Our very own Sharon Wollman, RN, is making a difference in the community! As a founding member of Stepping Out for Breast Cancer, she was interviewed by Wendi Winters and featured in today’s Capital Gazette newspaper. Read the story below–and please share this weekend’s event with your friends and family.
Stepping Out for Breast Cancer puts on musical show
By WENDI WINTERS wwinters@capgaznews.com
Twenty years ago, a group of women took a big step. They created the all-volunteer service organization Stepping Out for Breast Cancer.
Since they began, the group has donated more than $400,000 to Anne Arundel Medical Center. And two years ago, the group raised $50,000 for the hospital’s new breast biopsy machine, said founding member Sharon Wollman. Both AAMC and Baltimore Washington Medical Center have rooms named for Stepping Out members.
“Our focus is breast cancer, but we touch many lives,” Wollman said.
The non-profit organization raised the money largely through its annual benefit luncheon and its shop during Midnight Madness – held in downtown Annapolis the first week in December.
This year’s Stepping Out for Breast Cancer luncheon event is dramatically different.
In addition to champagne, boutique shopping and a luncheon, attendees will be treated to the live musical “Breast In Show” by Lisa Hayes, with music and lyrics by Joan Cushing. Annapolitan Eileen Mitchard is the executive producer. The show is based on interviews conducted by the trio.
“Breast in Show” has been performed to acclaim in Washington, D.C., Richmond and other areas.
The 90-minute show, cast with actors from Colonial Players, “will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you do both at the same time,” said Mitchard.
Mitchard, a resident of the Wardour community of Annapolis, conceived of the show in 2009.
A Maryland resident since 1984, Mitchard claims she was “born in front of a medical class at Georgetown University Hospital. I was either going into medicine or show biz. Show biz won out.”
She concedes a play about breast cancer might be a tough sell.
“Selling tickets to a show about breast cancer is like selling tickets to a root canal,” she said. “But this is a humorous yet poignant and honest approach to breast cancer.”
The event opens at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at the Loews Annapolis Hotel on West Street, with champagne and boutique shopping. The luncheon, in the hotel’s main ballroom, is at 11:30 a.m., followed by “Breast in Show” at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person.
For information, tickets or to donate, call 410-849-3011.
