Bloom
As many of you know, my childhood best friend was a girl named Samantha McCarthy (S.M.). S.M. passed away on October 15, 2009, and I miss her every day. In her honor, her mom, Nikki, started Sam's Fans to support music and art therapy in Ohio hospitals. Every year, they have a fashion show called Thread of Hope (TOH).
Each year, TOH has a theme. The first TOH after Covid was branded as “The Rainbow After The Storm,” last year's was “Be Bold,” and this year's was “Bloom.” The Exchange at Bridge Park, where TOH is always held, was decorated with flowers as far as the eye could see. In Nikki's own words, “In the past year, we (Sam's Fans) have seen tremendous growth as a team, and it's all thanks to your invaluable support.” She went on to compare Sam's Fans to a garden, hence the theme. This theme is very timely to me as I am planning on planting my own seed… But we'll get to that in a second.
When I walked in, I talked to Nikki's best friend, Mandy, Allie, who is a friend of Mandy and Nikki and a member of the Sam's Fans board, Allie's husband Joe, Nikki's husband Dan, two of their kids, Finn and Jack, a few more members of their extended family, the social media director Averi, and S.M.’s best friend Kyra.
It was an amazing night. After Nikki and Miranda, the owner of Thread, started the night, the MC for the night started the auction. I'm always surprised at how fast auctioneers talk in real life. I know I’ve written that before, but it surprises me every year! Anyway, I forget the exact fundraising goal, but it was like $34,000-ish. They made over $100,000, though!
Directly after that, a video about the impact of Sam’s Fans was played. This video starred a girl named Alea Ramsey. Alia battled (and beat) cancer 8 times throughout her childhood. She got music therapy through Sam’s Fans, and she has a nonprofit called Bearing Hope. She also released a book called When Life Gives You Cancer! In the video, Nikki described the similarities between Alea and S.M., and there was not a dry eye in the room.
After that, the fashion show began, and as it was wrapping up, I searched for Mandy. She was talking to a group of people, and her mom was standing next to her. When her mom saw me clearly waiting, she directed Mandy to me.
“Hey,” I said, “I know this is not a good time, but I’m gonna send you a text tomorrow… I need to take you out to dinner. We have some things to discuss.”
“Ummm,” she started, “is everything Okay?”
“Oh yes!” I said quickly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to worry you. Everything’s fine, but you know me, I'm a planner, and I’m very dramatic!”
She laughed, remembering when I had secretly interviewed her a couple years ago when I was writing Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam. “Well,” Mandy said, smiling, “ I’m looking forward to your text!”
Have a Greattastic day, and be safe
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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