As the 2023 Celebrating Women Luncheon Chair Ola Fojtasek and committee members like Margo Goodwin, Carol Seay, Angie Kadesky, the Sherrill sisters (Kristi Hoyl and Melissa Martin) hunkered down at Margaret Hancock‘s dining-room table adding notes to Luncheon invitations, word was that this year’s keynoter would be a gal who cut her musical teeth in Texas and amazed the world with her talents at the age of 13 back in 1995.
Ola and Celebrating Women Luncheon Underwriting Chair Amanda Shufeldt have just now confirmed what had been rumored for days weeks. The keynoter for the Baylor Scott And White Dallas Foundation‘s fundraiser on Monday, October 30, at the Hilton Anatole will be singer LeAnn Rimes.
Needless to say, LeAnn’s trophy room is crowded with two Grammys, 12 Billboard Music Awards, two World Music Awards, three Academy of Country Music Awards, two Country Music Association Awards, one Dove Award and the 2022 ASCAP Golden Note Award as a result to her selling more than 48M units globally.
But there’s another side to her life besides her professional success. LeAnn has been a longtime advocate for health. In addition to her own painful battle with psoriasis over the years, the 5’5″ singer has literally taken a stand when is comes to cancer. In 2008 she joined 15 other female singers performing “Just Stand Up” to raise funds for the American Association for Cancer Research and Stand Up to Cancer. And that advocacy has continued through a variety of PSAs encouraging people, especially women, to be tested for the deadly disease.
As she told E! News, “It’s important to know your risks for cancer, especially breast cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths for U.S. women. By taking the pledge, you are also taking a step toward prevention and early detection — which are both key in the fight against cancer.”
She even went so far as to post on Instagram a topless photo of herself on “No Bra Day” in 2017 with the message, “Every 19 seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with breast cancer. Each year, the survival rate is increasing thanks to early diagnosis. Let’s keep this going and raise as much awareness as possible for #NoBraDay2017 #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth.
LeAnn is living proof that one doesn’t have to have breast cancer to be part of the war against the disease.
For her appearance at the luncheon, LeAnn will chat with last year’s moderator media vet/breast cancer survivor René Syler, whose parents both had breast cancer.
In Texas alone, more than 20,000 women are diagnosed annually with breast cancer. Thanks to the Luncheon’s raising “more than $38 million over the past 23 years, Baylor Scott and White Health has been able to make significant investments in patient-centered care, advanced technology and innovative research to better serve patients battling this disease.”
Sponsorships and tickets are available here. And after you have your place locked down and shopped for that new outfit, don’t forget to schedule your mammogram here.