Press Releases
ATLANTA — September 7, 2011 — The American Cancer Society, the official sponsor of birthdays, today announced the Grand Prize Winners of the organization’s highly successful Create More Birthdays Contest & Sweepstakes. The art winner, Marilyn Brown from Yellville, AK, and the music winner, Jessi Hardin from Huntingtown, MD, were selected by public vote from a pool of more than one hundred entries and won the opportunity to join renowned artists and entertainers like Rihanna, Celine Dion, Eric Carle and Masha D’yans in support of the Society’s mission to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.
Brown’s multi-media artwork of three cancer awareness ribbons and Hardin’s rendition of “Happy Birthday” accompanied by her own piano are now featured alongside Jack Johnson, Andy Gilmore, Darius Rucker and Weezer in the Society’s More Birthdays gallery on morebirthdays.com. These winning entries are also featured in a wide range of online products for download, such as e-cards, available starting today to help raise money to save more lives from cancer. Hardin’s music will also be featured in American Cancer Society’s nationwide advertising campaign, while Brown’s artwork will be featured on TinyPrints.com in their exclusive American Cancer Society card collection.
Marilyn Brown’s multi-media artwork, “More Birthdays Because of Women's Screen,” was inspired by the American Cancer Society fact “We fight for millions of women to get the cancer screenings they need.” In her acrylic and pastel chalk painting, Brown depicted three cancer awareness ribbons – one each for gynecological cancer, breast cancer, and all cancers – and said, “The American Cancer Society fights for all women to get their cancer screenings!”
Jessi Hardin’s musical entry, “Jessi Sings Happy Birthday,” was inspired by the American Cancer Society fact “Research that the Society supports has helped more children survive childhood leukemia.” Hardin dedicated her entry to her former voice teacher, a breast cancer survivor, and explained that she created it to “send a message of encouragement in the way that I love most, and that is through singing.”
“We are thrilled to congratulate Marilyn and Jessi on their winning art and music entries in the Create More Birthdays Contest,” said Terry Music, Chief Mission Officer, American Cancer Society. “These artists embody the fresh talent and inspired creativity we were searching for when we started this campaign, and we look forward to including their work in our More Birthdays movement.”
The American Cancer Society’s More Birthdays movement is dedicated to creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays – through decades of scientific research, advocacy, patient support and much more. With more work like this and your help, we can create even more celebrations and more birthdays for all. To get involved in the movement, visit www.morebirthdays.com.
About the American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well be preventing cancer or detecting it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; and by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass law to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing more than $3.5 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it would be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Busola Afolabi, American Cancer Society, 404-417-5894
Busola.Afolabi@cancer.org
Kate Taylor
Brodeur Partners on behalf of American Cancer Society, 617-587-2010
ktaylor@brodeur.com