, very hard to make this a success, and I would like to thank them all here.