The highlight of last year may have been the Naughty Nurses. Cochnar gathered a group of actual registered nurses who dressed in pink wigs and pink bathing suits under their nurse uniform. They served specialty pink shots complimentary from the bar and then started the fashion show with a strut down the catwalk. When they reached the end, they took their three forefingers, worked their way around their pink bras, and instructed the audience on the proper way to do a breast exam.
The first year, Cochnar was able to raise $6,000 in donations from her mother’s family and supporters, which was matched by Charles Schwab & Co. And three years later, by 2006, donations nearly doubled to $11,000.
Last year, Juliana saved $600 to put back into her new organization, in order to get business cards and have a little leftover for extra costs for the 2007 event. This year, she was offered a job as the Participant Representative at Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Her task was to do outreach to corporations and individuals to get them signed up and participate in the walk or through corporate funding. On the day that she was offered the job, Cochnar was trying to decide if she could afford the cut in salary to take the position. The $600 leftover from Beats for Boobs and a sign helped her make the decision. “This woman called me from Marin [County]. The woman had heard about me from all of the money I had raised for breast cancer, and she had just been diagnosed the day before, so I took it as a sign that I should accept the job.” She then used part of that $600 to send the woman in Marin a gorgeous floral arrangement of pink flowers.
When Cochnar now goes to Avon recruitment events, she incorporates her story. “At my first event, some women lingered afterward and said, ‘Oh my god, you have to weave in your personal story [about her mother and Beats for Boobs].’” It’s what inspired the women to fundraise and create their own team for this year’s walk. It’s what inspired another woman to do the walk because a smaller service within Avon brought her mother a beautiful wig to her home just when she needed it. “I want to be able to reach out to individual women and give them what they need, just like that.” And if Cochnar continues with the way she’s been doing it, I’m sure she won’t have any problem making that happen. ----------------------
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