This year’s Breast Fest was quite the success. We had a record number of walkers and raised over $41,000 with over $14,000 coming from the karaoke portion of the event. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the year’s event, we had six fundraising karaoke contests around the island in February where voting was done with quarters. The top two contestants from each venue then competed in a final contest at Breast Fest. After the walk, there was music from our terrific local musicians and then ended the event with the final karaoke contest. Not only did friends and family support the contestants but the venues supported them as well. It was great fun and they will be doing it again next year.

As we look forward into the next year, we are going to ramp up our efforts to get new members. Some of the current board members are getting burnt out (not to mention their old backs are tired) so we need new energy.

Over the summer we will be restructuring our meetings so membership meetings will be separate from Board meetings. Membership meetings would be held at restaurants or other places where food and drinks are available. If anyone has ideas about how we could attract new members please share! What would get you to come to a meeting? These meetings would be limited to the months around our two annual events: October Breast and Breast Fest. More to come so stay tuned.

On a final note, we are expanding our partnerships to include the Beacon of Hope. They are now part of their Wellness Committee and will work with them to reach more islanders who need our support. We are also in discussions with the Cancer Alliance of Naples who have expanded their services into Lee County. We provide non-medical services to people fighting cancer. We hope to partner with them to add services to islanders fighting breast cancer.

That’s all for now. Have a great summer and if you have any ideas for us, don’t hesitate to send them along.

From Our Hearts Board:
Mary Scott, John Thurston, Barb Riordan, Guylyn Demeyere, Patricia Downing, Dee Hanks, Julie Herder, Kris Hornsby, Terri James and Dona Wells

From Our Hearts, Inc.
P.O. Box 356
Matlacha, FL 33993
(239) 233-7437
www.fromourheart.org