Oral Cancer Walk (and 5K run)

I'm the Pinellas County Dental Hygiene Association president, so occasionally you'll see oral health related posts like this one.  My friend Kimmeuy just graduated, but has done most of the prep work as a student - amazing! 

We're putting on the
FIRST-EVER-IN-FLORIDA
oral cancer
awareness walk. 

Did you know that Oral Cancer is often called the silent killer?  By the time it's found, it's often too late.  This is a fund raiser with free oral cancer screenings and we will not only raise money for the Oral Cancer Foundation, but we will raise your awareness.
We're doing a competitive 5K with awards for age groups (we'll take your age when you sign in), and a fun 1 mile walk/run.  We decided that kids should be free.  Leashed pets are also welcome!  There's no excuse not to go:)  You can buy extra Tshirts (since this IS a fund raiser) for $10 for the kids or people who just want to go to the health fair part or for souvenirs.  ALL of the proceeds will go to the Oral Cancer Foundation. 

So, we're looking for participants, but more importantly, we're also looking for big sponsors!  And for vendors who want to give freebies in the goodie bags or treats etc.  Even a friend who owns some Dunkin' Donuts stores is going to provide coffee and/or bagels and/or donuts for us.  At first I thought that a donut place would be ironic for this, but now I see that anybody could be involved!

We're looking for other health care providers to set up a table to offer other screenings or just pass out their pamphlets.  We're looking for people who want to sponsor with money for their names to be on the shirts, bags, banners, etc.  Do you know of anybody?  Do you want to participate? 
You can also join our facebook event for updates.
The registration forms and letter can be found on our www.PCDHA.com website or click below:

The participant form

The sponsor letter

The sponsor form

feel free to print and distribute to your patients, clients, friends, family members, etc. Put them on your desk or counter or take them to the networking lunches you go to.  Save the picture in this post and link to http://www.pcdha.org/ if you want some new flare for your website/blog!  All this info is under our calendar on that home page.  (And you're invited to my networking meeting I'm going to hold before our next general PCDHA meeting Oct 7th - the info is also on the home page there.)

It's on Ft. Desoto Beach, so you know you want to make a whole beach day out of it - Ft. Desoto always wins the awards for best beaches ever and top beaches in the US etc.

"I'm just a girl who cain't say no . . .

. . . I'm in a terrible fix."

I'm from Oklahoma, so I've seen this play, "Oklahoma," a couple of times.  I can picture Chrissy belting this song out wondering why I don't know the words.  (I was home schooled but her school did the production each year.)  I keep singing this song to myself lately.  Not about the kissing boys back part, but I'm going to be the Pinellas County Dental Hygiene Association president again.  It's good, but I feel like I've been there, done that, will still stay involved, but there's just a LOT of late night emailing and presentation forming and meeting announcing and planning involved.  It's all easy, but is busy work.  I needed busy work when I volunteered last year.  Isaac wasn't a newborn any more, I wasn't the church young women organization's president any more, and was feeling the deep desire to serve.  This year I feel like I serve pleanty, and there are other areas where I could be of more use.  The truth is, if I weren't busy with PCDHA stuff, I'm sure I'd fill it with something else.  I was and am happy with that decision a year ago, but realize that
I'm just a girl who

                               cain't


                                           say


                                                            no. 

"I aint the type that can faint, how can I be what I aint?"

changing of the guard

We had our first official general PCDHA meeting. I think it was a success! My favorite part was being able to present the past president with a plaque for her service. I still email her lots for answers to random questions that come up. This job is a bit more time consuming than I had imagined, but it's at a perfect time for me. I really like the opportunity I have to have more of a hand in things. I'm learning more about my profession and even more about the hard working registered dental hygienists who spend time not only with their patients, but in the association, our community, politically, etc. I like not having to go out and look for service opportunities, there are plenty with in the dental field (and church, and with friends of course.)

So . . .

I've been feeling like I'm just a mom lately- not that there's anything wrong with that, but I feel like I'm not living up to my potential. It's a personal thing, (I haven't been in school for a while, I felt like a student for a looooooooong time). When we lived in St. Pete, I was the president of the young women (youth group) for church for a year and a half. Before that, I was in the presidency and working with the youth lots. That took up a lot of time. Now that I moved to a different congregation's boundaries, I'm a Sunday School teacher for the sweet 3 and 4yr olds. Of course I do prep work, but that doesn't take as much out of me, it feels like what I do every day.

So . . . . Now that Isaac's 1, I'm feeling the urge to volunteer more. It's a pain b/c it's sooooooo hard to get a babysitter. Even Steven's been working 14 hour days (honestly getting there at 6am and leaving at 11pm b/c of his promotion.) On the weekends, he's been fixing up his mom's house. So . . . . . I volunteered to be the president of our local component's dental hygiene association! I'm the Pinellas County Dental Hygiene Association's (PCDHA) President as of last night! I can do a lot of the work late at night on my computer, but I'll be a little more in touch with other local hygienists. I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into but the past presidents have been so good and are leaving me with a well oiled machine. We even have $ in our budget and lots of chair members for our different community service projects! Since 2003, I've been a student member then a board member. I love being a Registered Dental Hygienist! (Part-time of course, b/c I like doing lots of things at once.)