Starting the Campaign

I was very taken aback when asked by Michael Miller, last year's Man of the Year and the former Executive Producer and CEP of the American Musical Theater, to participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Man and Woman of the Year Campaign. I had no idea what that even meant, and remember asking how this was possible, as I hadn't done anything worthy of that sort of title. He explained to me that the campaign was a fundraising opportunity, and though I still am uncomfortable with the idea of campaigning for a title, I did not see any way in which I could turn down an opportunity to raise funds for a group that has done so much incredible work and which has directly touched my life as a someone who has gone through treatment for and is now in remission from Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

The work to get this campaign organized has been a bit daunting for someone as administratively challenged as myself. Over the last few months, I have done my best to compile email and address lists. I completely apologize to any and all of you who have gotten more than one email or letter. I can't even manage to get out Christmas cards properly, so the effort to organize my slipshod address books and email lists has made me a very grumpy person to live with, and I apologize to Gareth for all of the cursing and unpleasantness.

I have started to realize that I have friends with the drive and administrative skills that I lack, however, and I am trying to benefit from their example and assistance.

Ballet San Jose, where I have worked for almost two decades, gave me my first big boost of confidence and optimism when they agreed to partner with me in this campaign. Along with offering administrative support and silent auction items, they have agreed to host a reception in honor of those who donate $300 or more to my campaign on May 2 in the Studio E theater of the ballet building! Company dancers Keira Schwartz, Damir Emric, Jing Zhang, Mallory Welsh, Lahna Vanderbush and Emily Bromberg will be dancing a new ballet I choreographed called 54321WPT at the reception, and my brother Cliff Rawson of the band Ladycop will be performing live the score he composed for this ballet. These artists as well as four students from the Ballet San Jose School are donating their artistry to help raise funds for the LLS, and I am humbled and honored by their participation. You can see a preview of the piece on the front page of the blog, check it out!

My wonderful friend, Ballet San Jose School Administrative Director Kristin Bertrand, has agreed to help me out as a team member in this campaign. What this means is that I go to her for everything, as she is an administrative and fund-raising goddess. Through the force of her persuasive and charming personality I have ended up believing that this could be a pretty successful campaign. After a fun evening over wine that she suggested and facilitated, the owners of the downtown Britannia Arms have agreed to donate wine and appetizers to our reception on May 2! Isn't that exciting!  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of Britannia Arms, and by their willingness to help. Kristin and I really felt like we could accomplish a great deal after this successful and inspiring meeting, and I would have been a nervous wreck if I had walked into such a conversation without Kristin.

I should also acknowledge both Ballet San Jose's Artistic Director Dennis Nahat, and Executive Director Stephanie Ziesel. They each have offered their support in order to make this fundraising campaign as successful as possible. I would be doing this in a much more low key and undoubtably much less successful way without their inspiration and help. Each time I speak with one of these amazing people, each so talented in ways that we all know about and in ways that continue to take me by surpise, I am re-energized and begin to believe that anything is possible. I started out thinking that there was no way I could possibly be even remotely successful at raising funds, but that it was still important that I try. Now I am scared I will let everyone down if I don't win, as these people deserve the best candidate possible for their support and optimism.

But last night I was reminded of how unimportant winning was, and of the incredibly serious and important work that will be funded by this campaign. At the Plumed Horse in Saratoga, I attended the kickoff event for this drive, and I met the other candidates and the two children who are going to be honored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this year.

I have to admit that I might not have shown up if I had known that I would be hearing the heartbreaking stories of the families of these incredible children and of some of the other nominees. I know it was extremely difficult for my husband Gareth and our friend Mark Young who were there with me to hear their words as well, as for both of them it brought back memories of my own illness and treatment. For me, hearing words like "PICC line," "blood clot," and "bone marrow aspiration," bring to mind times and experiences I try not to think about. But the message in these stories was as important as it was intensely moving.

The government does not fund research to treat and cure blood cancers the extent that it needs to be funded to. We need to come together as a community in order to raise as much money as possible to develop life-saving treatments for patients suffering from Leukemia, Lymphoma and other blood cancers. At last night's event I realized that I would be thrilled to see money donated to any one of the  candidates who were in attendance.

The absolute highlight of my night was meeting Emily Pepper, this year's Girl of the Year. She is an amazing eight year old, and I will post more about her and her story when I get some photos back from the event. It turns out she is a ballet lover, and she won my heart completely when she told me that Ballet San Jose's Nutcracker is better than San Francisco Ballet's.

I will add more information about this event in my next post, as I should soon receive photos from the evening, and this post has already gotten a bit long.

In the meantime, I should thank those of you who have already donated to my campaign. Friends and family from near and far made contributions within the first few hours that my fundraising website was online, and we even received a donation from "an Alaskan cancer survivor" named Dennis, whose identity is a mystery to me, but whose generosity touches and inspires me to do whatever I can to raise as much money as possible for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.