Dorothy: [00:00:00] What does a golf tournament, a mini bass boat, a Shrimp Boil, and breast cancer have to do with each other? If you ever wondered how the annual Shrimp Boil fundraiser for The Rose got started and why it has lasted for 35 years, you’ll hear today on this episode of Let’s Talk About Your Breast. When you subscribe to our show, you help us grow. Someone you know may need to hear this story. So please, share with your family and friends. And consider supporting our mission. Your donation can help save the life of an uninsured woman.
Let’s Talk About Your Breast. A different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose. The 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.[00:01:00]
Shannon: So I’ve been doing the Shrimp Boil for almost nine years now. You’ve been doing a lot longer.
Dorothy: Yes. Just a few years.
Shannon: So tell me about some of the early days.
Dorothy: Well the strip ball started because this was like when we first started The Rose. In fact, I was still working at Bayshore.
Shannon: Oh, okay. She wasn’t a full time— ok.
Dorothy: I was volunteering all my time to keep The Rose.
Shannon: How many employees were The Rose?
Dorothy: Three. Maybe four. We might have grown to four. And I wasn’t an employee yet, so I didn’t count. But my husband, my ex, was out playing golf, which, that’s why he’s my ex, but he was playing golf that day. I didn’t even know he was out doing this tournament. It was the Mickey Gillies Tournament.
Shannon: Okay, well.
Dorothy: For the drug program. Stop. Drugs, you know, it was one of those special programs,
Shannon: D. A. R. E.
Dorothy: Yes, it was, it was to support D. A. R. E. And he’s out there playing golf and he had a hole in one [00:02:00] and the prize was an 18 foot small mini bass boat.
Shannon: Okay, okay.
Dorothy: And so, uh, he was a scratch, uh, golfer, so, you know, hole in one were not unusual for him, but this time he actually won something. So he came home, now, he was not a, uh, I certainly wasn’t going to be using that. And so he kept saying, let’s just donate it to The Rose. We need to use it somehow to raise some money for The Rose. And back then, you know, our budget was, oh my gosh, nothing. I don’t, I don’t even think we had hit the $5,000 year, a year mark yet.
So we were really, really short. And so, um, You know, you gotta remember, I’m still working, full time.
Shannon: Right, full time.
Dorothy: And, and, uh, this man, bless his heart, truly. He, he was very generous, he loved The Rose. And he, he would bug me to death. You know, what are you gonna do with that boat? What are you gonna do with that boat? So, uh, I took the [00:03:00] idea to the support group. Okay, we’d been doing the support group for about three years. No, this was The Rose Garden.
Shannon: Rose Garden. Okay.
Dorothy: Yeah, it was our very first one. And husbands came then. It was really interesting. You know, they’re back coming again more with women. But back then, the husbands were always there.
Shannon: Oh wow, okay.
Dorothy: And Jim Anderson and Marcia were there and Marsha was the best looking, oh my gosh, she was gorgeous, and Jim had this personality you wouldn’t believe. And I come in there, I drag in there, and I’m going, you know, we got this boat. And, and honestly, that’s probably how I said it, because I was so tired of hearing about it. But Jim goes, you got a boat? I said, yeah. And he said, well, we could do a raffle for that. Now, this doesn’t sound like much now. But he said, we could charge five dollars a ticket. I said, five dollars a ticket? Nobody will ever spend five dollars a ticket. Good Lord! Because our raffle was one dollar and you got three chances to win something.[00:04:00]
So he goes, no, we can do that. Well, Jim and Marsha had quite a, uh, active social life. And so they took those tickets to everywhere they went. Every party, every bar, every place they went and lo and behold they had raised something like $5,000 just doing that.
Shannon: So the whole budget.
Dorothy: I was going, oh my gosh, here we are, this is, this is fabulous. And then he said, now we gotta have an event around it. And I go, okay. And so they came up with the Shrimp Boil idea.
Shannon: Wow.
Dorothy: Now, how we went from a bass boat to a Shrimp Boil? Well, I’m not sure, but we started at the SPJST hall, and you know, that’s a, uh, special grand hall here in, in, in Pasadena. Uh, the first time we did not have bear the first time he came the second year, but the first time we had almost a thousand people there.
Shannon: Okay. Wow.
Dorothy: So this is how it was different then. We had it on a Sunday. We had it, [00:05:00] it went on for eight hours. We had, people came from church. They came and picked up, uh, stuff and the others stayed until about eight o’clock.
Shannon: It was a come and go.
Dorothy: It was a come and go.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: And we had four different bands that played that night and people danced and, I mean, it was an all day affair. A little different than now.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: A little different. But from there, Jim continued to be our main chef with his friends for almost ten years. And then we had a shift, and then Mark Meeker came in. So, uh, Jim and Marshall moved away, but they were there to celebrate our 25th Shrimp Boil, they were there to celebrate, you know.
Shannon: They were, yeah, they were in the Hall of Fame. They were there when we did the 30th.
Dorothy: They are very special to us. He served on the board. I mean, these were our beginning years.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: But it was the Shrimp Boil that always let us make budget at the end of our fiscal year. I mean, that was what made it so special. It was like, oh my gosh, how are we going to do it this year?
How are [00:06:00] we going to use it? We always had it in June, July, and our end of our fiscal year is July 31st. And it, it was like, that was what kept us afloat. It was even back in the 80s. People got it. They got it that, you know, if we don’t join together and help each other, we’re not going to get through this time, and that time was tough.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: It was a very tough time. So, yeah, that’s how the Shrimp Boil began. I don’t know if you know the other story. After about 10 years, I thought, Man, we’ve had enough of this shrimp. I mean, you know, we need to do something different.
Shannon: Right.
Dorothy: Non profits were coming up in the world, you know, and nobody did a Shrimp Boil. I mean, come on. And, uh, so I threw it out. Stupid that I am— to the committee and said don’t we need something else, a barbeque or a gala or a dinner. I got overruled immediately and from then on it has been the Shrimp Boil.
Shannon: Well, I can tell you that there’s something about it that’s special. There’s something that I know is an event. Events come and [00:07:00] go. We used to have the Bikers event for 10 years and that came up and then now we do Hats and Henna. And, but I can tell you what will never go, it’s our Shrimp Boil. It just can’t. It can’t. I, you know, I wouldn’t survive if there would be a hit out if I made that decision, but it just, it can’t because it, from you talking in the beginning, the beginning of The Rose was community helping community. Insured, well, from the insured woman to donations of however they came in back in the early days. And that’s what the Shrimp Boil is.
Dorothy: That is it.
Shannon: It’s such a community event. It’s such a community event.
Dorothy: And it is so, I mean, those first few years, and still today, we’ll see our sponsored women come in. Now, nobody knows they’re sponsored except me or, you know, some of the staff. But they’d be bringing in their cakes.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: Or they’d be bringing in something for the, the, uh, the silent auction. And you know, that silent auction, even today, has something for everyone.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: You can find something for $25. You can find something for $2,000.
Shannon: We, yeah.
Dorothy: But it’s, it’s a range there. And I was just always touched, amazed, how so many of our [00:08:00] patients came back to help us. You know, that’s, that’s the other magic of our community is they understand, you know, when we help them, they were just down on their luck. It’s a time anybody could be in.
Shannon: Absolutely.
Dorothy: And once they get back over it, then they’re right there to help that next woman.
Shannon: Well, you know our cake story about $2,500. The person who really wanted that cake, I don’t know if you know this, was Marisol’s husband. So Marisol, who’s been on the podcast, one of our survivors who needed help when she was single and in college, and of course didn’t have insurance as a college student, and um, in a different position in life now, and she and her husband come, they donate the photo booth when they’re available.
So, uh, but they came that year and he wanted that cake plate. And that’s what drove that price up because the other person really wanted that cake plate and that’s what drove that price up.
Dorothy: Oh, I didn’t know.
Shannon: I ended up making him a second cake plate.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Shannon: Because I knew who made it and he wanted that but it was Marisol. So they again coming back, coming back in a different phase in life and [00:09:00] wanted to give back to The Rose.
Dorothy: I want to tell you their photos are so good. We were there for Our 65th birthday and both Patrick and I are same age and took that photo. That is photography company quality. It’s just beautiful. And I used it in all of our Christmas stuff. I mean, it’s really first class. So once again, you know, another example of how our ladies have. We’re there, to help us help the next one when we were there.
Shannon: A lot of them come and volunteer. That’s what they can do.
Dorothy: That’s what they can do.
Shannon: And they come and volunteer because that’s what they can do. Um, so yeah.
Dorothy: Well Shannon, you always said if you want to see what the work of The Rose is, come to the Shrimp Boil.
Shannon: I say that every time. In that room, and I don’t know the percentage, but it’s a large percentage is someone that we helped when they needed it. Someone that was uninsured. Um, or their family.
Dorothy: Or their family members. Yeah.
Shannon: Or their family members have come in to help. So if someone maybe be lost. So if you wanna meet someone that we’ve helped, they’re in that room.
Dorothy: They’re [00:10:00] in that room.
Shannon: They’re in that room, absolutely.
Dorothy: So tell us again, where can we find We tables or how much?
Shannon: Start at four hundred dollars.
Dorothy: Okay.
Shannon: Um for a table, which again I recommend because it’s reserved. So you’re you have a place to sit you’re not trying to to scramble and you can get up and you can kind of come And go and enjoy all the Shrimp Boil has to offer Um, so you go to TheRose.org/ShrimpBoil and you can get tickets and tables there Um, we may be selling t shirts later. That would be on the site as well Um, but yeah And we’re designing those because it’s an 80s theme, as we said earlier, so we’re doing a special t shirt for that too, so.
Dorothy: It’s back to the 80s?
Shannon: Back to the 80s.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh.
Shannon: Where we started.
Dorothy: Yeah, yeah. Okay, and it is what date and where?
Shannon: It is Saturday, June 22nd, and it’s at the Pasadena Convention Center, so you can’t miss it.
Dorothy: We don’t recommend it, but you could come the day of.
Shannon: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Dorothy: It’s just, you know, you get a, if you get your table, you’re guaranteed.
Shannon: It’s inside, so you don’t have to worry about weather.
Dorothy: It’s inside.
Shannon: It’s inside, [00:11:00] so go ahead and get your table set and reserved, um, because it is inside. And so that’s great.
Dorothy: Plenty to do. Plenty of ways to help.
Shannon: Listen to great music. Just hang out with your friends. That’s what my friends do, they all get a table and they just hang out and have a good time.
Dorothy: So this 80’s theme, are we going to have 80’s music too?
Shannon: 80? Of course. The DJ already knows.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh.
Shannon: He’s all set for 80’s. Our team is all ready for 80’s. There’s probably some 80’s auction baskets happening. In fact, we had some Def Leppard stuff donated to us. Coincidentally this year, and I’m like, well this isn’t perfect timing for the theme.
Dorothy: Oh, absolutely.
Shannon: Um, so we’ve got some guitar picks and special stuff from them that we’ll have in the auction, so.
Dorothy: Super.
Shannon: Yeah, so it’s gonna be fun. It’s, it’s always fun, let’s just be clear. It’s always a good time, but it’s fun when we have a theme and we can all have fun with it too.
Dorothy: And it started with a—
Shannon: And celebrate where we started.
Dorothy: Yeah. started with a boat. $5 raffle ticket. And a local Pasadena won it. I think he’s still around. We’ve been trying to find him so we can celebrate those people that were right there at the beginning. Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon: Yeah. In fact, [00:12:00] if you were back at the beginning, we’d love to have you.
Dorothy: Oh yeah.
Shannon: God, let us know you’re coming.
Dorothy: Absolutely. Yeah.
Shannon: That would be a joy. Yeah. It’s all right. It’s, it’s fun. It’s like you’ve said from the minute, probably when I was in my interview, you know, but even before I started was that it’s like a family reunion with just 800 people.
Dorothy: Right.
Shannon: You know.
Dorothy: Closest and dearest friends.
Shannon: Yeah.
Dorothy: Yes.
Shannon: Right. Nearest and dearest.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Shannon: And that’s what it feels like because everyone comes with their groups of folks and they’re all connected to The Rose and support The Rose for various reasons. So, yeah.
Dorothy: All right. I’ll see you there.
Shannon: I’ll be there.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is produced by Speke Podcasting and brought to you by The Rose. Visit therose.org to learn more about our organization, subscribe to our podcast, share episodes with friends, and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember, self care is not selfish. It’s [00:13:00] essential.
