We are happy to report that, through your efforts as Blue Hydrangea Tea Party hostesses, we raised nearly $4000 for various ovarian cancer awareness agencies in our inaugural year of Blue Hydrangea Tea Party! As most of you already know, Blue Hydrangea Tea Party is a fundraising vehicle for agencies who work to educate women about ovarian cancer. We coordinate tea parties across the country, with the proceeds of each party going directly to the ovarian cancer agency designated by the hostess. We are not a charity ourselves; we simply serve as a fundraising tool for these agencies. This past year, we registered parties that supported The National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, The Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry, and The South Carolina Ovarian Cancer Foundation. These agencies were the beneficiaries of tea parties held in California, New York, and South Carolina. This year, we have already registered hostesses in Illinois, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and South Carolina for the event on May 12, 2007.

The process is simple….At our website, we register each hostess and the agency she wishes to be the beneficiary of her tea party. The hostess downloads our official Blue Hydrangea Tea Party invitations, mails them to her guests, and holds her tea party on the event day. Blue Hydrangea Tea Party guests make donations in the form of individual checks written out to the agency chosen by their hostess to be the beneficiary of the party. Each check should include the words “Blue Hydrangea Tea Party” on the memo line. The hostess mails all of the checks to the designated agency and reports her total to us for our records. If you are just learning of us, please visit our website, www.bluehydrangeateaparty.org, to learn more and to register to serve as a Blue Hydrangea Tea Party hostess to raise awareness for ovarian cancer! We are excited to tell you that this year we have plans to broaden the scope of our efforts to include research, along with awareness. We are updating our website to include new links, as well. Stay tuned for more opportunities to support research!

Our mission is to bring about a general awareness of ovarian cancer, to make women aware of possible subtle symptoms of the disease, and to foster research for early detection of ovarian cancer……In short, we want to serve as a unifying tool for the cause of ovarian cancer awareness and research! This is a labor of love for us and something we do as a living memorial to my sister, Ann Camp McCune, who died from the disease. We know that this is a devastating diagnosis - in many cases diagnosed in the late stage. It’s going to take ALL of us to bring ovarian cancer awareness into the national spotlight that breast cancer awareness enjoys.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Jennie Camp Hudgins, Co-Coordinator

Blue Hydrangea Tea Party