PICTURES: Day One, click here VIDEO:Hope Shines on ... in the kids! This is my favorite so far...includes candids of the little ones, family fun night with greased pig, catch a bunny, pie eating, mutton bustin', stick horse race, tater sack race, youngest ATV rodeo competitors ... click here VIDEO: dedicated to the "tough" girls! "Got PINK?" click here VIDEO: Never trust a rodeo clown...Fair Board President shakes the pink! click here
More picture and video links soon! I can also email copies and mail disks ... if you feel you must compensate, consider voting for me in Racing with the STARs details on that page. Votes are tax deductible!
Teller County Fair - Cripple Creek July 31 - August 3, 2008 TURNING PINK IN 2008! The Teller County Fair has joined forces with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to help celebrate 25 years of a sister's promise. Working together to make a difference will make the 2008 Teller County Fair a very special event that you won't want to miss!
“Quilt Pink" Open Class Exhibit Last September, across the country, more than 1,000 shops held Quilt Pink events. Approximately 100,000 quilters and non-quilters joined the fight against breast cancer, making a difference one stitch at a time. By submitting quilt blocks into the Quilt Pink exhibit at the Teller Country Fair, you will become a very special part of the fight. Quilt Pink blocks will be judged and awarded prizes the same as other Fair exhibits BUT after the Teller County Fair is over, all blocks will be made into finished quilts. These very special quilts will be sent to American Patchwork & Quilting magazine who will sell the quilts via online auction and donate the net proceeds to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. There were over 4,000 quilts in the 2007 auction! For more information on the national Quilt Pink events go to: www.quiltpink.com
Clothing / Fashion Show Choose to show your pink and qualify for an additional "Got Pink!" award in this category. We are looking for creativity and pink spirit. This is a great opportunity to educate and create awareness.
Livestock - "Got Pink" awards In addition to normal awards, you can win prizes by showing that you "Got Pink!". Decorate your stall, yourself or your animal … get creative! Show your pink spirit
Rodeo for the Pink! Competitors will be wearing pink as they compete in the different events. Additional pink prizes/awards for winners TBD, updates will be posted soon. We encourage all competitors and spectators to show their spirit and wear pink during the rodeo AND the Fair.
I am collected "Got PINK!" rewards from local businesses that included: Walmart, Santa's Workshop, Dinosaur Resource Center, Charitable Treasures, Cowbelles, Sky Sox, Elitch Gardens, Starbucks, Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gage Railroad, IT'z Fun Center, Safeway Woodland Park, Ceyenne Mountain Zoo, Diggin' In the Dirt.... These were used to reward those who participated in "Got PINK?" at the Fair. I will post details soon.
Over the years I have been asked about the symbol for Breast Cancer, the pink ribbon.
In an effort to be informed and for my own piece of mind, I decided to look up the history of the pink ribbon.
History of the Pink Ribbon... The pink ribbon is the symbol for breast cancer awareness invented in 1991 by Evelyn H. Lauder, founder & president of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Alexandra Penney, then-editor of Self Magazine. Lauder says, "The ribbon stands for awareness. And it stands for the sisterhood that will help women survive - and conquer- this disease.”
As I pondered this definition, I thought to myself “Good, but not good enough...too gender specific” (women, sisterhood). I decided to make up my own definition. For 33 years I lived in a Black and White world...
- Logical - If I didn't know something, I looked it up - 2+2=4 (always) - Almost everything could be explained.
But that all changed that fateful day in July of ‘96 when I started to hear new words like: suspicious, mammogram, oncology, chemo, stem cell rescue, radiation - and the biggie: CANCER
Other survivors know what I'm talking about and they know or remember the whirlwind/roller coaster ride that follows those words.
Suddenly Black and white melted together and my world became gray - with so many unknowns. I thought this was bad, but at that time I didn't understand or even think about what the colors meant.
Black was obviously the negative, but what was the white? Was it the positive, the good things?
Then one day, as treatments were ending my world started changing colors. The black in the gray was still there but I had stopped focusing on it. And because I was focusing on the positive the black was being replaced by a new color. A vibrant RED, and I came to realize that this RED was ...
by definition:
- Burning desire - Passion - The will to survive and thrive - The will to LIVE!
And as I came to know and understand the RED, I also came to understand the white and I discovered the white is really:
- hope, faith, love, laughter, dreams, - friends, family, supporters, - angels among us, the MILK of human kindness...
... and the white is always there for us, just more apparent at times…especially when we need it most.
So the melting of black and white was actually a good thing. The white diluted and softened the black and provided the ability to cope as it created the gray world.
And when recovery and "moving on" became the name of the game, the red starting growing and taking over for the black,...and the white started to grow…and when the white grew, the red grew more… and even today if I focus on one the other responds accordingly.
Because, as I've learned, when mixed with the red, white does not dilute or stifle it....it strengthens it!
But they still melted together creating a very beautiful color that we all know so well as(anyone?)... pink.
Each day I am grateful to wake up each morning to this new world...this pink world.
So a PINK ribbon, by my definition, is very appropriate and like Breast Cancer it knows no gender, no race, no social status...just an attitude.
Next time someone asks you about the pink ribbon, you can borrow my definition OR better yet ... create your own.
Teller County Fair - Cripple Creek 
