Dorothy: [00:00:00] What does it mean when you raise money for The Rose? Well, it means that you are helping us take care of another woman. And for some of those women, it could mean her life. Today, we’re going to be visiting with Shannon McNair, who has managed our third party events for years, and she will tell you what you can do and why it is so important and why our community is such a big part of us being able to serve thousands of women every year.
Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose Breast Center of Excellence and a Texas treasure. You’re going to hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re going to learn why knowing about your breast could save your life. Join us as we hear another story and we answer those tough questions that you may have.
Shannon: I am [00:01:00] Shannon McNair from The Rose, and I’m the fundraising manager here at The Rose. So anything fundraising related, anything event related, where money’s coming into The Rose is under my umbrella to make sure those events are supported and they’re successful and help the community raise money for us.
Dorothy: So now How long have you been doing this with us, Shannon?
Shannon: Uh, in October will be eight years.
Dorothy: Ooh.
Shannon: Yeah, I, I was dropped in the middle of October.
Dorothy: That’s right. Yes.
Shannon: For my first week. So my first week involved Ray’s BBQ on day one and learned right away what the community does to support The Rose.
Dorothy: So tell us about these events.
Shannon: These events are all over, all over town, um, all over several counties, and some days I’ve driven through five cities, uh, around Houston to meet with a bunch of different groups who are raising money for us. And these are everything from a bake sale, a walk at an elementary school, t shirt sales, to golf tournaments, to tennis tournaments, to larger events, uh, that could raise $25 or $25,000, everything in between.
Dorothy: You’re not setting these things up.
Shannon: No, that’s what the third party [00:02:00] events, these are events other folks have set up or they’ve got an idea of how to do something and they come to us and want to support The Rose and we help them be successful. So what can we do? Do you need a speaker at an event? Do you need brochures?
Do you need folks to know who they’re raising the money for? Uh, in any way that we can help support those events, then we’ll support those.
Dorothy: So what is the most unusual one you’ve been to?
Shannon: Well, as you know, there’s a whole. Some people jump out of planes. So, so there’s everything on the gamut from jumping out of planes, people who’ve turned their hobbies into an event.
Um, and I’ve been to a lot of events where they decorate bras. And might even have male models walking around in a bar in those bras and auctioning those off. And they’re very competitive. First, uh, national does, uh, title company does one. where those real estate groups get very competitive on who wins that trophy every year, uh, who raises the most money for The Rose and they have a good time.
They’re all a lot of fun.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Shannon: So, crazy stuff. And then there’s simple stuff that, you know, just a Kendra Scott store, you know, where we’re raising money and awareness within the store. [00:03:00]
Dorothy: Some of these have some very unique beginnings.
Shannon: As you know, uh, you’ve talked to several of the groups who raise money for us, some of our, our favorite groups.
A lot of them are survivors, and then they are able to give back, and that’s nice. Sometimes we don’t know that, and I’ll get to an event, and we’ll be there and, and then meet someone who says, oh, you helped my neighbor, you helped my mom, but then the person raising money is like, oh no, when I didn’t have insurance.
I had found a lump and The Rose was there for me and now they’re out raising $8,000 to help the next woman that they’ll never meet and help her get the same help that they got. So those are always great.
Dorothy: Is your job a fun job or is it? Is it—
Shannon: I think it’s a fun job. It’s probably not for everybody. Um, I, I think the fun and fundraising is the fun of it all.
So it’s a busy job. Certainly busy, especially in October when everyone’s thinking of breast cancer. We have some events that aren’t in October, but obviously that’s when most events, and when I say events, I mean up to 180 different individuals and organizations doing things, again, big and small. Uh, some we don’t even know about and they just send the money in [00:04:00] that they’ve, you know, sold t shirts and, and they’ll send the money in.
Some are out of state. We’ll never help their community, but they heard about us and our reputation precedes us and what we do and actually providing services to women when they need it. And, and they’re passionate about that, that they want to help someone, uh, really make a difference and an impact. And so those folks come to us and, um, want that help.
And I love it. I, luckily for me, uh, we’ve talked about this as an extrovert, I get energized. I’m often tired on my way to an event, I’m like, Oh, I was at an event last night. I’m a little tired. It’s raining. I’m driving across town. And then I get there and it’s just amazing. And you’re like, this is why we’re here.
Dorothy: So I know you’ve come back from some of these events, just really, really touched. And, uh, and I know it’s hard to pick just one, but give us an example. I mean, you’re sitting there, you’re, you’re from The Rose, you have your table set up or whatever. And what happens so many times?
Shannon: Sometimes, you know, your reason you’re there.
I’m there to speak. I’m handing out [00:05:00] brochures. Um, I’m helping with an auction or we’re taking credit card donations or, and that’s why I’m thinking there. And then I realized why I’m there is something else. And it’s someone who needs our help. And maybe they walk up to us and say, I didn’t know, and I don’t have insurance.
I don’t know where to go. And then they find out about us because of that event. And so that’s the events that are really touching and come back and we can say, we’ve got her in, we got her into support or someone who has their story that we didn’t know about. Um, cause we help so many women, as you know, uh, every year, and they come up to us and just whisper.
They don’t want to share their story, but they have a story and some are very proud of it. Like, Hey, I didn’t have insurance and my business, I’m self employed and my business was hurting. And this came at the worst possible time in my life. And they found the pros. And as you know, I’m the department crier. So when I come back to it and I have a story, I’m always, I can’t wait to share the story I’ve heard at an event and why we do it. And that’s, again, that’s where I get my energy from as well to go to the next one, get [00:06:00] ready for the next one. Cause there are a lot. in October, and we’re very busy, but God, we’re so grateful. So grateful for the support.
Dorothy: Absolutely. Now give us some big ranges of this. I know you talked about $25 to $25,000 or more.
Shannon: Or it’s been up to 80.
Dorothy: Yes.
Shannon: We had one group who I know you’ve talked to star at booze and boobs who did their group at $80,000 last year, which was the highest we’ve received. I think we’ve received 20—, uh, you know, $70,000 before.
And you know, we’ve jumped for The Rose, which raises a lot of money for, for us. Um, but it’s all those little ones in between that are $5,000, $6,000. Uh, the restaurants who’ve had a hard time, you know, they went through COVID and here they are, they come back in October and say, I want to do a pink cocktail.
I want to do a specialty menu item that folks can order in October and help us, uh, support women, um, who otherwise have no place to go. As we know.
Dorothy: What does this mean in total dollars annually? Are your best ever or—
Shannon: Annually? I’d say it’s It touches half a million dollars, which is huge as you know, that’s a large grant [00:07:00] for us and this is community helping us.
So that’s what’s amazing about it. And so last year we crossed over that barrier. We’re about. $580,000. Again, all coming from a variety of things, uh, that it meant something to someone else, which was great. They were touched enough to say, “Hey, it’s October and I want to help someone and I want to help someone in my community.”
And again, someone they’ll never meet, probably they’ll never know who we helped. Um, but that they were there for The Rose and so that we could be there the next time. So half a million dollars is no joke. Um, and then there’s intangible things too. If you’re at your church group or your school group, you never know who heard a message that day of like, wait, I think there’s a problem, there’s somewhere to go, or wait, it’s been over a year, and I haven’t got my screening mammogram, and maybe I’m reminded to get my appointment.
That’s all life saving as well, not just the dollar amounts that come in to help those women. Um, but the great thing about that money coming in, it’s not restricted. That money doesn’t care what county you live in. They don’t care how old you are. And [00:08:00] as we know, you’re never too young, unfortunately. So that money comes in to help fill in a lot of those gaps where we might have money coming in, but it’s restricted to certain age groups or certain counties in our area.
And we can those women and not, not worry. It gives us that money to pull from that. We know we’re going to be there for everyone that needs us that year.
Dorothy: And what Shannon’s talking about has to do a lot with our grants. We are, we are very, very fortunate to have many, many foundations that also support this work, but invariably they have certain criteria .
And some of that has to do with the area of town that they’re more focused on or the county they’re focused on. Some has to do with the age, just like you were saying. We don’t have many that are specifically for women under 40. They want it to go for those women who, you know, are in the older group. But as Shannon said, We have so many young women that do not fit into any category that we have that grants cover.
[00:09:00] So this is where, when people say to you, where does this go? This is exactly where it goes.
Shannon: And in your community, I mean, in your backyard.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Shannon: We serve this greater Houston area, but that money may be going right to your neighbor who, again, you didn’t know needed help. You didn’t know that she was uninsured.
I think a lot of us just assume people are insured because they’re working. That’s not the case, as we know. Um, a lot of folks are working, but work in organizations or industries where insurance is just not attainable for them. And this money can go to help those folks.
Dorothy: Shannon, have you ever been touched by breast cancer?
Shannon: Oddly, not till I got here. Lots of canc— I mean, other cancers that aren’t screenable, which is why I’m kind of passionate about, uh, mammograms. Because we can screen for this. We can’t screen for lung cancer, which has impacted my life. Or lymphoma. You can’t screen for that. But breast cancer, we can. Oddly enough, me and my girlfriends were in our late forties, early fifties, and one in eight rule came to hit us hard.
And that one in eight rule hit one of us. So yeah, so impacted once I was [00:10:00] already working at The Rose and knew more about breast cancer, which was nice. But, you know, that text chain you have with your girlfriends, that text chain, it’s like, hey, let’s get together. And there’s eight of you around the room.
Unfortunately, one in eight is a number that’s real and really impacted us.
Dorothy: Yeah. This was a close friend.
Shannon: Very close friend, and she’s in remission. This all happened before COVID, luckily. And then, of course, COVID hit us. We actually had a girls trip planned to celebrate her birthday and her remission. of March of 2020.
So, uh, so I got through that and she’s living with, uh, chemo impacts as I think all women do it. Her chemo is particularly hard on her and she’s got a lot of life changing things that she’s dealing with with that. But she’s here.
Dorothy: She’s here.
Shannon: She’s here.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: Do you have a difficult part of this job?
Shannon: It seems silly to say no, but a lot of ways. No, no. It doesn’t mean I’ve heard a great person say once dream job doesn’t mean your job’s not frustrating. It doesn’t mean your job isn’t boring. So, you know, a dream job is a dream job. It doesn’t mean every day is perfect, but [00:11:00] almost every day is pretty good around here.
We know what we’re doing. Uh, we know who we’re doing it for. I say all the time. I love what I do. I love who I do it with and I love who we do it for. It’s very simple. So yeah, there aren’t a lot of difficult things. It’s hard when we say no. It’s, you know, I can’t, I only have so many resources for the events and, you know, we’re already double booked or we already have things going on and we can’t get to it.
I know, um, Chris and I have talked, it’s hard when someone comes in with stage four and we all have that impact of like, who didn’t we reach? Who didn’t we, what church didn’t we go to to speak at? Or someone didn’t know that they had an option and they didn’t have to wait so long to come to The Rose.
Those are all hard days for all of us, obviously, but day in, day out, what I do for a living is not. There aren’t a lot of bad days because it’s the people want to support us. People want to help us and that’s what’s great about doing what I do and working with those community organizers who are out there who are like let me help and this is how I’m going to help and use their passions to help the women in our community.
Dorothy: And they’re creative.
Shannon: Very creative. I mean like I said there’s [00:12:00] pottery things going on. You know there’s anything you could imagine. There’s a whiskey that’s helped us before. You know anything we can think of and things I can’t think of. Suddenly someone has turned their passion into a fundraising event and you realize how easy it is to do that.
It’s not hard to do that. You know barbecue cook offs. There are a lot of things that go on around town. So when I’m busy and I’m very busy in October and we all know that, I’m having a good time. You know I can’t always say don’t cry for me because I’m Pretty much having some fun wherever I am. Again, even if it’s not a super exciting event, I’m meeting folks who want to help us and they want to make a difference.
And every time you and I’ve talked about this, wherever we go and we, people hear what we do and who we’re with, very lightly touch us and say, You help my mom, you help my aunt. And so those are always great, great things about being out in the community. I’m very blessed that my job involves being out in the community and talking to those folks who want to help us and all have great attitudes about what we do.
Dorothy: All right, take us through it. I have an idea. I think I’ve, I’ve got a friend [00:13:00] or something that has touched my life and, and it makes me want to support a breast cancer organization. And maybe I don’t know about The Rose, but why would I pick the Rose to start with?
Shannon: What we hear a lot from folks is they Google, and if you Google breast cancer, we’re going to come up pretty high.
If you Google, uh, with independent charity, um, reviewers, we come up very high nationally, even though we are a regional. non profit and support our area directly. Um, and so we have folks that start with that and we ask them all the time, why? And they’re like, and it could be something simple, like that’s where my mom went when she needed help.
And that’s what I’m going to do. Um, or we’ve heard from women who said I had insurance. It was still hard. And I can’t imagine going through this without insurance. And we heard that from a gentleman who did an event for us. Um, he sat in an office during, with his wife and chemotherapy. And he heard the stories of women who were in there who were struggling to pay, who weren’t part of our family, who didn’t know, um, what their options were.
And he just never [00:14:00] wanted anyone to go through that. And he, found out about The Rose, and that’s where he did his event for. So, people come to us for a lot of different reasons, but it’s really the mission. Brings us to The Rose every time. We’re making a difference. We’re helping a woman, um, and you know that it’s someone who lives here in your community who needed that help to get through this disease.
So it starts with that. That’s, the idea is there, and then they find The Rose through, um, Either, like I said, either they’re impacted or they’ve just heard about our reputation in the community and they want to make a difference.
Dorothy: Okay, now get to the practical, practical, down in the weeds thing. Now what do I do?
Do I, do I go on the website? Do I call you directly? What happens then?
Shannon: You can do do anything, but we, on our website, therose.org/fundraise. We’ll get you to a fundraising page, which also has ideas. Maybe you don’t have an idea yet, but you’re like, you want to do something. It’s got some ideas there to maybe start thinking.
Um, and it’s got a quick form you can fill out. It’s also got our contact information. So you can reach out to myself and my, my partner in fun, uh, LaTonya, um, at events at [00:15:00] therose.org. And we will get you on our calendar. We’ll talk through things we can meet with you. If you have a few ideas, you’re not sure how to best execute something, um, we’re event people, you know, so it’s, we, we know how to make things logistic and make them easier too.
So maybe, you know, don’t do things the hard way. We can kind of talk through and we’re happy to do that. And that’s what we do a lot of in September is talking through, um, a, how can we help you? And then also, how can we, you know, give you ideas that are better. to make things more efficient, more effective and easier on you to run it.
So it’s not scary. You know, if you’ve never done a van, it can seem overwhelming, but it really can be very, very simple to do as well. Um, and then we get you on our schedule and that’s when we can help. If, uh, if as an event, people can attend, we have a website. We put all those events on our calendar. So with links to buy tickets and that sort of thing.
So if it’s a public event, we can help that way. If it’s a private event, we can just make sure you have materials. Does everyone in the room know where the money’s going? Do they need to know where the money’s going? And that’s going to a trusted nonprofit. We can make sure we have all that for everyone.
Dorothy: Now you can’t be at every [00:16:00] single event though, 180 to 200 a month.
Shannon: We try. Yeah. But yeah, there’s, there’s only two of us and a handful of others that volunteer during October to get out there and get the message out. And that’s when we kind of have to look at that calendar, where the resources go. And sometimes it’s a matter of.
I just can’t get from the Woodlands to Angleton. You know that we serve all those areas.
Dorothy: So we’re always looking for volunteers to help, especially during this month.
Shannon: Always looking for volunteers who—
Dorothy: Be our ambassadors.
Shannon: Absolutely. Absolutely. Who can talk about The Rose and we’ve had a lot of our sponsored women who are now in different positions.
Marisol is one of my favorites and she’ll go talk about The Rose and she’ll go to events and she’s been to several with me as well to kind of represent. what The Rose did. And that we’re here’s a real person that was helped by this. Um, so we, we love our patients to come back and help and volunteer in that way of when they feel comfortable.
Um, but we try to go to most events where we can, where we really need someone there to hear the message of The Rose and make sure someone’s there. And like I said, some are large. Golf tournaments, they don’t need much from us. They’re running that [00:17:00] fine. And then some need us there to, to take the credit card payments.
They don’t want to handle the cash school districts. You know, they don’t want to get the, they, they need someone there who can, we can set up web pages so that you have a donation page directly. You can send to people and, and send them directly to something where they’re making their donation, where you don’t have to handle the money at all.
Dorothy: And of course we absolutely love when they bring a check to us and we do a, um, picture and then we take them on a tour if they’ve not been here before.
Shannon: Absolutely. We love giving our tours and that’s where I think people see the impact that we are real building and with real equipment, our mobile units as well.
We’ve, we’ve often done check presentations in front of our mobile units like. This is where the money goes. This is what’s helping our community. See, October’s busy, November’s just as busy, luckily for us, and that’s when we get to go out and meet some of the people who raise the money. Maybe we didn’t go to their event in person for, or they didn’t need us there, but we’ll go meet with them in person when we get the money and do pic, do pictures and social media and that stuff and, and really get to talk about the impact that their fundraising did have on us.
Dorothy: So anything [00:18:00] else that our, our listeners need to know? Let’s go back over it. For one thing, they can do most anything. Every idea has a different perspective and—
Shannon: There’s one, I think there’s one thing where we’re like, we don’t want to be tied to that. And I’ll be, it was vaping, you know.
Dorothy: We’re not going to do that one .
Shannon: Yeah. There are things that we aren’t going to be part of as a healthcare organization that we want to focus on.
So we, we don’t do things like that, but everything else, I think we’ve, we’ve said yes to, um, like we got a group this year, they’re just selling a t shirt through October. to their members.
Dorothy: Oh, and that’s a good point. Some people do it the entire month. Some people it’s an event.
Shannon: Absolutely. Some things are an event.
Um, it’s a one time thing and we’re going to do something on this day. And then some it’s all month long. Come in. Uh, we have, uh, Tacos a Go Go is a big supporter. Pico’s. Some of those groups that come, the restaurant, come in all month long and they’ll have a special menu item and we’ll get the proceeds from those items.
And so you can go have fun. and have a taco. Who doesn’t enjoy that? Who doesn’t enjoy a pink cocktail, you know, somewhere [00:19:00] or a wine tasting? You know, we go to a Nice Winery and buy rosé. So there’s things that happen all month long at some of your favorite restaurants and you’ll find someone you, something you like, whether it’s a Chick fil A or a nice winery.
Uh, there’s things going on all month long for The Rose, which we love those. And then sometimes there’s a one day thing we could do and that’s all on our calendar. So we put that calendar on the website. Not only for your information, keeps us organized, keeps all of it going. So anything for the public that you can help participate in it.
Maybe you don’t want to do an event this year, but you want to know how you can help. You can help by going and supporting some of these other events and have a good time, bring some friends and have some fun.
Dorothy: Absolutely.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: So even though all of them are on the website, let’s try to pick 10. Just go through those.
Maybe been with us for a while or—
Shannon: Well, I’ll go with my first which is Rudy’s barbecue. Okay So they’re famous pink cup and they’ve been with with The Rose long time long before me And for every pink cup, there’s a dollar donated to The Rose and that and that’s all the houston area rudy So there’s six of them and that [00:20:00] Is a huge fundraiser for us every year and we love working with Rudy’s and again, my first day at The Rose.
That’s where we went and had lunch as a team, um, and I learned all about pink cup and what the community was doing and talk as a go go is coming back. They were a first year event for us last year and they are a longtime supporter of our mobile program through I’ll have what she’s having our other favorite one of our organizations that supports us.
So they’re part of that organization. So they knew about our mission and wanted to help and and they jump in this year. We have a. Cinnamon roll? I mean, come on, let’s have some fun. A pink icing cinnamon roll at J Bar M barbecue. So, you know, there’s those going on. Kendra Scott will be on the first Friday in October, which is the 6th.
Any Kendra Scott in the Houston area, from 6 to 8, 20 percent of those purchases will come to The Rose. And, you know, Kendra’s a longtime supporter of breast cancer, and those stores support us here locally as well. So, Kendra Scott’s already on the calendar. And we also have a Serve Up A Cure, which is a long [00:21:00] time supporter of ours, led by Claire, who is a tennis tournament.
And they have a, this year they’re adding a bingo game, uh, they have the tennis tournament, a mixer, and then they have a party after the tournament. And they’re just, if you like tennis, it’s a great group to get involved with. And there’s several golf tournaments going on that are, uh, more private, that’ll be happening at various places throughout, uh, the city.
Calpine is always a great supporter of ours with their golf tournament.
Dorothy: You mentioned Jump for The Rose.
Shannon: Jump for The Rose, of course. I believe we have some staff members jumping this year.
Dorothy: Yes, yes.
Shannon: Which is always a sight. I, one year, one year maybe it’ll be my year to jump. I’m often double booked already.
It’s like jumping in October. I’m often, uh, already busy at The Rose, uh, at other locations.
Dorothy: But that’s a good point. You could do a fundraiser anytime during the year.
Shannon: Anytime during the year.
Dorothy: Breast cancer happens all year long.
Shannon: It happens all year long. Booze and Boobs is moving to January. They are not going to be in, in the October year and that’s a great supporter for ours.
There’s a great walk that happens in the Woodlands with Mitchell Intermediate School, uh, that happens in March, you know, so a breast cancer doesn’t care. [00:22:00]
Dorothy: Right.
Shannon: Breast cancer does not care. It doesn’t care how old you are. It really doesn’t care if you’re a woman or a man, and it certainly doesn’t care what month it’s in.
You know, I think most of us know people who were diagnosed and hardly were diagnosed in October in the middle of it. So cancer does not care and it doesn’t stop. So year end events are great because we have a lot of folks who are like, I’d rather do it when there’s not so much other noise. going on and other things going on.
And it’s, it’s something that helps them manage that. And, you know, it’s not an overwhelming time to do it as well.
Dorothy: Anything else we need to know? It’s really important, though, if they can to fill out that form simply so that we can help promote them as much as anything else.
Shannon: Yeah, Yeah. It gives us, it gives us a place to start with organizing.
Okay. Is this a public event? Uh, what do they, what do you need from us? Like, do you just need us to get some brochures or pink ribbons out to you? Um, are you going to need a speaker? Is it something that’s more of a speaking event where you need us a lunch and learn? We do those all month long too and health fairs and that sort of thing.
So that, uh, it gives us a place to start and then we can talk about how we can help and what we [00:23:00] can and can’t do. And. And get that on the calendar. If it’s a public event, then is more important. So we wanna make sure all of our supporters know, again, if they aren’t gonna ready to jump in yet with an event, come out and have some fun with someone else who has started an event.
Dorothy: Right?
Shannon: There’s a lot of options out there.
Dorothy: So many ways.
Shannon: You don’t have to jump outta a plane. You can do other—
Dorothy: No, no. You don’t have to do the biggies. Yes.
Shannon: You can do, you can do some other stuff too. You, you can simply go to Chick-fil-A and that’s, and, and buy a cookie or a brownie and that, that helps too.
Dorothy: Well, Shannon, this has been delightful.
Shannon: Yes, its been great.
Dorothy: It’s been always fun to hear about our events that are helping us.
Shannon: There’s so many going on.
Dorothy: And anything else that you need our listeners to know?
Shannon: Yeah, I just, I need you to know that A) we’re here. So let folks know that we’re here to help. And then if you have an idea and you’ve always wanted to fundraise, you know, email us, just let me know.
I’m happy to talk to you about it. Again, it doesn’t have to be in October, so we don’t need to put pressure on you to jump into to do an event. But if you have an idea and you’re thinking about it, you can talk to us now. We can work on it. We have an event going on next September already working on. And so, [00:24:00] uh, with one of our longtime supporters doing.
I’m going to be doing a motorcycle ride, and he’ll be raising money for a year, but the ride’s not until next August. So, there are lots of things you can do to, to help that aren’t in October, or things you can do to help support another event that is going on. But just reach out and ask. That’s all you need to do.
Dorothy: Great. Well, thanks so much for being with us.
Shannon: Of course.
Dorothy: So, that wraps it up for today, and don’t forget, we’re doing a episode every single day. You’re going to get your daily dose of Let’s Talk About Your Breasts during the month of October.
Post-Credits: October is the month of pink, and for The Rose, a breast center of excellence.
That means we’ll be airing podcasts every day in October to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We’ll be sharing everything from bikers writing for breast cancer to areola tattoos. Be sure to share with family and friends because there’s a little something for everyone. To find out ways to help The Rose, visit our website at therose.org. Remember, self care is not selfish. It’s essential.[00:25:00]
