On October 4th, Alex and I attended the AWC's annual fundraiser, the Pink Ribbon Gala, held at the prestigious Nieuwe of Littéraire Sociëteit De Witte (founded in October 1802). De Witte is housed in a monumental building on the ‘Plein’ in the exclusive inner court of the town next to the parliamentary heart of the country.
This is the sixth year that the AWC has held the event, and on this particular evening, we raised over €300,000 for breast cancer research and patient advocacy in the Netherlands, making our cumulative total since the first Gala more than €1,000,000. In speaking with lots of people who have been here for several years, I learned that prior to the Pink Ribbon organization becoming active here just a few, short years ago, there was little support for breast cancer patients here in the Netherlands, and as a direct result of this effort, research, treatment and advocacy has improved significantly.
It was a very formal affair, attended by a number of dignitaries, including the British Ambassador to the Netherlands Lyn Parker, and his wife, Jane-Walker Parker, the US Ambassador to the Netherland James Culbertson and his wife Germaine Culbertson, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Ambassador Eric Javitz and his wife, Dr. Margaretha Espersson, and the Mayor of Wassenaar, Jan Hoekema. The Emcee for the evening is a well-known Dutch model, Frederique van der Wal, best known for her appearances in Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, and Victoria's Secret.
It was more than cool to be part of such a wonderful event, and we look forward to attending each year we are here.
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