Meet Terry Wheatley, founder of Wine Sisterhood and breast cancer survivor
Find out how she created Tough Enough to Wear Pink and celebrate the 20th Anniversary raising funds and awareness for breast cancer.
Twenty years ago, Terry Wheatley had a wild idea. With one foot in the wine business and another grounded in the western community (her husband and son were champion ropers), she wanted to harness the energy to help families facing breast cancer. She created a wine called Purple Cowboy and enlisted the cowboys and cowgirls at the National Finals Rodeo in Last Vegas to Wear pink on one night of that event. The spectacle turned into a grassroots movement called Tough Enough to Wear Pink. Rodeo events across the country embraced the idea with events of their own. Tough Enough to Wear Pink events raise money that stays right in the community, funding research, hospitals, clinics, mammograms, transportation, and help to the whole family,
What ignited the passion? She’s a survivor herself and loved ones have confronted their own diagnoses. In 2023, the campaign reached 41 million dollars raised. This year, the final amount will be announced on Tough Enough to Wear Pink night at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December.
A big shout out to the top (and all) fundraising events, the efforts of rodeo committees, and generous sponsors who have worked tirelessly over the years. And to that original crew of competitors, led by Terry’s son Wade Wheatley, and his wife Lacey Wheatley, who is Executive Director of Tough Enough to Wear Pink, you all look great in pink!
For more visit, www.toughenoughtowearpink.com
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