The best (womanless) beauty pageant ever

A few weeks ago, a friend threw the best fundraising dinner. As in ever. Like in the history of the world. No, seriously, EVER. My friend, whom many of you know as @mod4acure, decided throwing a Womanless Beauty Pageant was the way to go — and when she told me her idea, I laughed. And then I thought about how tough it would be to pull off. But I underestimated my friend (which is pretty dumb of me since I know her fairly well). Not only was it a successful fundraiser, but it was one of the most fun nights I’ve had in a long time. I laughed until I cried! I hope you’ll enjoy her tale of the night a man was crowned “Miss-ter Pink Pump.”

I often ponder ways to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This will be our fourth year fundraising since our daughter’s diagnosis in December 2007. The first two years we mostly chose to do the typical letter writing campaign for our local Walk to Cure Diabetes, which was very effective for us. Our first year, we wrote about our diagnosis, the second year, we wrote about going on an insulin pump and the third year, we wrote a newsletter of sorts talking about signs and symptoms and daily life with diabetes. In addition to last year’s letter, the fifth and sixth graders at our church held a car wash fundraiser for our daughter, who we like to call Squeakers. One of S’s friends also held a bake sale and we had a fundraising art event at My Spirited Art.

 

This year, my husband decided to participate in the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes in Tucson, Ariz. In order to optimize his ride experience, we committed to fundraising $4,000. After he registered for the Ride in spring, my fundraising wheels started to turn. I knocked around a few ideas in my head (usually at the wee hours of the morning) but kept coming back to this one idea. It was off-the-wall by far and egos would be put on the line. My idea was an educational dinner and womanless beauty pageant. Take a moment to let that sink in. Yes, you read that correctly. I was going to see if I could find enough men to dress up as women to compete in a beauty pageant. I mentioned this idea to a few of my closest friends to see what they thought. They all immediately agreed I should pursue this crazy idea and most decided to be part of the committee to pull the event off.

On Saturday, Sept. 10 (which is also Victoria’s birthday) we held our JDRF Educational Dinner and Womanless Beauty Pageant benefiting our team “Pumping In Pink.” For the education part, we had games all related to diabetes like a word jumble, a word search and a definition match using diabetes terms, a math madness game where participants figured out how many carbs are in a meal and then how much insulin to give based on correction factors and carb ratios. We also had a “Guess

Squeakers dinner bloodsugar” game and a “How well do you know Squeakers” trivia. Winners were selected at the end of the night and given prizes for coming the closest or getting all the answers correct. At each place setting there was a rubber band for each person to wear. When you snap a rubber band on your skin, it often feels like getting a shot or checking your blood sugar. With the rubber band on people’s wrists, I

walked through what a typical day is like for Squeakers. Every time she checked her blood sugar the audience snapped their rubber band. This helped people “feel” diabetes. But they know at the end of the day they can take off their rubber band where Squeakers cannot.

After the education, everyone enjoyed dinner before the real fun began.

The 10 “ladies” were introduced and each contestant’s name was called — all relating to diabetes, of course.

Here is an example of one lady:
Pageant Name: Violet Vial
Age: 19
Place of Employment: GAP

My recent honors include: Prom Chair committee, Head Jazzercise Instructor at the 80s are Back!!!, Most likely to get stabbed by Retinopathy Rose

Current clubs/organizations: Lead Car Washer for the monthly Bikini Car Wash for JDRF

Hobbies/Interests: Rhythmic Gymnastics, Juggling

My community activities are: Chair-aerobics for Seniors,

What I want the judges to know about me that is unique:

Richard Simmons is a close friend of my neighbor from Orlando, FL cousins great uncle who once was on Sweating to the Oldies,

third from the left in the back row on the VHS cover.

Other names included: Retinopathy Rose, Samantha Suga’, Lolita Lancet, Kara Ketone, Pumping Pam-a-lot, Sally Syringe, Test strip Tessa, Glenda Glucose and Polly Pancreas.

After introductions, there was the question portion of the show followed by the talent portion. We had everything from storytelling, to lip-singing to dance instruction. Everyone in the audience laughed so hard they nearly cried, some actually did. At the end of the night, we gave three awards:

Miss Congeniality (for the lady that collected the most $1 votes prior to the event): Lolita Lancet won a gift certificate to a local spa

Runner-Up: Kara Ketone won an old running shoe attached to a 2×4 piece of wood and a bouquet of carnations.

Winner: Violet Vial won a tiara, a sash with her new title of Miss-ter Pink Pump 2011, roses and a hot pink pump (shoe) atop a trophy stand.

All in all it was an amazing evening and we raised more than $2,400 for JDRF. I would not have been able to pull it off with out my extremely hard-working friends and mom: Belinda, Laureen, Loretta and Pam as well as all of the “ladies” that put their egos on the line for a great cause!

Many think we can pull this off next year and make it even bigger and better. We shall see.