Poker for Pink - November 2nd

Q. What is Poker for Pink?

A. Poker for Pink is our annual Texas Hold 'em Poker Tournament. It is a great day of fun for novice and seasoned poker players alike.

Q. When is it?

A. Saturday, November 2nd, 2013. Doors will open at 11:00am and first deal is at high Noon.

Q. Where is it?

A. Fallon's Bar and Grill 9200 Olive Blvd #116 Olivette, MO 63132

Q. Oh, but college football is on. Will you show the game?

A. Of course! Fallon's Pub and Grill has 20+ TVs. We will accommodate.

Q. How much is this thing?

A. It is $65 per person. This price includes a buffet and 2 drink tickets and $4,000 in chips. BONUS: If you sign up in advance before October 31st, you will receive an additional $500 in chips. With additional options to buy more at registration. Score!

Q. How do I sign up then?

A. Visit www.alissashope.com under the picture of the poker chips is a link to PayPal. PayPal is very safe to use and you don't need to set up an account to pay.

Q. Ugh, I don't get paid until November 1st. Can I still play if I can't sign up online?

A. Yes! Walk ins are welcome but you must be at Fallon's prior to 11:30 so that we can add you to our poker software. Space is limited! To check availability the day of event, you can call 314.398.7482 for an automated message.

Q. What if I lose early?

A. Rebuys are available for $20 and are available until 1:00pm.

Q. Is this going to be a bunch of professionals trying to swindle me?

A. No! This is a great mix of people, experienced and novices. In years prior, everyone has been patient and helpful to newbies. Very friendly environment.

Q. Is this just going to be a bunch of dudes?

A. No! We have had girls make it all the way to the winner's table. We would love to see even more girls this year.

Q. What is this for anyway?

A. Alissa's Hope is a cancer charity. Alissa was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 17 years old. She had no family history. After her friend and fellow cancer survivor passed away in 2008, Alissa decided she wanted to give back to the community all of the support that she was given in her time of need. Alissa is now 13 years cancer free and counting and has been raising money ever since. Through our fundraising efforts, we have raised over $75,000 in the fight against cancer.

Q. Where does the money go?

A. The money that is raised from this event and other events that will take place in the next year will go towards helping local cancer patients recieve care as well as cancer research. So far this year, we have donated money to Siteman Cancer Center to their Director's Discovery Fund as well as their Young Women's Breast Cancer Research Program.

Q. I used my two drink tickets, now what?

A. You can purchase your drinks at the bar.

Q. I think I drank too much?

A. Let a volunteer know! We will call you a cab.

Meet the Team - Don Bray

 

Name: Donald T. Bray

Age:       44

Day job: Senior Loan Officer - Golden Oak Lending

What do you do at Alissa's Hope?
Board Member - assist with donations, ideas, and attendance

What does being a part of Alissa's Hope mean to you?
Being a part of Alissa's Hope allows me to give back to the community. It awards me an opportunity to raise money for cancer research and help those who are battling the disease. I appreciate being a part of a charity organization that is built on solid friendships and good people.

What is your favorite event and why?

PINKAPALOOZA is my favorite event. Although it requires many hours of hard work by many people, the actual show is an incredible event. It is amazing to see all of that work come together and create such a successful event. People that attend are always commenting about how the event is better than anything they have ever been to.

What is the best memory that you have of one of the events?

The end of PINK is usually always such a neat time. The sing along seems to get everyone on their feet and you can see everyone singing and smiling all for such a great cause.

 

Don't miss our next event, The Survivors' Jubilee, May 11th, 2013 for more details on entertainment and price, click here 

Meet the team - Alissa Nicks

Name:    Alissa Nicks

Age:       30, and a 13 year breast cancer survivor

Day job: I work as a Project Coordinator at an IT company and I am the mom of a beautiful and wild baby girl.

What do you do at Alissa's Hope?
I am the co-founder and president of Alissa's Hope.

What does being a part of Alissa's Hope mean to you?
Being a part of Alissa's Hope means that I am getting an opportunity to give back to the community that gave me so much when I was sick. We started this group because we wanted to honor my mentor that passed away from cancer. She was so involved with local cancer charities and hospitals, it seemed natural that we did everything we could to pick up where she left off in the fight against cancer. We started with just a small fundraiser one year and it has snowballed into something amazing. We have the best group of volunteers in St. Louis! And the people that I have met since we started fundraising 4 years ago have been inspiring. It is a lot of hard work but knowing that the money that we raise is helping people get the help that they need is what keeps us going.

What is the best memory that you have of one of our events?
There are so many! But I will narrow it down to two. The first was the last song of the sing-a-long at PINKAPALOOZA II. We were singing "Fix You" by Coldplay, and had just thrown out 20+ 2 foot balloons in the crowd. I was 8 months pregnant and as I waddled up the the stage the confetti cannons went off over my husband. He hugged me and said, "we did it". Through my tears I looked out at the crowd and everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves. It was surreal. The closest I will ever come to feeling like a rock star. You can watch a piece of it here. Watch for Jim and Cathy high-fiving. I love that part!

The other best memory of an event is one that I have talked about in another post. It was a group of girls that were rallying around their friend who had just finished chemo. It was at another PINKAPALOOZA. The group just had the best time celebrating life and their friendships. By the end of the night they were dancing on the tables. I loved it! It is the main reason we are trying the Survivors' Jubilee this year.

Tell us about the new event, The Survivors' Jubilee.
We are so excited about this event. This is going to be a night to celebrate survivors and their family and friends. Every year on my "survivor-versary", I gather my friends and family and we go out and have a great time and celebrate this life. I would like to give everyone the opportunity to celebrate their "survivor-versary" with their family and friends just like the group of ladies I talked about at PINK. We will have food and drink and a comedienne and two wonderful bands. It will kind of be like a wedding reception with the guests of honor being the survivor. We will celebrate life, inspire each other and have a wonderful party!

How do you see the future of Alissa's Hope?
I would like to continue to do fundraising events like PINKAPALOOZA. It is something that we enjoy so much. We like to go over the top with everything we do so we find joy in it on both sides, giving people a great show and using the money we raise to help others. Right now we are distributing the money to hospitals for funds that help patients pay for treatments and other necessities for their health as well as for research. Eventually we would like to develop programs and support groups but that is still in development stages. Stay tuned!

Funerals

Today I went to a funeral for the wife of a gentleman that my husband works with. Not only did this poor man lose his wife to cancer, but he has been fighting cancer as well. I did not know either of them in all honesty but I wanted to show my support as he has always been so kind to my family. A few years back after he had gotten his diagnosis he told us a story about how he had been so depressed that he couldn't get out of bed. His wife had encouraged him to find a reason to get out of bed and he turned on the tv and there was my face on the tv staring back at him. I was being interviewed at the Race for the Cure with a big group of friends talking about how I turned a bad chapter in my life into something beautiful. He said he needed that message right then and there I was. That meant a lot to my husband and I to hear. It was at that moment my husband and I realized that the work we were doing was "bigger than us" now. It was really wonderful to meet him and his daughter. I just hate that it was under these circumstances.
I cried with them. We had never met before but I felt that incredible helplessness that they were feeling at that moment. It stings and I could feel it in my soul. The most hurtful thing about cancer is that you can do everything right and still lose.
It stirs up a lot of emotion for me. The fact that my parents are about the same age. Seeing all of the memorial pictures that have all of the same elements of our family pictures from the early 80's. So many similarities! And of course the obvious, although we each had different cancers, we all had a silent understanding that each day was a Russian Roulette with no rhyme or reason why one of us lives and one of us gets our wings. My heart simply breaks for them.
After my diagnosis 13 years ago I went into a dark rebellious spiral. I was so convinced that I had a death sentence that I wanted to live and die on my terms. I was a child forced to make some very serious adult decisions about my health and my body and dammit, if I was going to die, it wasn't going to happen wasting away in a hospital bed with a horrible monster feeding off of my once healthy tissue. No, I wanted to die a sexier death than that. I partied like a rock star. I hoped to die in my sleep after drinking too much on a night out with my friends. Or by doing something incredibly stupid or incredibly brave, or being hit by a bus, shot by an arrow, or choking on a ham sandwich. Anything else would have been more acceptable, painless and far less excruciating for my parents to watch me go through. Or so I thought at the time.
I think anyone that has been through major illness can tell you that they have planned their funeral in their head a million times. For mine, I want to have a big party with an open bar. If I could ever do anything right in my life, it would be that I throw a great party, right? Anyone that shows up in jeans or a baseball hat, you can turn them right around and make them go home because they obviously didn't know me well enough to know that I think that is more disrespectful than not showing up in the first place.
I would want everyone to know that I have lived an amazing life. I have done things that people can only dream about. Some nights when I am waiting for test results or have something I am worried about, I just look through my pictures and am amazed by the life I have lived just since I have been with my husband. I honestly think he saved my life. When I needed it the most he reached right into the deep dark hole that I dug myself and said, "you are better than this." Life has given me more than I have ever deserved since then.
Before I had my daughter, I would go through those pictures and think, "it would be ok if now was the time. I've had a wonderful life." Of course now that I am a mother I wouldn't dare think that way. There are so many things I want to see her do. She is going to be a catalyst of hope. Even at her young age, I see her as a peacemaker.
If there are tears for me at all, I would hope that it would be after laughing so hard telling a stupid story about something ridiculous we did together. It might sound ludicrous, but I would love a real New Orleans Jazz Funeral. I have never seen a more raw expression of emotion than I have in those videos. The powerful yet weeping brass, I can't think of anything better that expresses a celebration of life and pain and my love for music all at the same time. And I want to leave in a black horse drawn carriage to Calvary Cemetery. I always loved to visit there with all the beautiful statues and being surrounded by all my family.
I can't even help it! My mind goes here every time I am witness to another victim of cancer. Every funeral, every time another person in my support group posts that her cancer came back, every call back for a retest of something suspicious, it opens that scar that I have tried for years to heal. As God and Gwen as my witness, I will never stop doing anything in my power to stop this horrible disease. It isn't fair that anyone has to go without a parent or for any parent to lose a child even if they have done everything right. We can't give up. We can never give up. I hope if you take nothing else from my late night rambling, it would be to find a reason to celebrate life every single day and never ever stop fighting. One day our children won't have to worry about cancer. I wish for that day every day of my life.
Love and peace,
Alissa

New Event Announcement: Alissa's Hope presents the Survivors' Jubilee

Every year on May 15th, I gather a small group of my family and my closest friends and we spend an evening celebrating. It isn't my birthday or a wedding anniversary, it is the anniversary of the day that I found out I had cancer. To some that seems like a strange thing to celebrate. But to me, that day was the beginning of my survival. I had some rough days, even rough years. There was chemo and many surgeries but it was a starting point and what I may not have realized early on was that each year of survival was an accomplishment in itself and each year that I distanced myself from that day deserved a celebration. It took a long time for me to see that I shouldn't dwell on why this terrible thing happened to me and instead focus on how much I have changed, for the better, since I beat cancer. Being 13 years out this year there is so much I want to give back to the community. I want people to know that there are great things ahead even after a cancer diagnosis and we should always celebrate life.

At PINKAPALOOZA III, there were a group of ladies that came to play trivia. They all wore the same color shirts to support and celebrate their friend who I believe had just finished chemotherapy. By the end of the evening that group was having so much fun that they were dancing on the tables. That moment filled my heart with so much joy. To see a group of friends celebrating a survivor and to see a survivor celebrating her support team of friends, it was beautiful!

We found that when speaking with our many volunteers about the night, the one thing that got brought up the most was how wonderful it was so see these friends enjoy themselves for all of the right reasons. We wanted to bottle that love and let others experience it for themselves.

This year on Saturday, May 11th, we are delighted to announce our first ever Survivors' Jubilee.

A chance to celebrate
This will be a chance for survivors and their support team, friends, or family to come together to celebrate their lives and their love for one another and just let loose and have fun. Whether you have just received a diagnosis or are a 20+ year survivor, we all have a reason to celebrate each other.

A chance to inspire
Over the years we have met some amazing survivors that have turned a horrible time in their life into something beautiful. We will share some of their stories. And we hope to hear some of your stories too!

A chance to give back
We are all coming together to support each other. Every cancer diagnosis comes with its own set of challenges. But we all also share a common experience and we can all help each other through those struggles. Together we are stronger.

This is an evening that Alissa's Hope feels very strongly about. Our goal is not to make a profit from this but to give you an evening you won't forget. We will be serving heavy hors d'oeuvres and have an open bar serving wine and beer. We will have some amazing local entertainers. Comedienne Andi Smith who you might recognize from NBC's Last Comic Standing. Local performer Perry Woods on guitar and Blues Handle will have us dancing in our seats. There will be games and prizes, a few surprises and of course a cake! What would a celebration be without cake?

We will be releasing more details on how to purchase tickets and answering more questions within the next week. We hope that you pass the word on to your family and friends. It is sure to be a night you will never forget.

January 1st - The Black Hole of Days

I love the end of the year. I get excited about it every time because I love the idea of starting fresh in the new year. It is a chance for all of us to have a starting point to make some changes and take some chances and try to reevaluate life in general. But every year, every single year, with all of my best intentions, January 1st comes and it ends up being a day where I lay on the couch recovering from the literal ind figurative hangover of the previous year. I call this day the "the black hole."

On this day, there are still unhealthy leftovers to eat. There are still mouthfuls of sweets laying around from the night before. There will be no trip to the gym, no running because, well, I am tired and honestly a little dehydrated. I was up late and I am tired and I am off work...insert excuse here.

So today is always my introspective day. Today is the day that I make my resolutions for the year. Maybe you are like me and this day was your black hole. If that is the case, here are some ideas from my list.

1. 30 minutes of cardio a day - I need to put myself first for at least 30 minutes a day. I owe that to myself to have some time alone, to improve my mood, and to reduce my risk of heart disease and cancers.

2. Give up fast food. I know this will be hard. Not that I eat a lot of fast food but it does happen. I think I will shoot for January and see how it goes.

3. Make more fresh meals. I would really like to eliminate as much processed foods as possible. I don't know that I could eliminate it all - I do love macaroni and cheese, but I would like to see how or if the difference improves my health.

4. Call and make my appointments for my cancer screenings! You would think that I would be on top on all my annual screenings but I have actually missed one this passed year.

5. Keep track of my progress to a healthier life. I will try my best to share things with you that worked for me. And I hope that you can share some ideas with me as well!

What works for you? What are your health goals for the year?

The Boob Smash

Today I would like to remind everyone that if you have been putting off  your annual mammogram, you should call your doctor and schedule one before the end of the year sneaks up on you.

We both know that it isn't that bad. It might be a pain in the butt to schedule and it isn't the most comfortable test but catching breast cancer early is something you will not regret! The 5-year survival rate for women diagnosed with breast cancer can be as high as 98% for localized disease if detected early.

Today I had my annual mammogram. I believe that it is mammogram number 10 for me. My punch card is full now. I wonder if the next one is free? LOL. They did offer me flowers though. This is also the first time that I have gone by myself. I didn't even stay up all night worrying about the outcome. That is a big step for me.

I am overcoming my fears and you should too! Just get it over with.

xoxo,

Alissa