Zumbathon Gold-Style

Homemade BE THE GOLD shirt with iron-on badge in the front and logo on the back! How COOL is THAT!?!

A friend of mine recently posted some pictures of an event she hosted. She is a certified Zumba instructor. She and 11 other instructors shared 90 minutes of Zumba dancing at a Zumbathon Cancer Kickin' Party.

The event raised money for the American Cancer Society and didn't focus on one specific cancer. Rather, it was an energetic event bringing people together to fight cancer as a whole.

Everyone was asked to wear their favorite cancer color for support. My friend decided to BE THE GOLD for the event. She event made a super cool homemade BE THE GOLD t-shirt as well as some printable badges for herself and her kids. I am really lovin' the t-shirt and will have to make one for myself in the near future!

Thank you Rebecca for being so awesome at BEing THE GOLD! I was delighted to have such a great spokesperson for GOLD at the event!

Loco for GOLD

I am so excited about this special event hosted by Rexburg Kiwi Loco! They generously donated 20% of sales between 6pm-9pm last night to CureSearch, a childhood cancer research foundation. Plus, people wearing a BE THE GOLD badge received a free cookie! They were delicious warm just-baked cookies too!

Images at the checkout stands. How cool is that!?!

The Standard Journal even wrote a piece about it. CLICK HERE to read.

It was so neat to walk in the store and find BE THE GOLD posters and signs everywhere. The Kiwi Loco employees even wore BE THE GOLD badges! What I thought was extra cool was the digital screens located at the check out presenting the BE THE GOLD badge image and the BE THE GOLD Night flyer! It was kind of surreal!

We all enjoyed some awesome frozen yogurt (Tip: Cake Batter flavor is amazing!). It was a fun time!


Today I called the manager at the Kiwi Loco to find out how the night went and to let him know I would be picking up the posters later today. I was so pleasantly surprised to hear him ask if they could wear the BE THE GOLD badges for the remainder of the month! How AWESOME! Thank you Rexburg Kiwi Loco for hosting this event, for your generous donation to CureSearch and for your overall enthusiasm for BE THE GOLD!

Thank you Rexburg Kiwi Loco for hosting this BE THE GOLD supporting event!

Care to Dance

Yesterday was such a fun day! The Rexburg Mommy and Me Dance Class hosted a BE THE GOLD day with a GOLDilock and the Three Bears Themed dance day. There was GOLDilock themed stretching and dancing, some cute games and story time. At the end, I was given time to talk to the parents briefly about what BE THE GOLD is all about. It was a fun morning! Thank you Kierstena for hosting!

Kiwi Loco BE THE GOLD Night

Rexburg Kiwi Loco BE THE GOLD Night!

So excited to share this Kiwi Loco Event!
If you are in the Rexburg area, come on out and join us!
See you there!


CLICK HERE to read about the event!

GOLDilocks can dance!

If you are in the Rexburg area, join us for this super fun FREE event!
Big thank you to Kierstena Rolfson of Rexburg Mommy & Me for hosting!
See you there!

UPDATE: Read about it here.

A Proclamation!

Yesterday was a big day for the BE THE GOLD movement!
The city of Rexburg graciously made an official proclamation making September 2013 BE THE GOLD Childhood Cancer Awareness month!

I had the pleasure to attend the city council meeting making it all official. I was also given the opportunity to speak briefly and give thanks to Mayor Woodland and the rest of the city council members. It was a great experience!

Even though the proclamation is for the month of September, the BE THE GOLD aims to be a year-round movement. This proclamation is a great jumping off point!

After the meeting was over, I made my best effort to record the event with my camera. Unfortunately, the florescent lights weren't very flattering. Still, it was such a special night, I just had to post a picture. Upon meeting me, Mayor Woodland asked, "So are you the 'Gold Lady'?". I smiled because I had never been called that before, but I guess the name fits. I have gold on the mind all the time. Gratefully,  more people have joined me in BEing THE GOLD too. :)

In other news, #BeTheGold videos are over 350K views! I am so excited for tomorrow's #BeTheGold video to go live! I am a big fan!

Painting the town GOLD

Some of my face painting designs... a couple I had to totally "wing it".

I had a great time last Friday at the BE THE GOLD Free Face Painting Booth at the local Farmer's Market. I am not a professional face painter but I so enjoy it. This was only my third time face painting.... ever.... in. my. life. My experience resume, before the last two Farmer's Markets, was my son's birthday party a couple of years ago. I did much of my learning through watching YouTube videos.

This week's designs seemed to go through a quantum leap from last week's. I credit it to being less nervous, having a few more hours practice under my belt and especially having a tall chair for the kids to sit in. Last week, I was forced to sit across from the kids at normal chair level. Not the best position for artistry, I would say. This week, with the addition of a counter-height chair, I could stand while painting. The paint and brush table were also counter-height. Yes, I was standing most of the day but the designs (and my back) thanked me for it.

I have a couple dozen designs in my repertoire but I always aim to please, so when a little guy whispered for a "wittle baby long neck " and a guy asked for a Hunger Games beard, I winged it and gave it my best shot. The most popular designs by far for the day were butterfly and princess masks. Boys seemed to ask for more variety.

One of the most popular designs for the day!

Great helpers!

I was so pleased with the day, I honestly started to think I missed my calling as a professional face painter. But what has made the experience all the more sweeter (other than the reactions of the kids when I show their finished faces through a mirror) is knowing that I am reaching out to the community and providing a free service that does an amazing job of spreading awareness. It really is so satisfying. At the end of the day when I am tired and packing up, I just feel so good. I feel like I'm glowing. Weird maybe, but I totally feel uplifted and like I did something worthwhile. I love it! I would consider providing the service for free long-term if the paints I use (professional quality face paints) weren't so expensive.

I must mention that I had a couple great helpers both weeks. They help with line-control, chatting to people about BE THE GOLD and handing out badges and cards. They are also volunteering their time and I am so appreciative of it.

In other news, #BeTheGold videos are almost at 300k total combined views. More videos coming soon. Stay tuned! My heart feels like bursting from the excitement!

Adventures in Face Painting

Photos by Mindy Weston Photography

Last Friday I had the pleasure of having a booth at the local Farmer's Market where I did free face painting. It was a blast! I really enjoyed it! I hadn't face painted in about 2 years but I felt I did a pretty good job. The kids had no complaints. It was also an excellent opportunity to spread the word about BE THE GOLD in the community. Both the face painting and info on BE THE GOLD were well received.

I am excited to say that the Farmer's Market has invited me back this Friday. So if you have the time, stop by,  have your little ones' faces painted and learn more about BE THE GOLD!

On another note, #BeTheGold Youtube videos are currently over 140K VIEWS! Let's keep the momentum going and share, share, share! More videos scheduled to go live all month long! Also, don't forget to take a look at all the "How to BE THE GOLD's" and find out how you can help spread the word!

I use professional face paints and have a variety of designs in my repertoire. Stop on by!

Free Face Painting!

Free face painting by BE THE GOLD at the Farmer's Market on September 6th, 2013.

If you are in the Rexburg area, stop on by for some free face painting tomorrow evening!
We will have a photo booth for you to take pictures to post to your social medias as well as more info on how to BE THE GOLD. Looking to get your hands on a name badge and info cards? We'll have those too!


P.S. If you haven't already, please like us on Facebook.... and tell your friends!

Monitors, Festivals and All-Stars.... oh my!

I feel so much has been going on and not enough has ended up on this blog, so I thought I would do a quick "catch up" post.

Monitor at local library

 1.) If you're local, the library is now featuring Be The Gold on the welcome monitor. I really like this idea of having a Be The Gold ad on public advertising monitors. There are so many out there, this might be a great way to reach more people. If you have a monitor in your place of work or community or in a high-traffic area you know of, please let me know in the comments or use the contact form on the website.

BE THE GOLD was at Celebrate Youth

2.) Be The Gold was at "Celebrate Youth" yesterday. It was a blast! For those of you not close by, "Celebrate Youth" is a big event setup and run by the school district. It is a last-day-of-summer celebration given the day before school starts. It is an all-day festival with free carnival games and activities, free prizes, free food, free everything. It attracts a lot of people and they estimated about 20k people showed up to partake of the fun. Each carnival booth is "sponsored" by a local business or group, but because the cost of the event is covered by the school district, the only thing supplied by the business or groups to sponsor is man-power in the form of volunteers. I was lucky enough to know several awesome young women that agreed to help me out at the event. They did an amazing job! I couldn't ask for better helpers!

Experimenting with new All-Star app tab

3.) I am experimenting with a new "All-Stars" app tab on the Facebook page. It gives points to Be The Gold Facebook fans for each like, share and comment. Basically, it recognizes the top Facebook participants. The more you like, share and comment, the more you are helping spread the word. FYI, Facebook fan pages, gather a lot of data such as "Fan Reach" and even ranks each Be The Gold status and picture I post with its "Virality". Each time you like, share and comment on a status or picture, the "Virality" of that post goes up as well as Be The Gold's overall "Fan Reach". I am not too familiar with this app and not entirely sure I will keep it. It depends on the Facebook fan's response to it. So let me know what you think.


More updates to coming soon. We are revving up for September as it is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. There are plenty of fun and exciting things in store!