Sugarloafers Helping Others #220

Martha Bradley:

Martha passed away to breast cancer people, Peter started the Martha B. Weber Breast Care center at the hospital which enables all the women in Franklin county and beyond to get their mammograms right there and get diagnosed right there.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Afterwards we went in to the lodge and I took my helmet off and the guys were really freaked out because I didn't have any hair.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Mean radio show number 220 sugar loafers helping others, airing for the first time on Sunday, December 6, 2015. More than simply a ski mountain, Sugarloaf has developed a close knit and loyal community. For more than 60 years, the Sugarloaf Charity Summit has provided a means of caring for community members impacted by cancer by raising more than $2 million since its inception. Today we speak with Martha Bradley, Bruce Miles and Meredith Strang Burgess about the Sugarloaf Charity Summit and their personal connection to this important event. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For people who live in Maine and are skiers. They no doubt have heard of these next two individuals and the event that they're associated with them. Today we're speaking with Martha Bradley and Bruce Miles, who are the Sugar Loafers behind the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. This has been an event you've worked on for many, many years now.

Martha Bradley:

Yes, it is.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How many years is it?

Martha Bradley:

It's been 16. This coming one is our 16th year of the Sugarloaf Charity Summit, and overall We've raised over $2 million so far for Maine charities.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that's pretty amazing because you've. This started as a much smaller event many years ago, not even for cancer related charities, right?

Martha Bradley:

That's correct. Yeah. Back originally it started as a FundRaiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine, and it was called the Sugarloaf Vertical Challenge. And it has since evolved over 10 years. Now we've been with beneficiaries being Maine Cancer foundation and the Martha B. Weber Breast Care center at Franklin Community Hospital in Farmington.

Bruce Miles:

Martha's been involved longer than I have. I got into it about seven years ago when my friend Peter Weber, Martha Webber's husband, asked me to be involved and help out. So that's when I started.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you knew Peter because you taught his kids how to ski, is that right?

Bruce Miles:

There were some of my athletes that I coached in ski racing when I were little kids. Yep, his three children. And I knew Peter from when I was young. He was always an icon in the ski business anyway, so I knew him in high school and college. I knew of him and I did a lot of work for him. When I had a business at Sugarloaf, I was in, I had a plumbing business and he was my main customer. Great, great guy, great family.

Martha Bradley:

And when Martha passed away to breast cancer, Peter started the Martha B. Weber Breast Care Cent at the hospital, which enables all the women in Franklin county and beyond to get their mammograms right there and get diagnosed right there instead of having to drive to Portland as they did in the day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Martha was pretty young when she passed away.

Martha Bradley:

Yes, she was. I believe she was 52.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is something that the Maine Cancer foundation is actually trying to address is the research behind cancer so that it's not just how do we have a mammogram for a woman and find a cancer and treat it, it's how do we. How do we get to the place where we're finding cancer before it happens?

Martha Bradley:

Exactly.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is something that you probably have an interest in, I would think, Bruce, because of what your wife has gone through.

Bruce Miles:

Yes. My wife, Kathy was diagnosed at the Martha B. Webber Breast Care center through a routine mammogram about eight years ago. And as with anybody that's had issues with cancer, that was the start of a long journey and one that is continuing. She's fine now, but, you know, once you get cancer, you can it's always in the back of your mind as time goes on. But things, thanks to the good health care we got in Maine, things went well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And the Martha B. Weber center is also a place where people can get treatment and support for their cancer as well, which is a lot more convenient than having to travel longer distances.

Martha Bradley:

Absolutely.

Bruce Miles:

Yes. We ended up going to Portland, but basically because all of our family's from down this area anyway, so it was very easy for us to use the Portland facilities. But if it hadn't been for the diagnostic facilities at Martha B. Weber, we might not have found out as early as we did.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We're lucky to have you in here recording the show today because it's not quite snow season. I think they're just starting to send snow out on the mountain at this point. I don't think Sugarloaf is as we're recording this, Sugarloaf's not open, but it's

Bruce Miles:

going to be open pretty soon, November 20th. Our sister resort, Sunday river, opened last weekend. Dana Bullen, the manager there, was very happy about that, I bet. Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you're both still skiing strong?

Bruce Miles:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Each of you has your own special relationship with Sugarloaf. What's yours?

Martha Bradley:

Well, I started as a ski patroller. I was the second female ever hired at Sugarloaf on the ski patrol, and that was back in the late 70s. So I moved up there at that point, and it's always been part of my life and my heart since then.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how about you?

Bruce Miles:

Well, my dad decided to go to Sugarloaf to try it out in 1961 when I was 12. Luckily for me, he fell in love with the place because I did anyway. And then we built an A frame in Carabasa Valley back when you could lease a lot for $75 a year and build a little 16 by 28 a frame. And then when I graduated from high school, I knew that's where I wanted to live. Took a year off between high school and college and learned how to teach skiing and coached ski racing and then went to college in Farmington and moved to Sugarloaf full time. Been there since.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what do you think it is about Sugarloaf that has kept both of you Coming back all these years,

Martha Bradley:

it's got to be the heart of the mountain. It's really a true skiers mountain. It has a wonderful. It's a Sugarloaf family. Once you're a Sugar Loafer, you're always a Sugar Loafer, and people are there to support and to give all the time. So in some ways, it's a very small community and yet you still have your independence and your privacy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How about you, Bruce?

Bruce Miles:

Yeah, it's the family atmosphere. I mean, Sugarloaf has a very high percentage of seasoned passholders. Those are the people that are going to go up every single weekend. They're ready to leave Portland or the North Shore of Boston on Friday night and go up there, make the trek. It's a little bit further away. You know, not that much. But it's just once you get there, you're going to see people. You know, it's like a second family. We just had what we call our annual Sugar Loafers Homecoming over Columbus Day weekend. And it's just a huge event. Thousands of people come up and, you know, they have their condo association meetings or camp meetings, and everybody reconnects with people that they may not have seen since last April. Or maybe.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

One thing that I'm impressed by is the number of people that have supported the Sugarloaf Charity Summit and have supported it for years in various ways. You have lots of different events that people can be involved in.

Martha Bradley:

Yes, we do. We do. We're very fortunate to have a core group of supporters, both supporters in fundraising that do the fundraising, the Loafers for Cure. I'm sure we'll get into that. The sponsors that have supported us for. For year after year and the team of volunteers that help us. And of course, the mountain is very supportive. We're very fortunate with that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about the events that encompass the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. Because it's not just one event. There is one big party that a lot of people think of when they think of the Charity Summit. But really it starts with a snowshoe shuffle and it lasts quite a while.

Martha Bradley:

Yeah, the snowshoe shuffle's coming up December 30th. It's a Wednesday during Christmas week. A perfect time. Perhaps it's a little windy on the mountain. Sometimes it is. And it's wonderful to go down to the outdoor center and do the snowshoe shuffle. It's a fundraiser. The registration is $25. Although we have packages for groups and packages for families. If a parent comes and wants to bring a child, the child is Free. And likewise, if we get three people from a team or a group, the fourth person is free. So it's a snowshoe shuffle. That's the registration fee. You're welcome to also do electronic fundraising with for different incentives along the way. It's fun. We have two courses and it's a beautiful stroll through the woods at the base of Sugarloaf, looking up at a beautiful mountainous territory.

Bruce Miles:

And snowshoes are not mandatory. The trail is packed very well and so you can walk. A lot of people bring their ski poles and do what they call Nordic walking. And it's just. It's a beautiful place. The outdoor center for a winter walk through the woods. It's just gorgeous. The scenery is spectacular there.

Martha Bradley:

And that's our kickoff event.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do I understand that people wear costumes as well?

Martha Bradley:

Absolutely. Thanks for mentioning that. They do. We have all different kinds of costumes and we usually have a couple of the characters come and participate. We have Amos the Moose and last year we had Blueberry the Black Bear come down and participate too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So that starts on December 30th.

Martha Bradley:

That's Monday, 10 o' clock in the morning, till noonish.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You don't have to be a snowshoe expert. You don't even have to be snowshoeing.

Martha Bradley:

Correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You just have to be willing to show up and have some fun and do some fundraising.

Martha Bradley:

Exactly.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what happens next, then?

Martha Bradley:

The big events are on January 30th. A lot of prep work goes into those. One of the things that's done between now and 30 January is loafers for a Cure, and that's our fundraising arm. And Bruce is really the pro on that. So I'm going to pass the baton

Bruce Miles:

over to Bruce to be a Loafer for a Cure. All you have to have is a desire to be involved and hit up your friends and family to raise money to help you raise money for the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. And we have this, what they call peer to peer fundraising website that's linked through the Charity Summit website, which is sugarloafcharitysummit.org and you just go on there. We have rewards for you that you can earn when you raise money to certain levels. And it's a great, great way to help out with the event. And last year, the Sugarloaf Loafers for a Cure raised collectively over $41,000 for the event. So that's like 25% of the amount raised. Almost.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And there's no lower age limit for doing this fundraising?

Martha Bradley:

No, actually, last year we had an eight year old that went door to door in his neighborhood with his parent and with his dad and he collected money. And he. The lesson that his father shared with him, the life lesson was when the little boy said, you know dad, I feel kind of strange asking people for money. His dad said, yeah, but we only feel strange for a minute. The people we're helping feel strange for a really long time. So it was really, it was a wonderful life lesson. And his father is also one of our loafers. And it was an energetic boy who wanted to go out on a Sunday. And dad said, well, you know, maybe, maybe we should wait till next weekend. It's already dark out and so on. And the little boy said, oh no dad, it's Sunday. People are going to be home. They might not be home next weekend, so this is a good time. So off they went and success was had.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Excellent. I know you have some other events that also take place.

Martha Bradley:

We do. One of the incentives actually for loafers for a cure or you can participate on your own is called Cut for a Cure, which, which is the only day of the year where the mountain allows us to cut the lift line. And we actually use the perfect turn line. And it's for 20 bucks from 10 until 2, you get to use that line and it's just a load of fun. And you also have, you're entered into a drawing for a Sugarloaf downhill supply company, the ski shops gift card. So that's a wonderful incentive as well. So that's one of the events and

Bruce Miles:

with that the people who do get to cut the line for paying the money so that people know why they're able to do that, we give them some pink beads to wear so they know that they're helping out. With the fundraiser for the charity summit.

Martha Bradley:

We have a waxing tent with Jerry Murphy from Swix and he does free waxes for donations right there at the base of the Superquad. And this year I think we're also going to do it at Skyline too. And so that's another just little fun perk of the day. We're going to. We have the raffle going on, which we can talk about and the silent auction and then the charity ball. So there's quite a bit involved. Alright.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about the raffle? What types of season?

Bruce Miles:

The raffle's great. You get a chance to win a two year season pass for Sugarloaf with no blackouts. And it's a season pass for the downhill ski center, plus the touring center, the outdoor center, so you can Use it for snowshoeing, cross country skiing as well as downhill skiing. And it's a two year pass.

Martha Bradley:

For the next two years.

Bruce Miles:

For the next two years. And it's been generously donated by Sugarloaf for many, many years now. And the tickets are $10 for 1 or 3 for 25. And they'll be on sale on the website also. Or you can buy them from Sugar Loafers that you'll see on the weekend. There'll be people out selling them in the lift lines for Bullwinkles.

Martha Bradley:

Yeah, and it seems like every year the winner of that is touched by cancer in some way or another. It's kind of eerie. I guess we all are touched by cancer. So that's a large group of people. However, I remember last year when I called the winner, he was in lift line and you could hear him yelling and yahooing all the way over in the baselodge from the lift line. And he is, in fact, a radiologist, so he's very much in tune with the cancer community.

Bruce Miles:

You asked earlier about Sugar Loaf itself and you know, in the the family of Sugarloaf. I'm president of Sugarloaf Ski Club, and Sugarloaf Ski Club formed the Mountain in 1950. They started the whole thing off. And we represent around 1300 core sugar loafers. And the Sugarloaf Ski Club is very supportive of the event. A lot of the members participate. A lot of the members go to the event.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So we have had in the past Sugar Loafers that were there from the very beginning. And it seems like it's the type of thing that if your father was a Sugar Loafer, you become a Sugar Loafer. Your grandchild becomes a Sugar Loafer. Has that been your experience in your family?

Bruce Miles:

Yes, well, my dad was the first generation in my family. My wife and I do not have children, so we're the end of our generation. But we're on fourth generation Sugar Loafers now. Right now there are people who are skiing at Sugarloaf. I know one, John Chapman, who has skied Sugarloaf every day since 1949 when they were climbing the Appalachian Trail with his dad, who was the first president of the Sugar Loaf Ski Club. And so John has grandchildren that ski up there. So they're fourth generation Sugar Loafers.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And as a ski instructor, you've likely had the opportunity to educate many of these family members in skiing.

Bruce Miles:

Yes, we got to meet a lot of them and work with them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what about this silent auction that you were describing?

Martha Bradley:

Sure, the silent auction is just Wonderful. It's over 200 items. It starts at noon. We close out some of the tables around 3 o' clock and we close out the bidding at 4 o'. Clock. The last bidding, though, is during the charity ball for some of the items. The items that we have are what I like to refer to as gifts from the heart. People give in what ways they can. And it might be custom artwork, hand carved skier design. It might be a piece of nostalgia that's like a backlit sign of Sugarloaf that we had last year, a collector's item. It might be a gift certificate to a restaurant, or gift baskets or handcrafted items, photography, all kinds of things that we have donated. And as I said, it starts at noon on Saturday the 30th in the base lodge. And we'll have some tables that close out at 3 o' clock, and the rest will be part of the charity ball closeout.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So now tell me about the charity ball, because I think this is your crowning event, the crown jewel of the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. And it's something that you both put a lot of work into.

Martha Bradley:

Yes, it certainly is a team effort, there's no question about it. And we have the charity ball. It's not a dancing ball per se. It's Sugarloaf's night to remember of the season. There are over 400 guests that attend. And we have a live auction. We close out the silent auction. We have a great reception time. We have a wonderful buffet. We have a cancer ceremony, survivor ceremony, usually a few words about a cancer story of some sort. And our very lively live auction of about. We try and keep it to a dozen items. And each of those items are at least $1,000 value. Things that we've had in the past are a round trip, airplane, round trip flight to anywhere in New England. And you could go to Martha's Vineyard for the summer and be picked up at the end of the summer. Or you could go to New York City for a business trip and back. So we've had very unique items. That's just one of which we've had many.

Bruce Miles:

We've been very fortunate to have the Keenan family involved in the auction. Steph and Stephen Keenan are twins and they're both auctioneers and they're both cancer survivors also. And they usually have some very funny stories to tell about their own cancer experience to get the crowd rolling.

Martha Bradley:

Yes, they do. And they're very professional, obviously. We had a trip to Napa Valley last year thanks to Merriam Vineyards, and I just spoke to the people that won that at the auction last year and they had a ball, they had a custom deluxe tour of the vineyards and tasting and just had a wonderful, wonderful trip. So you never know what we're going to have. We do try and promote those in advance to give people a heads up so that they can be prepared to bid and bid high on them.

Bruce Miles:

One of the auction items in the live auction last year was a VIP package donated by Jay Darling for the Kenny Chesney concert at Bangor at the Dowling Pavilion.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Are there any other particularly exciting things, especially for skiers?

Bruce Miles:

Well, yeah, we're really excited for skiers. It's a really popular thing that the mountains started doing this for some corporate VIPs a long time ago. And it became popular enough so that they gave us a package where you and 19 of your friends can get on a snowcat and go out skiing two hours before the lifts open. And so you have the whole mountain to yourself. And then you get to have a really nice breakfast at Bullwinkle's, which is the On Mountain restaurant. It's halfway up the mountain. And you get all of this in before anybody else is on the mountain. And that's a really popular item that is in the auction.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that sounds like fun. I think I'd want to be one of those 19 people or the winner. That would actually be pretty great. So it doesn't sound like, from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like you actually need to be the person who wins, though you could transfer this over to somebody else.

Martha Bradley:

Absolutely. If you were a non skier and you wanted to support the Sugarloaf Charity Summit, you could buy a raffle ticket or buy three for 25 online. And if you're the winner, you can give that to someone that does ski. You could actually give it to two different people, one for one year and one for the second year. So there's lots of flexibility with that. But it is Sugarloaf only. No blackout dates. Alpine Nordic combined for the 1617 season and the 1718 season.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, if you can't make it to the Sugarloaf Charity Summit, but you somehow want to be involved, what would you recommend?

Bruce Miles:

Well, you can come to The Snowshoe Shuffle December 30th if you get a chance to get up to the outdoor center and participate in that. Or you can become a loafer for a cure. You don't really have to be at Sugarloaf to do that. You can just become a loafer for a cure and raise money that is going to Help the Maine Cancer foundation and the Martha B. Weber Breast Care Center. We're glad to take donations of any kind. You can make a donation by just going to the website. Also just make a general donation to the cause. It all goes to a good cause.

Martha Bradley:

Or you can donate to the auctions. There's always that opportunity as well.

Bruce Miles:

Yeah. If you own a restaurant in town or a hotel or any business and you'd like to give us a gift certificate that we could put in the silent auction, that would be awesome.

Martha Bradley:

And maybe it's a gift certificate to Martha's Restaurant, and it's in honor of Kathy in her fight against cancer, and we can put that right on the auction bid sheet so that it's a way of supporting that person who's fighting cancer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Over the years, how many people do you think have volunteered for this?

Martha Bradley:

I'd still say right around 125. We've had a tremendous core group of volunteers that have been with us since day one. So it hasn't been that much larger of a group, just a very dedicated group.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how many people tend to be doing Loafers for a Cure?

Bruce Miles:

Usually around last year, there was about 17 or 18, but collectively they raised over $41,000.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So that's impressive. So between the people that you have on Loafers for a Cure, the volunteers, all the people that participate in the Snowshoe Shuffle and the raffles and the Cut for a Cure, there must be hundreds and hundreds of people over the years.

Martha Bradley:

I'd say more like thousands, because the multiple effect, when you've got a fundraiser that's raising over $10,000 and some of those donors are only 25, each one of those donations adds right up. So it's well into the thousands.

Bruce Miles:

Yeah, I get to process all the donations coming in from the loafers, and believe me, we have a lot of $10, $20, and then some donations that come in. So it's so two people like Team 10, Cheryl and Kelly, they probably have well over 100 donors that donate to their Loaf for Cure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I'm excited to experience some of this myself, and I think that there are people who are listening who will be excited to experience this. Martha, how can people find out about what you're doing with the Sugarloaf Charity Summit?

Martha Bradley:

Well, the best way is our website, which is sugarloafcharitysummit.org and from there, it has both Bruce's phone number and my phone number. And we'd be happy to guide you either in the fundraising efforts or how to do an auction item or where to buy raffle tickets or charity ball tickets or what have you or sponsor.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Bruce, do you have any final thoughts for us?

Bruce Miles:

Just that it's just a really heartwarming event when you go to it. Everybody walks away with a really good feeling. So if you can make them all, that is a really great thing to be at.

Martha Bradley:

And we thank the Portland community that has been so supportive of the event over the years, as well as the mountain community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I encourage people to find out more about the Sugarloaf Charities Summit online or also through the Sugarloaf issue of Maine Magazine, which is the December issue. We've been speaking with Martha Bradley and Bruce Miles, who are Sugarloaf behind the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. Thanks so much for coming in today.

Martha Bradley:

Thanks Lisa. We look forward to having you up there this year.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm fortunate to have in the studio with me today an individual who has previously come on and shared her story with us. This is Meredith Strang Burgess, who is the President and CEO of Burgess Advertising and Marketing. She Is also a breast cancer survivor and an active and outspoken advocate for cancer awareness and prevention. She's deeply involved in Sugarloaf's Innovation Annual Charity Summit, and is also known for finishing last in the annual Try for the Cure on purpose. Thanks for coming in again.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

You bet. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So the last time you came in, we were talking more about try for a Cure, and it was several years ago. You were one of our earlier guests. So thank you for doing that for us.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Thanks for having us in, and thanks for giving us a chance to talk about these different events that are out there for women.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. So let's talk about the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. You've been doing this. This year will be the 16th annual charity summit, the Snowshoe Shuffle. The kickoff event is December 30th, and the actual charity summit itself, big event, is January 30th at Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf, exactly. Last year, you raised over $214,000, which is amazing.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

That was our best year yet, which always is a wonderful thing, except for those of us that have to look forward going, oh, my gosh, we're gonna have to really, really, really work extra hard this year. But that was wonderful year and a wonderful goal to meet. We wanted to break 200,000, and we did.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But, see, it's interesting that you would say that it's something that maybe might concern you, because in the times that I have talked to you, you are just like a woman of energy. You never seem like you are intimidated by anything. You're like, you know what? I'm just gonna go out there and I'm just gonna throw it all up against the wall and see what happens.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Well, we have a fantastic team of very, very dedicated folks that are involved in the Sugarloaf Charity Summit and the planning, like, all almost a year in advance and leads up to that. And Martha Bradley and Bruce Miles, who I believe you've talked with as well, are really the human dynamos behind the Sugarloaf Charity Summit in pulling together a plethora of volunteers to really help make all the parts and pieces come together. And then, really, in the end, of course, it's the generosity of the Sugar Loafers and folks who come up for our weekend special. And there are some, plus all of the wonderful Sugar Loafers that are there that are very supportive of this event. Very supportive of this event specifically. And unfortunately, because the topic of cancer and the subject matter is something that's very near and dear to too many people. It's affected so many People everywhere. And I feel like the Sugarloaf community really has been extra hard hit over the years with cancer. So that is a very special touch, if you will.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You actually had an experience during the Sugarloaf Charity Summit when you were out on the slopes that was directly related to treatment you were receiving for cancer at the time. Tell me about that.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Well, I often credit the Sugarloaf Charity Summit for saving my life, which is sort of a big statement to say about an event. But in its early days, back actually back in its first few years that it existed, we've had a few different formats over the course of years here. And the event at that time was what was called a vertical challenge. And a vertical challenge is done different, different ways in different ski slopes. But for the way we implemented it is that you had to make in a two hour period of time. We kept track of the number of runs that you would make. And we had people standing down at the bottom by the lifts. As you would ski in. They would give you a little hash mark and to prove that you actually completed your run. And Sugarloaf had given us a specific ski part of the mountain. We skied off of Whiffletree left, and we literally could take off, go up the lift, literally bomb down, which is probably not the safest thing that we could have done. But they kind of cleared a trail for us to do that. And so there were a few people that liked it's a treat when you can kind of ski fast because it's not really safe to do during a regular ski day with a lot of people around the mountain. So we had it. We did this as safely as we could. And you try to get as many runs in as you can in the course of the two hour time period. And it was just a fun day. And I kind of got caught up with the group and we just really started racking up our runs. And I confess it got a little competitive as people are kind of like, wow, how many runs did you get in? So we kind of got caught up in that. And I think probably I need to sort of backtrack at this point to say that at this point in the season, I had started my chemo a few months earlier than this event and had some ups and downs through that process. But I was feeling pretty, pretty good that day. So I went out and kind of got caught up in the day and just we had a lot of fun. I was kind of got. So I was skiing with a bunch of younger guys who were sort of ripping it down. So I thought, this is great. If I could just keep up with them. And finally we got to the point where I was really kind of dehydrated, I guess, so I needed to get some water. So I bailed out, ran into the lodge, got a bunch of water for all these guys. I think I had water stuffed in my ski suit and candy bars and things like that that we would need to get her some energy, joined them. So I only missed about 1.1 loop with the guys, did our thing. I can't remember. We got 13 or 14 runs in. I think the guys maybe got 15 or 16, but I was close. I was close. Afterwards we went in to the lodge and I took my helmet off and the guys were really freaked out because I didn't have any hair. So they were sort of surprised A, that I didn't have any hair, and B, that I wasn't their age.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So they didn't know this because you had.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Right, you know, skiing, you're all covered. And we were all doing this event and it just doesn't matter, you know, who's really under there. You know what it's like skiing in the winter. You don't know who you're actually skiing with unless you can recognize their voice on the lift. So that was always kind of a fun thing. And it's always nice when you're a little older to kind of have the young people go, wow, it's like, okay, I can still do this. And what actually was going on at that time period was I was having had some issues with my metaport that I had been having some heart palpitations and things which the chemo can cause that. So I just thought, well, it's the chemo and life goes on. But that particular day I felt pretty good. So that the next. The next day I went in for chemo and my port wasn't working at all. And it was discovered at that point that it had what we. So the next day we went. I went in for chemo and my port was unable to be used, which caused people to sort of investigate. And I had been having these heart palpitations and they were still sort of there, but. But they were somewhat better. So I thought, you know, I'm over that. Let's get on with the chemo. So because the port wasn't working, they did a few things to figure out why. And one of those was to do an X ray. And the X ray proved that the port, in fact, had broken off. And metaports are an amazing thing because it Makes it so that a person doesn't have chemo through their regular veins in their arm. It's an implanted device that's usually around the clavicle area and goes into your artery to feed the chemo direct. Sounds terrible, doesn't it? But that's what they are. And it prevents. You know, it's a great thing for the person for their veins, to save them is chemo is kind of does nasty things to them anyway. Way off track on that one. Sorry. So the metaport is a great and wonderful thing for people to have. So I want to be sure that the message isn't not to get a metport, but I think the message really is for people to just be aware. So we discovered that my metoport had broken off. And in fact, about 6 inches of the tube that would be normally inside my vein was missing. And through the X ray, they were able to see that in fact, it had traveled and gone through my heart and was actually lodged in my pulmonary artery. Hence why I was having heart palpitations. I had a tube blocking different parts of my heart. Now, normally this would probably be a fatal situation because it's just a dangerous thing to have a taste, sort of a piece of tubing running through your veins. If there was any part in my veins that had caused it to catch, it would have collapsed upon itself, and that would have been that. It would be the end of my story. The fact that it made it as far as it did successfully, really, at the time, it was stuck in my heart. We think that was during the time when I was doing the Sugarloaf Charity Summit because we were really working hard, skiing hard. And because of that, when you do work out, your veins somewhat expand and you pump a lot more blood through. So it was that extra. The extra boost, I guess, that we can say the Sugarloaf Charity Summit gave me to get the tube actually through and finished in my. Because it pushed the tube through my heart as opposed to leaving it somewhat stuck in there. So we can truly say that the Sugarloaf Charity Summit saved my life by doing that extra push. It was a great day. I had a lot of fun. The guys I was skiing with were a riot. It was a pretty amazing thing. And we spent the next few days trying to figure out how they were going to get this tube out of me. But science is pretty amazing, and we have some great doctors here in Portland, and we're very lucky. So I had a little angioplasty and they fished it out, and I got A new metaport put in and chemo went on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's interesting as you're talking about this, it reminds me that there, when you have cancer, it's not like, okay, life stops, you take a break, then you get to do your cancer thing, and then you get to start life again. Cancer is. The diagnosis of cancer, as with any serious illness, is really. It becomes interwoven in the life that you live. So you, you didn't stop when you had to have chemo. You said, I'm going to keep skiing. I'm going to keep doing the things in my life that make me happy. But there still is a very real medical something that you have to keep in mind.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

There is. And I often talk about how it's almost like having sort of two parallel lives that somewhat go along, truly parallel, and you, as an individual, sort of step between them and sometimes they actually truly intersect in ways because it's during the course of a business day. You're, you know, a wife or a mother or sister, best friend, co worker, you're functioning in part of life. You're taking care of people. You know, you have commitments, you have things, friends, life, you know, and as they say, life is what happens when you're making other plans. So cancer comes along and all of a sudden you step back over to this other life and you have this medical life and you go and you meet millions of doctors. So it feels sometimes, you know, there's your regular doctor you have now an oncologist, you have a radiologist, you have your surgeons, you have so many different doctors. And it's overwhelming at first to meet your medical team. And of course, after a while, you really get to know them and you get pretty close with them. But we're so lucky that we have some wonderful medical teams here. But it's a lot to kind of take in now. Why do I have to go to a different doctor for radiology as opposed to surgery? And then if you're going to have any diagnoses done or there's a lot of scans. So you get to know a lot of the folks at the hospitals that work in MRI or CAT scans, bone scans. I mean, who knew. Who knew all of these wonderful things? So you sort of step over and it's at first very hard to understand. And these folks are very capable and all, but you really do get to know them. And then they do just sort of become part of your family. But it's. It's the individual who sort of walks that line and steps between, and then There are times where the lines really, truly intersect. And, you know, your real life sort of comes in contact with your medical life. And that's when those moments are, when your friends and family, you know, something happens that draws them truly into the conversation of the medical world, that they come into the hospital or that they also get a chance to experience what you're doing. And one of those areas that I liked to sort of educate people about the process, so it's not so scary, was in chemo. I would always bring a bunch of folks. Folks with me to chemo. We sort of had chemo parties. I'm sure there were other patients there who probably weren't very happy with us, but we used to make it pretty much a fun day. And so it's the classic. You can make it what you want to be. And it was fun because we would be in the treatment room being very silly. And, I mean, after all, you're dealing with something so serious, you have to be silly. We'd always have cupcakes, or we'd bring sparkling apple cider and pretend it was. We were drinking champagne. And of course, we would share with everybody that was there that day. And it got so that people really got into the whole thing, and it was a lot of fun. There were always a few that were kind of like, gee, I just kind of want to sit in my corner and leave me alone. But a lot of people would join us and be part of it, and we would all talk, and it was. It was a lot of fun. And I had some friends who would come with me, and then the next crop of friends would be coming to the next round. And I know they would ask each other, okay, now what's it really like? How. How bad is it? How depressing is it? And they're like, oh, my God, we had such a great time. It was wonderful. And people are just, like, incredulous that that could go on. So it's all in what you choose to make of it. But these. These lives are very interesting. And then all of a sudden, you reach a point where you're done with your medical journey, and you know what that's like, and you sort of go back to this other life, although we sort of in the back of our heads, wonder, you know, and want us, you know, I go once a year and I say, check me all over. Look me really, really carefully. Test me. Look at that. I don't think ever goes away.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Part of the Sugarloaf Charity Summit is the annual ball, and part of the ball is A candlelight ceremony which is held in remembrance of those who have been impacted and passed away from cancer, but also people who have survived and people who continue to walk among us. Tell me about that.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Well, I. We've. I've been involved in a number of different events over the last 15 or 16 years that sort of involve. Are supporting. Of course, no one supports cancer that are in honor and remembrance of cancer. And I think it's really important that we don't gloss over cancer. I think it's important for every time we do an event that we honor, celebrate, but also truly take time to absorb, the cancer is killing people, and it's killing people every day, and it's continuing and in some places more so than others, and certain kinds of cancer and. And that it needs to stop. I mean, we need to get our handle on this. Cancer doesn't discriminate. It happens to everybody when they least expect it. And over the course of people's lifetimes today, you know, they say one in eight women, you know, one in six men. And now I'm hearing numbers like, if, you know, if you lived to be 90 or 95 years old, it could be like, literally one in three will experience some experience with cancer that may not be. You know, there's different kinds of cancer, but that's a pretty amazing thing. So it's really important for all these events to understand the gravity of the topic. So I'm a big, big believer that at some point you need to recognize what cancer. The devastation that cancer is causing here, right here in our front yard in Maine. So we created the candlelight ceremony as part of the charity summit. And the way we do it, instead of sort of showing a movie and say, you know, this is this terrible disease, we believe in telling the story. And the best way to tell the story is to have somebody from your own midst tell the story. And each year, unfortunately, we have stories, new stories to tell. I always say, I hope someday we have no stories to tell and we can finish this up, put a bow on it and put it away. But in the meantime, the stories do continue. And the other part is people don't appreciate necessarily how invasive it is. There are so many people that have been touched by cancer. So the good news is many of those people are very much here today. So we do the candlelight ceremony exactly as you say, to honor those that have passed, celebrate those that are surviving today. Some of them are surviving, are still on the front lines with their battle with cancer. Others, a few years have passed, and it's a very amazing thing when we, during the dinner or after the dinner goes by, we invite everybody who has personally been touched by cancer to come up and be part of the candlelight ceremony. And the circle grows larger every year. And I always am struck with this. So wonderful that the circle is large. That means people are there, but it also means that cancer is continuing. And it just is a very emotional part of the evening, for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The two beneficiaries of the Sugarloaf Charity Summit both enable people in the area

Martha Bradley:

to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

get treatment and get early diagnosis up in the area of Sugarloaf, but also enable us all within the state of Maine to have a sense of hope about the future. The Maine Cancer foundation is doing research within our state on things like breast cancer and other sorts of cancer. And the Martha B. Weber Cancer center up in Franklin county is actually helping families deal with the cancer right where they live. So it's sort of an interesting thing. You have the sadness of the cancer itself and the frustration, but then you also have this mirror of hope on the other side. Is that why you do the Try for a Cure and the charity summit and all of the speaking that you do on the subject?

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Absolutely. I'm a little parochial. As a Mainer, multi generational Mainer, I believe in keeping our money in Maine and I believe in helping our neighbors. There's so many people right in Maine that need help a hand up. And unfortunately, we've sort of made a lot of our different causes, we've kind of made those people invisible. And more and more people are giving their money out of state or out of country, which is great. But I think, unfortunately, we've made our neighbors sort of invisible to the fact that they could use as much help, if not more. And we used to do that. So another area that's really critical is health access. And health access, we know, leads to a better, more fulfilling, longer life if you can have access to good health care on an ongoing basis. So the Sugarloaf Charity Summit is fun to do for a couple different reasons. One, we tie in with the Martha B. Webber Breast Care center, which is at the Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. And, you know, there's a lot of people in western Maine that didn't have access to a breast center, and they were just being seen by their regular physicians. And with a breast center, you have some physicians who are sort of specialized in that area, can really judge things a little bit more quickly just because they're dealing with it on a larger scale. And also through the sugarloaf Charity Summit. They have made it so that many of the women in, many of the women in western Maine receive mammograms for free. So that any woman out there for that matter, in the state of Maine, not getting your mammogram or not getting your breast checks or your health checks is not an excuse. We have wonderful programs out there. We have the Maine Breast and Cervical Health Program that supplies women can apply to that and they can be seen by a doctor to get their Pap test and get their mammograms to do that. So money should never be the reason for a woman to not get checked. So that's a wonderful, very close to home. Many of the employees at Sugarloaf are involved and appreciate that resource that's there. Then the other piece is the Maine Cancer foundation, which is a statewide independent organization and they exist to do three different things, primarily research, main based research. And it has to be scientific. And we have a very elaborate process for applications and grants to go through. And it's somewhat, it's a great thing for me because not only are we hopefully going to solve parts and pieces of what's causing or how we're going to treat cancer moving forward, but it's also creating jobs, wonderful jobs, wonderful high tech jobs. We're seeing some of these scientists who have a hypothesis, they test it out, they write their grant, they go to Washington and they're bringing back millions of dollars in opening labs here, which is benefit that we've just started to see play out. And then we also do patient support and we do education and education and prevention, of course, is where it all is at. At the end of the day, women need to be smart. You know, who knew that these breasts that we all couldn't wait to have were going to be such a pain? You know, as we got older, it sort of is kind of a funny little part of growing up. Sorry. I know we all couldn't wait to have them and now I couldn't wait to get rid of mine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, certainly if you're not using them anymore and they are causing you problems, I'm completely behind that notion. Now there are going to be people who are listening to this whole may or may not have ever been to the Sugarloaf Charity Summit before. How can they learn more about it?

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Absolutely. Great question. The Sugarloaf Charity Summit information can be found@sugarloaf.com under events it will be the Sugarloaf Charity Summit. We also have a Facebook page, Sugarloaf Charity Summit. It has all of the auction items as they're coming in. Martha does a wonderful job putting pictures up and putting information. So the day itself is January 30, 2016. Oh, wow. Sounds so far away. And it's a full day of activities and people can participate in all sorts of different ways, even just buying a raffle ticket, participating in fundraising for Loafers for a Cure or a program that's just really been growing in the last couple years called Cut for a Cure, and that is being expanded this year to the Superquad, I think Whiffletree, and also to Scout. And for, I believe it's $20 for the two hours, I think 10 to 12 you can cut line. And believe you me, there are some long lines some days, and if we have a beautiful day, the lines are obviously longer. So we always sort of hope for that beautiful day because more people want to cut line. In that last year, we raised many thousands of dollars doing that. And it's just a way that people can contribute and also get a really fun benefit out of it as well. And then that evening we do the Char Charity Summit Ball. And it sounds a little pretentious for it to be a ball. And we, we called it that on purpose to be a little fun. Dressing up at Sugarloaf is not exactly like dressing up perhaps to go to a ball in Portland. So, you know, we pull out our best ski sweaters and have just a fun time and we have silent auction and then we have our candlelight ceremony and we have, we have a lot of fun and wonderful, wonderful Sugarloaf stories.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been speaking with Meredith Strang Burgess, who is the president and CEO of Burgess Advertising and Marketing. Meredith is also a breast cancer survivor and an active and outspoken advocate for cancer awareness and prevention. She's deeply involved in Sugarloaf's annual Charity Summit. Thanks so much for coming in and for all the work that you're doing in this area. I appreciate it.

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate your time and support of this effort as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 220, Sugar Loafers Helping Others. Our guests have included Martha Bradley, Bruce Miles, and Meredith Strangberg. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on itunes. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of lovemain Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Sugar Loafers helping others show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

She told you lies

Meredith Strang Burgess:

Brought a butter night.