Transcript

American Cancer Society & PGi, A Partners Brian Hurd: I'm here to tonight because I know that the work that we do here can save lives. If it has saved lives then it will save lives again in the future. Evelyn Johnson: Death does not just happen at your house, it happens everywhere, and we haven’t found the cure for a lot of things and so I think raising money for the American Cancer Society is a great thing to do. Shakeria Blackwell: The main reason I'm here is to honor cancer victims and cancer survivors. I have some in my family and friends. There's co-workers that have actually recently passed away of cancer. It's just an event that is really important to me to honor them. Robin LaGarde: The reason why I'm here tonight is my father actually died of cancer when I was 16 years old so this cause is very near and dear to my heart. Female 1: The fact that we have sponsors who are still willing to support us with funds even in this tough time says so much about them and about how much American Cancer Society can make a difference. Our presenting sponsor for 2009 is Premiere Global Services and I'd like to invite Ted Schrafft who is the President to come and speak. Ted Schrafft: Okay. Thank you. I'm so honored to be here speaking on behalf of Premiere. Thank you all for your -- obviously, your time commitment and personal commitment. As I stand here right now I'd like to commit whatever we've raised. We've just committed an additional $10,000 to American Cancer, again, on behalf of Premiere. So thank you again. I have the great honor to introduce Joshua Goodling who is a cancer survivor. He is a Premiere associate as well. And when you talk about stories and inspirations and how you look at life the right way I don’t think anybody does it quite like Joshua does. So I'm absolutely honored to introduce Joshua Goodling. Thank you. Joshua Goodling: When I was growing up, I had terminal cancer. The doctors told me I had one week to live and I wouldn’t make it. I'm a 39-year cancer survivor and I do everything I can to enlighten people and inspire people to make a difference and that no matter what happens in their life they can still fight and win. Today, I travel all over the United States speaking of cancer and sharing my life story. So when people tell you you don’t have cancer, when people tell you you can't do something, when people tell you your life is over, don’t believe them. I say don’t ever quite, don’t ever stop fighting, and don’t ever give up, and remember you will always make a difference. Female 2: Okay, let's clear the track and survivors this is your opportunity to walk. Carey Sperry: In relation to when the American Cancer Society began about eight years ago when we held their first conference call for them with the audio with several executives out of the Atlanta area and we learned how passionate they were about their Relay for Life fundraiser. From there grew our relationship with the organization throughout North America and now we service 14 divisions. Aaron Eichenlaub: Our e-marketing platform allows them to be able to effectively communicate via e-mail with a lot of the people throughout their organization as well. So not only from a conference standpoint but from a multiple solution standpoint, Premiere Global Services allows American Cancer Society to really operate more efficiently, more effectively, and really to focus on their core mission, that's to fight cancer and not to worry about communicating internally or externally. Shemika Williams: My favorite part of the event I think is the luminary ceremony when it's dark, around 10:00, you know, they'll go through and read the names recognizing the people that are fighting the fight. The one word that I'd use to describe this event is awesome. Absolutely awesome. Male 1: The one word I would use would be majestic. Male 2: Powerful. Evelyn Johnson: It has to be awesome because there are so many people here from so many different walks of life. They came together for one purpose and that is to raise money for American Cancer Society.