Pink For A Week
If it looks like you're watching The Early Show through rose-colored glasses this week, don't worry. There's nothing wrong with the color on your TV set.
This October marked the 20th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
In commemoration, the show went "Pink for a Week." It is joining with fine retailers and cancer-fighting organizations in six days of giveaways on the Plaza to raise funds to battle breast cancer and to raise public awareness of the disease.
The items represent "pink" in all shapes and sizes, including clothing, vehicles, and even kitchen appliances!
Each day, The Early Show featured items whose proceeds benefit a particular organization. All information on how to buy these items can be found right here on the Web site.
So find something pink to wear, shop online, and look forward to the day that, together, we will conquer breast cancer.
Pink for a Week wrapped up Saturday with giveaways on the plaza by Gretchen Carlson, benefiting WIN ABC.
Lainie Lieberman, the National Sales Manager for the beauty company e.l.f., was the guest on The Saturday Early Show.
Representatives of breastcancer.org visited the plaza on Friday. The nonprofit is committed to providing medically accurate, easy-to-understand information about all aspects of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Their information is up to date and reviewed by a board of medical professionals.
Dave Price announced the raffle winners of a KitchenAid mixer, Coach watch, Alviero Martini scarf and YSL pink satin clutch. He also gave away Avon Pink Ribbon products and a Lenox vase and pin. You can buy these items here, with proceeds benefiting the fight against breast cancer.
Thursday brought to the plaza Geralyn Lucas, director of corporate communications for Lifetime Television. Nine years ago, when she was 28 years old, she lost her right breast to cancer. She's just out with a book about her experience: "Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy."
She told The Early Show's Dave Price and co-anchor Hannah Storm that she wore lipstick to her mastectomy "because I knew it was hopeful, and here I am wearing lipstick with you guys."
As part of her job at Lifetime, she works on its Stop Breast Cancer For Life campaign, which is in its 10th year. "And it's an incredible program that was started by Meredith Wagner 10 years ago, championed by our CEO, Carol Black. When women rule the world, things happen!"
Geralyn and Dave each donned a bright pink feather boa as they showed the gifts that were brought to the plaza, courtesy of Lifetime Television. (Dave drew the line at putting on lipstick, though.)
The week's main message was repeated: Get a mammogram! Conduct regular self-exams! Early detection is the main key to surviving breast cancer.
And Geralyn had something extra to say: "Get a mammogram and if you need a mastectomy, wear lipstick!"
Lifetime Television's Web site is designed partly to serve as a clearinghouse for the latest breast cancer information and features, including the "Map of Hope," stories and events about breast cancer from around the world; links to Lifetime's 10 nonprofit breast cancer partners; and special links and content around "Why I Wore Lipstick," including a "Q&A" with Geralyn, links to her special corporate and nonprofit partners and a listing of "Courage Night" celebrations, featuring readings from the book.
Want to give to charity? Then take the wheel! That was part of the message at Wednesday's special event for Pink For A Week.
The Ultimate Drive is a program that was created in 1997 by the people at BMW, reports The Early Show's Dave Price. Anyone can head to a participating dealership during the event and take a BMW for a test drive. For every mile that is driven, BMW donates a dollar to The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
As a matter of fact, co-anchor Rene Syler already has taken one of those cars for a spin herself and also was invited to add her name to one of the Signature Cars.
The car carries about 51,000 signatures of people who test-drove it around the U.S. It's also decorated with photos of breast cancer survivors.
Co-anchor Syler said she was "very honored that they asked me to sign this car," even though she does not qualify as a breast cancer survivor herself. She explained, "I don't have breast cancer and wasn't diagnosed with breast cancer, but I was diagnosed with a breast disease so they felt like they wanted my signature on (the car) as well."
In addition to BMW, the companies represented on the Plaza Wednesday were:
L'Occitane: The Shea Butter Tin is a L'Occitane product that "goes pink" for October. That is, 15 percent of its sales goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. (Shea butter is a versatile beauty aid that's good for healing chapped lips and even helping split ends!)
Curvation: Queen Latifah and Curvation have created a Limited Edition Signature Series of intimate apparel designed to support the gift against breast cancer. Each Signature Series bra features an exclusively designed pink ribbon and the Queen's signature. The special edition series is in stores until the end of November.
The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation was established in 1982 by Nancy Brinker to honor the memory of her sister, who died from breast cancer at the age of 36. Since then, the foundation has grown to become an international organization with a network of more than 75,000 volunteers, all working together to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease.
Popping up on the Plaza Tuesday was Wendy Nyberg, who is the brand director for Sutter Home. She also is the designer of the Circle of Hope bracelet.
In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Sutter Home and The Early Show will auction off a pink Italian Malaguti scooter, valued at more than $3,000. Adding to its value will be autographs from The Early Show anchor team, as well as guests on the program through the end of October.
Then, beginning Nov. 1. the scooter will be listed on eBay, and the money it brings in will benefit the breast cancer research programs at the City of Hope.
When people think of Sutter Home, they think of wine. But there is more to the company than that. The quest for a breast cancer cure at Sutter Home became personal in 2001. That's the year when, within only weeks of each other, two important team members were diagnosed with breast cancer: Vera Trinchero Torres, a Sutter winery owner, and Terry Wheatley, the senior vice president of marketing.
"They're both doing very well," reports Nyberg, "but they're doing well because it was early detection… That is the key."
Sutter Home created a campaign called Capsules for the Cure. Send in the top quality seal from the capsule on a bottle of Sutter Home White Zinfandel through Dec. 31, 2004, and the winery will donate one dollar (up to $250,000) to breast cancer research.
Other people connected with the company designed candles and someone's grandmother made scarves. "We had to figure out what women want," Nyberg explained. "They want to shop, and find things that are hard to get…"
"And drink white zinfandel!" chimed in The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler.
Sutter Home became a national sponsor of the City of Hope Walks for Hope to Cure Breast Cancer. City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute hospital and world-renowned research center, provides early detection and care to women with breast cancer. The scientists at City of Hope are aggressively searching for better treatment and, ultimately, a cure for breast cancer.
For more information about how your breast cancer charity or organization can receive funding through the Sutter Home for Hope campaign, please contact the company at sutterhome.com.
On Monday, designer Karen Neuburger donated items from her Pink Ribbon Signature Collection, which benefits breast cancer research, all year round.
Neuberger had a breast cancer scare herself a few years ago.
She told Dave Price, "When you're going through a false-positive for many days, you're in the same predicament as everybody else but, luckily, I didn't have cancer. My surgeon hooked me up with some survivors in my neighborhood to let me know there was hope, and there is a great deal of hope, even if you are detected with breast cancer."