We had some amazing volunteers helping out this weekend, Kayla, Kelly and Alli! Big thank you to all of them for giving up their weekend to help out! ALl in all it was a great weekend & we are excited for next year! If you are in or around Dallas, TX make sure to check out MusInk Dallas in April!!

xo
erica

We love facebook – mostly becuase we get to interact with people that are passionate about The Keep A Breast Foundation! Today Jake – an employee from Zumiez that we were able to meet at the 100k event posted this:

Just wanted to share this with you guys. I work at Zumiez in Utah and we sell the “boobie bracelets” at my store. I had a lady in my store with her two kids, her name is Karrie, when they came up to the counter her daugter saw the bracelets. I took it as a chance to tell them about KAB and as it turns out she has had breast for the last two years. She is still in stage four but is going through chemo. Two years ago her doctors told her she had three months to live!!! and she’s still rocking. She loved the bracelets and everything that KAB is doing. I just thought this was an amazing story and thought you guys would like to hear it. Here is a picture I took with her wearing our bracelets and representing!!!!

The Keep A Breast Foundation’s Treasured Chest program strives to give Newly Diagnosed Women a way to document their body and their feelings at a specific time in their treatment. In San Diego County, Keep A Breast foundation has partnered with several Spa’s to offer locations for recently diagnosed women to have a plaster cast of their breasts made  by a Keep A Breast Foundation trained casting expert. The Keep A Breast Foundation Breast Casts™ are part of KAB’s unique campaigns to use art and artistic expression to inform young people about methods of prevention, early detection, coping and support.

The Treasured Chest program, allows newly diagnosed women the opportunity to turn their casted torso into a beautiful piece of art. This awareness campaign is like no other, harnessing the power of art to communicate complex feelings and thoughts about health, the female form and ultimately about breast cancer. Combining sculpture, philanthropy, and symbolic artistry, the one-of-a-kind plaster forms of the female torso are customized by artists and given back to the castee to document a specific point in the breast cancer journey.

Newly diagnosed women may be facing a dramatic change to their female form resulting in the loss of a breast (mastectomy), partial removal of a breast (lumpectomy) or shrinkage of a breast caused by radiation. Others who are diagnosed with breast cancer will not have these procedures and the program is also designed to support these women. The psychological changes that accompany a breast cancer diagnosis are just as important as possible physical changes.

“I documented my cancer journey several ways: photography, journaling and after my mastectomy I was casted. I donated my cast to KAB and it is now used as an educational piece that I believe raises awareness and saves lives. I will forever be grateful to KAB for this opportunity.” – Miss Nixon

If you are interested in being cast we have one more opening on March  9^th at the Model Call Salon on 3741 Park Blvd in Hillcrest! As well as booking appointments for April at Bergamot Spa in Encinitas and for May at Rock A Betties in El Cajon.

Please email MissNixon@keep-a-breast.org to learn more!

xo
erica

SXSW Pure Volume HouseMarch 17 – March 21
504 Trinity Street St Austin, TX
SXSW Alternative Press Showcase March 18
Emo’s 603 Red River Austin, TX
KAB Presents the Madina Lake UK/Europe Tour March 25 – April 17
United Kingdom, France, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria & Italy
Bamboozle Left March 27 & 28
Los Angeles, CA
Angels & Airwaves Tour April 5 – May 30
US & Canada Tour
Bamboozle Right April 30 – May 2
East Rutherford, New Jersey
Coachella Festival April 16 – 18
Indio, CA
Country Throwdown Tour May12 – June 20th
US Warped Tour June 24 – Aug 15 ( www.warpedtour.com )
US & Canada

Rockville Center, New York

March 6th, 2010 At The Vibe Lounge

Doors 3:30pm

Organized by Thomas Angenbroich a 20 year old from Hicksville, NY -  when asked why he wanted to do a fundraiser for KAB he stated “We’re very grateful to work with The Keep A Breast Foundation and want to show our appreciation and our hard-working etiquette. We also have a lot of friends in bands whom have family members who have experienced breast cancer, and luckily overcome it as well. We know we can get a lot of people behind it and make it work.”

If you can’t make it to the show, but want to donate to the cause, you can go to the link below and support Keep A Breast through First Giving fundraising site! You can create your own fundraising page or donate to the link provided below. DONATE HERE!!

So please come visit us in the United Kingdom, France, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria & Italy!!

Click on the flyer for full size! Or check out their site on Pledge Music to get the full low down.

Music For Awareness show in Milford, Massachusetts
March 4th, 2010
At The Alamo
5 – 10pm

If you can’t make it to the show, but want to donate to the cause, you can go to the link below and support Keep A Breast through First Giving fundraising site! You can create your own fundraising page or donate to the link provided below.

DONATE HERE!! Click the flyer for full size version!

On this year’s Valentine’s Weekend, it was out of the question to do V-Day as usual! No flowers or dinner or red heart pillows on our bed! No! After packing the car, we headed to the Pyrenean ski resort of Saint- Lary for a two-days event dedicated to the ladies for the third edition of the Betty Jam, an 100%-girls contest, 18 passionate girls, aged from 8 to 25 came and the whole Keep A Breast Europe Team was there!

Keep A Breast Europe spreads the word of Breast Cancer prevention all over Europe and Idoia and Maia, two competitors from the Basque Country, understood the impact of our message and decided to ride wearing our KAB tee-shirts!

Our prevention message could be heard on the slopes: “Check Your Self”!

Keep A Breast Europe would like to thank the I’m a Girl Association for inviting us on the event.

See you next year!

Ely

Betty Jam 10 ‘, Saint- Lary, France.
Le weekend de la saint Valentin, hors de question de se plier aux règles ! Ni fleurs, ni repas en amoureux, direction les pistes des Pyrénées pour deux jours 100% snow entre filles.
Pour la troisième édition du Betty Jam, compétition réservée aux filles, le team Keep a Breast Europe était présent.
Sur le snow park, 18 nanas âgées de 8 à 25 ans passionnées par la glisse. En bas des pistes, deux stands, celui de Mountain riders, et le nôtre ! Tee-shirts, badges, bracelets, sticks pour les lèvres,… tout y était pour sensibiliser au maximum les skieurs venus nombreux ce jour-là.
Keep a Breast Europe s’installe lentement en Europe et tend à répandre la bonne parole autour du cancer du sein. Idoia et Maia, deux comépétitrices en provenance directe du Pays- Basque, ont compris le message et ont ainsi choisi de rider toute la journée avec un tee-shirt à notre effigie !
Un message de prévention résonnait sur les pistes… « Check Yourself ».
Keep a Breast Europe remercie toute l’équipe de l’association I’m a Girl, organisatrice de l’event Betty Jam depuis trois saisons déjà.
A l’année prochaine !
Ely

Upon leaving our tent, Lyn’s friend told us that Lyn only had a few days left to live, and if that is truly the case, we pray that it is not, she thanked us for making those last days brighter.

Lyn came back the next day and bought that piece via our silent auction and has this to say:

” I am breast cancer survivor for 8 years. I have advanced breast cancer with bone metasteses. I am honored to have won ” Mel’s Boobs” and to be able to display them in my home. I am totally in love with my tribe (women). Thank you Keep A Breast.
Lyn Mills 1 March 2010 . Roxy Pro Gold Coast

he Keep A Breast Foundation has received many letters, emails, Facebook comments and other communication from people wanting to talk about our I Love Boobies campaign. Some are upset that they are being banned, and some want to talk about their message. We fully understand the I Love Boobies Campaign is not for everyone; however, we also feel that “boobies” is not a four-letter word.

Keep A Breast’s target audience is teenagers. Across the nation, health classes are being cut, P.E. scaled back, and art and music are nearly non-existent. We think these are pivotal ways of teaching this group health, self confidence, and creative expression.

We feel the best way to reach, educate and impact teenagers in an authentic way is by giving them important, possibly life-saving information at places they already frequent: concerts and action sports-related events and partnerships with brands and stores they already shop at/for.  We reach out to young people with the help of supporters like pro surfers, artists, skateboarders and musicians. These ambassadors are role models and leaders for today’s youth. The Keep A Breast team helps us spread the word about breast cancer prevention, body image, early detection, and the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.

We pass out hundreds of thousands of Breast Self Exam cards each year to young people explaining exactly why loving your body is important and explaining the relationship between body image and breast cancer.  We encourage you to visit and read our health page.

We talk to young ladies everyday about how important it is to appreciate, respect and love their breasts and themselves. Our message is to increase awareness among young people so they are better equipped to make choices and develop habits to benefit their long term heath, and we believe loving your body is a huge step in doing so.

Many young women develop a negative attitude towards their breasts and put energy into criticizing them or wishing they were different somehow. We work closely with our ambassadors to promote a healthy body type. They are all amazing athletes in surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and female musicians that are breaking boundaries based on talent. You can read more on our team page.

We also talk with young men who are dealing with family members or friends being affected by breast cancer. For many, pink ribbons don’t resonate with them, and talking about breasts is taboo. Though Keep A Breast Foundation, they have found an outlet to express themselves, educate themselves about changes they can make to live a healthy lifestyle and connect with people that are going through the same emotions.

We have 8 years of success and testimonies from young people all over the world who have visited our “traveling education booth” and learned how to examine their breasts, then later find a cancerous lump.  Because they met Keep A Breast they found the lump early, they have a much better survival rate. Nearly three million people visit our site every month to learn healthy tips, ways of support, express their inner feelings, make connections with others and learn coping strategies helpful to them and their loved ones.

Thank you so much for visiting our website. Please poke around. We like it.

xoxo Keep A Breast