Country music artist Skip Ewing embraces his daughter, Rebecca, after their run in the celebrity ski race. Rebecca not only beat her dad but had a time of 19 seconds – better than many adults in the contest. (photo by Cynthia Manley)
Rockies trip raises money, spirits to aid Cancer Center
Chely Wright reacts to the news that she and her colleagues at the Forest Queen won the celebrity bartending competition by a margin of more than 2-1. The Forest Queen brought in over $40,000 toward the total of $70,000 raised in the event. (photo by Cynthia Manley)
Mandy Barnett (left) and Chely Wright get some help from 7-year-old Rebecca Ewing on "Rocky Top" during the celebrity bartending competition. Rebecca started the bidding to hear the song with $26.25, all that was left of her "Christmas money." (photo by Cynthia Manley)
From left, Susan Holt (VICC director of development), Frances Preston (CEO of BMI and member of the VICC board), and Orrin Ingram (chair of the VICC board and the Imagine a World Without Cancer Campaign) enjoy the festivities. (photo by Cynthia Manley)
Singer/songwriter Lari White celebrates making it through the gates in the celebrity ski race. (photo by Cynthia Manley)
Mt. Crested Butte, Colo. – Nearly 300 people gathered in this southwestern Colorado resort town last week to share their love of the slopes and country music during the seventh annual Country in the Rockies.
As usual, they had a blast at the celebrity ski-and-music event that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to support the work of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
But the cause that brought them to the mountains was never far from their hearts. The group learned from Drs. Barbara Murphy, Mace Rothenberg and Harold Moses about ongoing efforts at Vanderbilt-Ingram to find new and better ways to treat and prevent cancer – and the importance of the event’s support. As importantly, the group often saw first-hand how real people have been touched by the disease.
Dave Robbins and Henry Paul of the group Blackhawk brought greetings from their friend and bandmate Van Stephenson, who is battling melanoma.
Southern rock icon Charlie Daniels introduced one of his bandmates, Brian Brown, as a walking example of how cancer can be beaten. Brown is now cancer free after two bouts with the disease.
Three-year Country in the Rockies participant Diane Sine told how her perspective about the cause had changed since she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year. Sporting a white hat to cover her head still bald from treatment, Sine said that her love of country music initiated her attendance, but her devotion to helping fund research will keep her coming back.
And singer Kathy Mattea reported that her father, John, is still undergoing chemotherapy for advanced stage colon cancer, but that he feels good and is on the golf course almost everyday.
Mattea, Robbins and Paul expressed gratitude for the health care teams at Vanderbilt-Ingram who took care of their loved ones, for the scientists and doctors working hard to find new therapies, and for the generosity of those who help support that work.
“Cancer is so everywhere,” Mattea said. “The idea that people in this room are talking about cures for cancer just blows me away. I am so thankful for everything the doctors at Vanderbilt have done, and I’m thankful to everyone who’s ever given a dollar to the cause.”
Featuring celebrity ski races, concerts, and silent and live auctions, Country in the Rockies raises funds for the T.J. Martell Foundation and the foundation’s Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at Vanderbilt-Ingram. It will be several weeks before this year’s fund-raising total is tallied. However, if the success of one of the most popular events – the fiercely competitive celebrity bartending contest – is any indication, this year’s Country in the Rockies will be every bit as successful as previous years. That contest alone brought in more than $70,000 – almost double last year’s take.
A large group of Vanderbilt representatives (and their spouses and other family) made the trip this year. They included: Moses, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center; Vanderbilt-Ingram physicians Murphy, Rothenberg, and Dr. Joseph Smith; Colleen Conway Welch, Ph.D., dean of the Vanderbilt School of Nursing; Dr. Mark Magnuson, assistant vice chancellor for Research; Norman Urmy, executive vice president for Clinical Affairs; Susan Holt, Vanderbilt-Ingram’s director of Development; and Christy Passmore, associate executive director of Medical Center Development. Emma Underwood – of Emma’s Hair Salon in Medical Center North – made the trip as a birthday gift to herself and was seen hobnobbing with the artists within 24 hours of landing in Colorado.
Bringing greetings from Dr. Harry Jacobson, vice chancellor for Health Affairs, Urmy told the group that the event was more fun and more inspiring than he had imagined. “I’ve renewed my love of skiing after 28 years,” he said.
Urmy compared what happens when artists put their music together to what happens when doctors, scientists and others at the medical center put their heads together. “When you get great musicians together, everything climbs to a new level because of heart, talent, inspiration, competition…the magic just seems to happen,” Urmy said. “The same happens in medicine when you bring together the best in research, treatment and education. The magic for us is the research breakthrough.” He noted that private support, like that of the Martell Foundation, makes the difference between an institution like Vanderbilt “being the best,” instead of just being “good.”
Several current and emeritus members of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Board of Overseers also attended Country in the Rockies, including Gregory Burns, Lolly Henry, Orrin Ingram and Peggy Wood – along with 27 members of her family. Ingram, who chairs the board and the Imagine a World Without Cancer campaign, shared his experience of losing his father, Bronson Ingram, to cancer in 1995 and his reasons for becoming involved in the fight. He reported that the campaign has brought in $96 million toward its $100 million goal.
Artists who participated in this year’s event included Deborah Allen, Aaron Barker, Mandy Barnett, Blackhawk, Suzy Bogguss, Paul Brandt, Gary Chapman, Charlie Daniels, Kathy Mattea, Billy Dean, Skip Ewing, Robert Earl Keen, Brad Paisley, Gary Morris, Lari White, Chelee Tennison, Tim Rushlow, Will Robinson and Chely Wright.
This year, Country in the Rockies was expanded to a full week of fun and was the beginning of some new traditions. These included the arrangement by American Airlines of a special direct flight from Nashville to the event and the birth of new partnership with Club Med Resorts, which recently purchased the Marriott Grand Butte where the event is based. Frances Preston, president and CEO of the international music rights organization BMI, noted that change sometimes is difficult to accept but that she was pleased with the new relationship with Club Med.
“This cause is so important,” said Phillipe Bourguignon, CEO of Club Med, who flew in from Paris to take part in the celebrity ski races last Friday. “I am pleased Club Med could be a part of this.”
In addition to Club Med, American Airlines and BMI, corporate sponsors included Asylum, Atlantic, Bank of America, Cal IV Entertainment, CMT, EMI Christian Music Group, Entertainment Travel, AmSouth, The Hadden Group, Mercury Records, O’Charley’s, Preston Productions, RCA Label Group, Jack Daniels, Warner Bros., Sony Music,Yamaha, Fame Frames, Concept Marketing, Gibson, Extreme Golf Promotions, Rossignol, and Neptune Ski and Dive.