Press Release

2nd Annual Stowe Mother's Day Benefit
Raises More Than $16,000
Guests and Businesses Join Together
to Support National Breast Cancer Coalition

Mothers and their families helped Stowe, Vt., raise more than $16,000 during the 2nd Annual Stowe Mother's Day Benefit for the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC), a national grassroots advocacy group working to eradicate breast cancer, doubling the amount raised last year. The money is being contributed by the Stowe Area Association in memory of Wendy Nourjian, a Stowe resident who died of breast cancer just a week before the benefit.

The money was raised through various means: 35 shops and restaurants donated 10 percent from the purchase of meals and merchandise on Saturday and Sunday, May 8 and 9; guests ordered special Mother's Day bouquets from local florist Wildflower Designs, who in turn donated $5 from each purchase; guests attended a musical performance by the Stowe Theatre Guild, which donated half the admittance fee; and most guests donated the $25 room-hold fee.

Thirty Stowe lodges released rooms for free occupancy on Saturday night, May 8. When reservation lines at Stowe Area Association opened at 9 a.m. April 26, calls were brisk and by 3 p.m., all the rooms were booked; the SAA website, www.gostowe.com, experienced 30,000 incremental hits. Surveys filled out by guests at check-in show that 61 percent had been impacted by breast cancer-they knew family members or friends with the disease, or were survivors themselves.

"During the weekend, many folks stopped by our information tables in Stowe and Waterbury Center and shared stories about how their lives had been touched by breast cancer," said Gail Breslauer, who is on the NBCC Board of Directors representing the Breast Cancer Network (BCN), Vermont's grassroots statewide advocacy and service organization. "One woman showed up holding a letter in her hand, looking a bit bewildered as she asked me for directions and instructions about getting her hotel room. Her dad had called and made the reservation and sent her a letter directing her to Stowe as a surprise weekend for Mother's Day."

Benefit spokesperson Karen Kitzmiller, a Vermont state legislator and breast cancer survivor, was in Stowe over the weekend to meet and share her personal story with guests. She also participated in a free symposium on May 8, where guests learned more about NBCC and survivor issues, listened to poetry written by a survivor, and saw a slide show of Healing Legacies, a powerful traveling exhibit of art by breast cancer patients and survivors.

Family activities included free tours of participating local attractions such as Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, Cold Hollow Cider Mill and Rock of Ages Granite Quarry. At reservation time, guests requested a free voucher for an activity of their choice, such as in-line skate and bicycle rentals for the Stowe Recreation Path, rounds of golf, glider plane rides and fly-fishing clinics.

"It feels good to do something more than just running a hotel, it shows our guests that Stowe cares," said Michael Diender, owner of several resorts in town. "We all realize that life can be short, so it's important to take every opportunity to contribute to a cause that touches us personally."

The National Breast Cancer Coalition is a grassroots organization whose purpose is to eradicate breast cancer through action and advocacy. Since its inception in 1991, NBCC has grown to more than 500 member organizations and 60,000 individual members nationwide. In that time, NBCC has helped increase federal funding for breast cancer research more than 600 percent and precipitated the development of a national action plan on breast cancer. The Stowe benefit was coordinated and staffed by Board Members and members of the Breast Cancer Network (BCN), the Vermont grassroots statewide advocacy and service organization affiliated with NBCC, and volunteers from other BCN-affiliated breast cancer-related groups. BCN holds a seat on the NBCC Board of Directors and Kitzmiller is a member of the BCN Board of Directors.

For more information, call the Stowe Area Association at 1-800-24-STOWE.

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