HOUSTON – Most people celebrate reaching milestones with smiles and applause. For Kim Roxie and Chris Noble, organizers of a night of awareness and fundraising for the nonprofit breast health organization The Rose, it was all about the hair. When the two women reached their goal of a full house at a special presentation of The Ensemble Theatre’s “I Wish You Love” – and thereby guaranteeing at least 200 mammograms for the uninsured – Chris went pink and Kim shaved her head.
“Women go through dramatic changes when breast cancer enters their world and we wanted to make a dramatic statement when we knew those much needed mammograms would soon be available,” said Noble, the Director of Corporate and Business Relations at The Rose. “With a net of more than $44,400 from this great night of theater and public support, I was literally tickled pink!”
Dorothy Gibbons, CEO and Co-Founder of The Rose, donned a fascinator created by The Ensemble’s costume designer Andrea Brooks whose breast cancer was discovered via The Rose’s mobile program two years ago. Gibbons introduced Brooks and reminded the crowd of the importance of making breast health a priority. “African American women are 45% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women in Houston,” she explained. “Early detection could change those numbers.”
Roxie, founder of Lamik Beauty, told the crowd she was indebted to The Rose because the mobile program also helped find her mother Loretta Wiggins’ cancer. She then introduced Stacie Potts, whose mother had made possible the pink pashminas that each guest took home. Community volunteer and advocate for many causes, Faith “Faye” Mainhart from Laredo, passed away this year after fighting a particularly aggressive thyroid cancer. While undergoing treatment at MD Anderson, she stayed with Noble. She made the donation to the Ensemble event as a way to “pay it forward.”
Noble picked up that theme in remarks equating the play’s subject matter – the change agent role Nat King Cole played in addressing racism – to the purpose of the evening. “I want each of you to consider yourself a change agent and leave here ready to tell your mothers, sisters, wives, aunts and friends that it’s ok to think ‘me, too’ and make their own health a priority!”
Sponsors included Amy Weber, South Texas Machining LLC; Angels Surviving Cancer, Inc.; Bob and Arita Nicholas; Charmingly Pink Breast Cancer Foundation; Councilmember Larry Green; Dee Coleman, State Farm Insurance; Dr. Joanie Hare; Eileen Campbell; Hon. Katherine Cabaniss; Dan Kroll in Memory of Deb Ellis,; Janine Moore, Principal; Peak Financial Group LLC; Kim Roxie, Lamik-Beauty; Law Office of Barbara Hudson; Rushmed Pharmacy; Rev. Francene Young, St. Luke Evangelist Episcopal Church; Tanglewood Wealth Management; The Childs Law Firm; The Luke Church Humble; Venise & Ron Richardson; Windsor Village United Methodist Church; Women Who Win, founded by Pastor Bridget Hilliard; and YWCA Houston.
