An art auction, live music, belly dancing and delicious food provided a carnival-like atmosphere while raising awareness for lung cancer. Roxy Farms Antiques hosted the Saxapahaw Country Hoedown, held Sept. 10, to benefit the North Carolina Lung Cancer Partnership (NCLCP).
Many different artists and local companies participated in the hoedown. There was live music by Chapel Hill band New River Uprising, belly dancing, raffles, face painting, henna tattoos, wine tastings by Benjamin Vineyards and Winery and hors d'oeuvres from Saxapahaw General Store, Vimala's Curry Blossom Café and Company Shops Market in Burlington.
The main attraction of the hoedown was the art auction. Artists donated paintings, prints, pottery sculpture and jewelry to the auction. Some of the artists knew people who had battled lung cancer and one artist, Gregg Kemp, is battling cancer himself. Kemp donated two of his photographs to the auction.
The hoedown raised more than $2,000 just from the art auction. One hundred percent of the profits from the art auction, face painting and sales of raffle tickets will go to the partnership. Benjamin Vineyards and Winery will donate 25 percent of their wine sales during the event to the partnership. The event's final fundraising tally was $3,770.
Sue Dayton opened Roxy Farms Antiques in 2008 in a restored 100-year-old house. She held her first fundraiser last spring when she donated 20 percent of all antique sales to help the people of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami.
"I'm not a wealthy person, but I can do my part by contributing to worthy causes through having fundraisers," Dayton said.
Dayton works as a health consultant for the NC Lung Cancer Partnership and decided to host a grassroots fundraiser with them.
"This is the first year for the hoedown and it was a resounding success," she said. "We had about 150 people attend, many from our local community, and I think Sandy Oehler's message about how she got lung cancer struck a high note with people — if you have lungs, you can get lung cancer."
Oehler, a lung cancer survivor, was diagnosed eight years ago with non small cell lung cancer and underwent chemotherapy, radiation and had two-thirds of her right lung removed.
"I wanted to do something to give back, to find some organization that raised money for lung cancer," Oehler said. "To my surprise, there was no one who really did that."
Oehler met Amy Cipau, president of the NCLCP, and Jennifer Garst, an oncologist and lung cancer specialist at Duke University Medical Center, and formed the first chapter of the national partnership. The NCLCP's mission is decreasing lung cancer deaths and raising awareness by doing grassroots fundraising events and the larger Free to Breathe events. There are five Free to Breathe events in N.C. annually. These include two 5k runs, two golf tournaments and one yogathon. These events also help to fund young investigator research grants.
"We developed the chapter to improve the lives of people with lung cancer through research, education and advocacy," Garst said. "We want to do for lung cancer what other big pink organizations have done for breast cancer."
The NCLCP wants to get rid of the smoking stigma attached to lung cancer, since 20 percent of people with lung cancer have never smoked. Cipau and Garst both spoke about this at the hoedown.
"Lung cancer is the least funded of all cancers, but it's one of the most deadly," Cipau said. "If we don't raise awareness, we're not going to raise money for research."
New developments have been made in research, including the FDA-approved pill Xalkori and a CT scan specially developed to detect lung cancer in earlier stages, according to Garst.
"Our primary message is that lung cancer can happen to anyone. It kills more people each year than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined," Cipau said. "When the community comes out for events like this and supports it, it gives some hope, because right now, not a lot of people have that hope"