This Saturday, I was invited to attend the Fashion Fresh Showcase at Arlington Park benefitting Susan G Komen. This was a terrific event to be a part of, seeing 10 breast cancer survivors modeling fashion wear, First Lady of Fashion Contest, vendors of beautiful hats and dresses, Mario Tricoci, and of course bringing awareness and raising money for the Susan G Komen for the Cure Organization. Good fun for a good cause! I joked with a couple of the ladies that this was the first SGK event I've been a part of NOT wearing t-shirts, jeans and no makeup!
Meeting Kathi (my new go-to gal for this organization) in person was so nice after so many emails. She is something else! She made us - and I'll get to the "us" part in a minute - feel so special, so welcome giving us box seat tickets to enjoy the races going on, complimentary tickets to the event itself, and making sure we were taken care of. What an example she (and her family , as they were all there!) is working as hard as they were at this event and going above and beyond to see to it that it was both a great event and a great experience. I am thrilled to continue working with her. Side note: I was also able to meet some other folks I'll be working with throughout the year as well, and we have some exciting things to look forward to! Can't wait to share those!
Now to the "us" part! Kaili Harding, Mrs. Illinois America 2005 was kind enough to be my travel companion for the day, and we had a blast! She and I were decked out in our homemade - yes, you got it! Our crafty little selves made hats to match our dresses - hats and fun attire, and really enjoyed a benefit that is close to my heart, and CLOTHES to my heart, as getting to get dolled up like this was a dream! We were even given vouchers to place a bet as another welcome gift from our "paparazzi", Bob. He followed us around all day, taking shots of "Mrs. Illinois at Arlington Park" all over...literally! He wanted the park to have plenty of photos in plenty of different areas. That made us feel pretty special, too. Thank you. Bob, for the kind gift, and help with photos!
Back to the bets...neither Kaili nor I had been there before, nor ever placed bets so we did the logical thing and picked a horse by the name we liked. I'm sure you can imagine the tellers finding HUGE humor in this! The first we picked together and came in 2nd place winning some money! YEA! We tried again because it was SO much fun going to watch the race you bet on. Kaili fared better than me, placing 2nd again, while mine was dead last. Guess that will teach me that gambling is not really my thing, which I kind of already knew! ;) We then met a kind gentleman who saw our good luck and asked how we were betting. When we told him he said, "Oh, NO! That's not how you play to win!" Gave us a quick Gambling Lesson 101 on how to pick your horse, then offered to give us the next bet as a gift, and we could pick again. Well, my luck was obviously not the one to go with, so I left it in Kaili's able hands, and sure enough, she picked the winner!
So some thanks are in order: To Kathi for your kindness and generosity to us, and for your many efforts in raising awareness and funds for Susan G Komen. I can't wait to work together on our next event! To Arlington Park, thank you for hosting the event and making it a great one! To Bob, the photographer, thank you for all your hard work that day! And to Kaili, for taking time out for me, for making me feel like a queen, and for being both a terrific friend, and a great example of what a queen should be.
Photos here are:
-My "ensemble" - a huge thank you again to Annie of That Girl Boutique" who is the sponsor of this terrific dress. It was perfect for the event!
-Hat shot...Eric joked that a chicken collided with my head and lost...well, I liked it and I got lots of compliments, so it worked. I can't blame him really though, I mean, I never wear hats...this is a first for him! And he did compliment me once it was all put together. So I give him props for support, plus taking care of Elena all day! ;)
-Photo with Dear Kathi, at one of the booths
-Kaili and I and our "winnings"...actually, Ralph, the ticket guy handed us the money with our very first tickets for the photo, but maybe the shot was good luck, because we came back to claim that money!
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