‘Tis the season to Be PINK! On October 7th, my nonprofit Painted Pink held our 4th Annual Bruncheon! Gift boxes filled with clean beauty goodies, unlimited mimosas, jams from a live band, and inspirational tales of survival- are a few of the highlights of the event. We had about 170 guests, our largest audience yet, although we ended up with more guests than we anticipated; nevertheless, it was amazing to have so many people celebrating the breast cancer cause.

This year’s celebration was especially special because we got to do a long awaited tribute. My Aunt Baby was diagnosed with breast cancer, the first cancer in my family and she subsequently had two strokes. Visiting her after her diagnosis and seeing first hand the affects of cancer is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about the cause. Cancer literally alters your state of being and as I mentioned before still can’t fully imagine what it would be like to carry that life state, a cancer patient.

With my mom at her side, my Aunt made her way to the stage and spoke about how she was “a living testimony.”- love that. Survivors are living magic, they’ve experienced the unthinkable and I’m so fortunate to have her example. This was my aunt’s first time in the US and I’m so thankful, we got this opportunity to celebrate her magic!

One of my roles is to sponsorship outreach and assemble the gift boxes; they came out so well. I’m obsessed with these black queen with a dream bags. The bags had goodies from our head sponsor Thank God it’s Natural, Herbivore Botanicals, handmade candles, soaps, body scrubs,  Nubian Heritage natural deodorant and your very own’s chokers. I’m super excited to now have a logo (added it to the blog) and I made fun new chokers made of velvet and fringe.

In addition, I do blogger outreach and I’m so happy some of my favs continue to support the cause.

We had the great pleasure of having Chris-Tia Donaldson, breast cancer survivor AND CEO of Thank God It’s Natural as our keynote speaker. I have to highlight how our lil’ budding cause connected with a national hair brand and this hair queen. One of the things I’ve come to learn from sponsorship outreach and getting the word out about our cause is persistance and follow up; hitting that resend on emails. In 2016 I emailed TGIN a couple of times and much to my amazement, I got a reply directly from Chris-Tia asking how she could contribute. We continued to keep her brand in the loop after they donated products to our 2016 event, by sharing updates like how we created care kits for breast cancer warriors at the holidays. The brand reached out that they wanted to expand the partnership and boy did they! I imagined having an ongoing partnership with a brand who spoke to the #purposelypink lifestyle, conscious, captures the millennial audience and quality product, but I  didn’t expect it to manifest so soon. The natural brand sponsored the boxes for the event, which featured a gorgeous illustration by this dope artist. They provided a full travel kit for the boxes, and had a TGIN goes PINK table and gave every guests full size products in addition to Chris-Tia speaking. Instead of a traditional keynote, the CEO was interviewed by our host Koereyelle. She dropped jewels on her rise from Harvard to major CEO, to her under 40 breast cancer experience. She spoke on the priveledge that she noticed in her treatment experience due to her financial standing in contrast to the majority of women of color who face major disparities with the disease. You ever hear someone talk and the smarts just ooze out lol? That was the case with Ms. Donaldson. I loved that we incorporated the aspect about her career, because that is inspiration in itself and a great  addition to her survival story.

We also had a co-survivor, a husband, and wife both spoke which was also a new twist on the survival testimony.  It’s important to highlight a man’s perspective and how cancer affects the whole family. All in all as I summarize the event, we shed new light breast cancer story and how it is relevant for a millennial audience.

About the look:

I wore this strapless, three-quarter bell sleeve dress by Intertwine Collection. This was the first item I had ordered from the Instagram famous boutique and was very curious to see how it would turn out. I loved it! Looks like it might be out of stock currently, but it may restock. Also I loved this beat, high on the highlight.

I paired it with a crystal pink choker, coming to my shop soon. The icing, I must say, was having the honor of wearing momma’s emerald green “Carrie Bradshaw’s”, Manolo’s for the not savvy. I was just blessed to wear the shoes!

Please follow Painted Pink on social for ways to get involved and be about the pink lifestyle. It starts with you! @paintedpink4bc