Friends, countrymen, lend me your ear.

 

I have concerns.  They are thus:

 

Concern # 1.  People no longer understand what it means to dress fancy.

Am I the only one concerned about this?  Because, I am.  Dressing up is a privilege and a delight, I tell you.  I married a man who owned a full wardrobe of neckties and wore one every. Single. Sunday. Dressing up takes us back to the day when men were strong and heroic and women were curvy and feminine and fun.   I’m talking this business here:

 

best-dressed-bond

 

 

And this…

 

audrey-hepburn-style-1

 

 

I mean…who is going to argue with these beautiful people?  Dressing fancy is fun and it’s fierce!  The problem is:  there’s no venue for it here in our brewpub town.

 

 

Concern #2: Men and women have forgotten how to dress up AND date.

Dating is good. Dating is fun. Dating isn’t bad.  These principles apply to both single AND married folk alike.  Dating is a good, good thing and dating in fancy duds and dancing a happy dance is good for the soul.  I mean, come on single men – you don’t have to marry her, but you still get to dance with her!  This is good.

 

Concern #3:  ALS is a wretched disease that keeps the best men and women I know from dancing like they were meant to dance.

 

photo-2
I’ve been dancing with this guy in the kitchen for 29 years.

 

And so, on August 29, we will come together and solve all these problems in one fell swoop.  Solved!  Dress up. Cut a rug. Bring a date.  Raise some funds for those who cannot dance (I mean…because they have ALS, not because they “can’t dance” like I can’t dance.)

 

We are proud and excited to be hosting the first ever Dance to Defeat ALS – aka: Dance Because You Can.  Deschutes Brewery is providing some lovely beverages. My favorite food truck will be serving up fantastic BBQ and Yo’ Wild will keep the frozen yogurt flowing freely.  The very best dance band in the PNW will keep the music flowing freely.  All proceeds all night benefit the ALS Association – an organization that has been a LIFELINE for our family during Steve’s battle with ALS.  You guys really…I can’t even.  I can’t begin to tell you how much we appreciate them and want to help them with their good, good work.

 

So, now it’s back to you.  Will you help us solve the fashion, dating and disease problems of the generation?  One night.  One dance.  One chance.

 

dancebecauseyoucan-4

 

 

We’ll see you there!

 

Dancing our way to a cure,

 

Bo for Team Stern

 

 

P.S.  We came thiiissss close to postponing this event after our friend, Joy, was diagnosed with cancer and her fundraiser was scheduled for the 24th. Please know this:  our love and support is with Joy.  Steve and I can’t attend her fundraiser but you better believe we’re sending a representative from Team Stern and a check! The Bachman family’s need is immediate and essential – if you have to choose just one even to support – PLEASE choose Joy’s.  Thank you.

 

 

P.P.S:  Team Stern receives NO money from this fundraiser. This is all for the ALS Association and our Walk to Defeat ALS Team. If you can’t come to the dance on August 29 or the Walk on September 6, you can donate here.  But we will still miss you and your Macarena moves.

 

 

9 Comments

  1. What an awesome idea! I’m the president (& only fundraiser

  2. Oh, Bo! This sounds like an amazing night…can even older folks, (who do remember dressing up for stuff, but haven’t done it in awhile…) come too??? The last time I dressed up, REALLY dressed up for a dance was when I was a senior in High School, prom night, ….I won’t mention the date, but it was awhile back! I love your JOY…it is Jesus in you and Steve being palpable to others…tears in my eyes…I will have my best dress on! 🙂 Will try to get Don in a suit, but may have to settle for jeans and a sport coat! Love you so! Bring on the BBQ! 🙂

  3. so so so disappointed that we will be out of town, the night before my birthday no-less….ugh! but you can be guaranteed we support you and will be sending funds to support ALS! I love you dearly and miss you mostly!

  4. I am looking forward to both fund raisers…what a great way to help those who are in need and have fun at the same time. God is at work in all of us who love one another.

  5. It is first heart wrenching and then devastating. My husband’s grandmother lived for 11 years with ALS. He has since lost an aunt diagnosed with this same beast. She only lived a short time after being diagnosed. During her funeral, the priest did sometimes I had never witnessed. He actually spoke on behalf of her without even making reference to ALS but he made you aware of her struggles and fears. My biggest fear is that someday my husband may face this same thing. He was recently diagnosed with a suspicious tumour in his brain and then told not to worry about it. What if this is something relating to this disease and they missed something. Speak it and it makes it easier to deal with is my motto but my husband does not agree or seem to want to agree as he just does not say a word. Silence itself is a disease. I pray for all those afflicted and hope that this disease will be recognized by those drug companies that only see profit instead of life. Let’s all get together and find a cure. Take care

  6. New dress, check. New(ish) shoes, check. New hair, check. I can’t wait!

  7. Dearest Bo and Steve,

    Before this morning I had never heard of you. I found you via an ALS ice bucket challenge on Facebook. In the short hour or so I have been reading your blog (Bo), I have fallen in love with you and your family. I have been moved in a deep way and found myself praying for you as I have read the ups and downs you have been experiencing through this awful disease.

    I appreciate your comments and testimonies and the realness of the struggle of life (literally as well as figuratively). My father has a similar disease called myesthenia gravis. It is not as quick acting as MLS, but the symptomology is similar — muscles weakness leading to “paralysis”. He can have difficulty speaking, swallowing and breathing. There are 9 day hospitalization treatments when this happens, but at some point they will stop working. I am fearing that time is coming nearer than I have ever cared to imagine. So thank you for your realness, for your faith, for your honest expressions of feeling like you have nothing to bring to the battle at times. God IS good. And He DOES carry us when our legs are too weak to carry us.

    I want to share the words of a song that has strengthened my faith through my own personal Goliaths in this life. You alluded to it earlier in one of your blogs, Bo. That you can sometimes see that what you are experiencing is creating something bigger in you than you are by yourself. And you can see that this may help others. I am so sorry for the pain and struggle this has been for you both, and for your family. Sometimes life is just unimaginably hard. I had a daughter raped at age 11. That was a huge Goliath. But the Lord saw us through and continues to see us through (it happened 14 years ago now). God is good. Even in pain. Even in fear. Even in desperation. Even in despondency. Even in. God is good.

    Here is part of the song, for what it’s worth. It’s from a song titled “Tell Me to Breathe”:

    Can it be that I’m really here
    Surrounded by your love
    I’m ready now to promise you
    My hope, my life, my trust

    Tell me to breathe
    God help me believe
    That this moment is real
    And not really a dream

    This is where
    I become me
    Right here and now
    Tell me to breathe
    Tell me to breathe

    The part of the song that I always remember in my hardest times is “This is where I become me. Right here and now. Tell me to breathe.”

    God will carry you and take you to a higher place in your darkest moments and days. He will take you to grander views because he takes you to a place you could not ever arrive at by yourself.

    I will keep all of you in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you for sharing your precious, difficult journey with us. I love you and care for you, and an hour ago I did not even know you existed. Thank you. And thanks be to God.

    With love,

    Kristin
    Saratoga Springs, Utah

  8. Dear sweet lady, I have been there in your shoes, I lost my husband 7/24/2009 with ALS, his started in the Bulbar Region, the face or head area, it started with a cold chill, ironic that now they are having the Ice Bucket Challenge? It makes me sick to my stomach, I have cried many a tear since I first heard of what the Doctor told me “ALS is a suffocating death”. A shear brain only to be laid there in a body. My husband, Charles Richard Wilson (Chuck) was 59 at his passing, his first chill was in 2007, and his speech started leaving him, then swallowing, and then a peg tube was inserted in his stomach, and from Jan 2009 he went from 220 lbs, to his death weight at 125. Yes he saw UAB in Birmingham, AL, they were only in the study phase and gave him pills to take, but left no hope, he donated his body to be researched and his ashes were spread on the other side of Birmingham, no marker, no grave site, just under the grass in a field. I pray dear lady that you have made peace with this disease, this taker of life and I pray you remain hopeful, my only regret is that I have twin sons age 30 and an 8 year old granddaughter that might inherit this, yes he did live to see her born and that was a blessing, May God be with you in your trials and may his blessings be with you and your family. I did remarry, and by the grace of God, he has been my blessing thru the depression I have had, but, now I only want to offer you the reality of it all, and only the blessed hope of Jesus, yes my husband pointed upward at his death bed and I asked did he see heaven and he put his thumb up and gave it a yes, and I asked did he see Jesus, and thumbs up yes, so here is your hope and salvation, knowing that if your loved one is saved, there is his/her healing. May God go with you. Amanda

  9. Great idea for an event. I wish you much success and fun. 🙂