Ballantyne Magazine covers news, events, real estate, restaurants, shopping, health, schools and business in the upscale Ballantyne Area of Charlotte, NC.
Issue link: https://ballantynemagazine.epubxp.com/i/40584
BALLANTYNE | cover story Sue Dockstader (from left), Beth Freudenthal, Jeanne Puckett, Carol Aaron, Lee Lustig, Maria Logan, Janet DeCillis, Jean Rottmann and Terri W illiamson are among the Rally's leaders. "None of us realized when we fi rst started and it was this golf event that it would turn into something that has an effect on all of Charlotte," Terri Williamson says. 42 BALLANTYNE MAGAZINE no idea the money we raised went that far." Barracudas and Pink Bows And it's not just the scheduled events that raise money and awareness. Sponsorships, now fittingly called "partnerships," grew $30,000 from 2008 to 2009 alone. The Ballantyne Barracudas swim team raised more than $500 in June by selling pink snow cones at a swim meet. Post-event photo albums are sold, and BCC Rally Pink Pages are issued, convenient handbooks that list businesses that support the event and are distributed to more than 1,000 BCC member households. "We use the Pink Pages as a reference when we need to use a business for a service," DeCillis says. There's also the highly visible Pink Bow Campaign, run by meticulous Carol Aaron, who's been known to visit neighborhoods under the cover of darkness, fluffing and trimming errant bows. Leading up to BCC Rally week and left on display until the end of October, pink bows, $5 each, are sold and hand-tied by Rally members to donor mailboxes. Like the rest of the BCC Rally team, Aaron is humble about her contributions. "She thinks it's just this little piece of Rally," Williamson says about Aaron. "The pink bows first were tied on trees for golf registrants before it evolved to mailboxes," DeCillis recalls. "You received your bow and thought, 'What do I do with it?'" That's until Aaron received a pink bow tied to her mailbox CELEBRATING TEN YEARS 2000-2010 by Williamson. "I told Terri, 'I want to head that up next year,'" Aaron says. In 2007, pink bow sales netted $800. When Aaron first got involved in 2008, bows topped nearly every BCC mailbox and sales totaled $5,000. Last year, word got out. Pink bows spread in south Charlotte to Bridgehampton, Highgrove, Kensington and Rosecliff. Ardrey Kell High School students also sold some. Bows raised $12,000. "That's when it started to get interesting," Aaron says. Knowing she couldn't hand-cut many more bows, Aaron turned to Pink Bow Campaign member and BCC Rally Publicity Captain Sue Dockstader, who does business in China. The duo designed easy-to-assemble bows with their own fabric, bright pink and decked with breast cancer FALL 2010