Beyond Boobs! Calendar Wins National Awards
Williamsburg, VA (PRWEB) March 19, 2014 -- For the second year in a row, Williamsburg-based nonprofit Beyond Boobs! was recognized with several National Calendar Awards from the Calendar Marketing Association (CMA) for its annual calendar, which features breast cancer survivors. Beyond Boobs! received two Gold Awards and one Silver Award for its 2014 calendar, titled “Double Exposure.”
“Double Exposure” received a Gold Award for “Most Informative” in its category, a Gold Award for “Most Original,” and a Silver Award for “Best Non-Profit.” A panel of calendar industry professionals judged entries in the National Calendar Awards based on overall excellence in each of the categories. Award levels were Gold, Silver and Bronze.
"Winning awards like the CMA's Most Informative and Best Non-Profit are an affirmation of the health value of A Calendar to Live By for all women,” said Mary Beth Gibson, co-founder of Beyond Boobs! “The Most Original award shows how blessed this project was to have the talents of photographer, Brian Freer, and graphic designer, Tracie Hawks."
Brian Freer, Beyond Boobs! board member and publisher for The Health Journals, was the photographer for both award-winning calendars.
“I am so thrilled about these awards,” he said. “I’m very proud of the work and of everyone involved; it was really a team effort. The awareness and recognition from this will allow Beyond Boobs! to educate and help more women.”
In “Double Exposure,” Freer used a camera technique that layered two photos in the same frame – called a double exposure – that served as a metaphor for the journey breast cancer patients undertake from the moment they are diagnosed.
“I was taking pictures of my daughter and playing around with the multiple exposure feature when I thought about the idea of double exposure, and about how it relates to women with breast cancer,” Freer said. “They expose themselves both physically and mentally to this new journey.”
Freer talked to each calendar model and used her unique experience and personality as the driving forces behind each photograph.
“Double exposure is about taking two disparate photos and putting them together to create one image,” said Holly Siegle, Ms. February 2014. “The same can be said about living after having breast cancer. You have the time before diagnosis and the time after, and you have to figure out how to put both times together to create your life now.”
Each year, Beyond Boobs! features breast cancer survivors and their stories in its calendar, which is also filled with practical health information, and it also serves as a primary funding source for the nonprofit’s many support and education programs.
"The calendar is our chief educational tool and was the catalyst to become a nonprofit (in order to fund it) seven years ago,” Gibson said. “We started as just a small support group of young women on the Peninsula who came together to be there for one another through breast cancer. When we discovered that many of our young women’s diagnoses were delayed solely because their doctors believed they were too young to have this disease, we knew we had to get the word out that women of any age (and men!) can develop breast cancer. Such delays can be deadly."
Rene Bowditch, also a Beyond Boobs! co-founder, said, "the calendar is a way to show that even young women can have breast cancer by featuring our young survivors and to share 'the things we wish we had known' by packing it full of lifesaving information.”
For its 2013 calendar Beyond Boobs! won a Gold Award for “Most Informative” and two Bronze Awards for “Best Non-Profit” and “Best Graphic Design.”
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Beyond Boobs! is dedicated to healing and saving lives by supporting young women diagnosed with breast cancer while providing breast health education for all. The nonprofit has 11 chapters in locations across Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Each year, Beyond Boobs! publishes its A Calendar to Live By! featuring models who are breast cancer survivors. The calendar shares the women’s stories and also offers important breast health information. For more information about Beyond Boobs! visit http://www.beyondboobs.org/.
The Calendar Marketing Association was founded in 1989 to represent the interests of designers, marketers, publishers, printers and suppliers of both retail and custom calendars; the organization provides a host of programs and services to the industry and sponsors the annual calendar awards.
Stephanie Heinatz, Consociate Media, +1 757.713.2199, [email protected]
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