The Dance for Brain Aneurysm Awareness event was held last Saturday at the Legion in Westbrook, Maine. Over 200 people attended and it’s believed over $4,000 was raised. It was the first event of this type that the Maine Brain Aneurysm Awareness group has held, and by all accounts, it was a success!

Dave and I arrived early to help set up. One of the nice things about this indoor event was we didn’t have to deal with gusty winds like we do at the walk/run in September. It was a joy to not have to weight everything down and set up tents to protect us from the elements. As a result, setup went fairly quickly.

What took more time was setting up all of the wonderful items that were collected for the Chinese and Silent auctions. Some truly wonderful gift baskets, artwork, and gift cards made for some interesting bidding wars throughout the evening. I won a beautiful painting of a door with two plantings on either side of the entrance. It spoke to me when I first saw it.

Our DJ, Gloria played and sang music from many eras and genres. She pretty much had something for everyone to dance to. Once the lights were turned down, many people took to the floor and boogied. Since I was suffering from pleurisy, I was showing restraint and only did two slow dances with Dave all night. That was about my speed. LOL

The date for the dance was set based on the birthdays of Kim Tudor (Dave’s niece) and Karolina Kurka. Last weekend just happen to fall in between both their birthdays, so it seemed an appropriate time to honor them both, as well as bring to light more awareness and understanding of brain aneurysms, and hopefully help any other families in the area who may have been touched by aneurysms. A few new people did show up and some members of the medical community came, which was truly wonderful!

As Kim’s mother had a difficult time with this event being held so close to Kim’s birthday, I was reminded of how fresh and painful these types of losses can be. The anniversary of my sister’s death is looming ever closer in May and next month I will be having my
aneurysms checked yet again with an angiogram.

But I am very thankful for this band of volunteers and their families who are making the healing less painful and showing us that we can get through this as a community. The unfortunate camaraderie we share is a comfort and the friends I’ve made through this tragedy have truly touched me.

Keep an eye on the MaineBA.org website for more photos of the event once we’re able to gather them all.