Classic Pinup Calendar Aids Breast Cancer Fight

A determined group of Franklin County women will take it off, but not all the way, every day of the year in 2009.

With a party Sunday afternoon at the Eastpoint home of one of the group's driving forces, Elaine Kozlowsky, the newly-formed Franklin Needs Inc. has introduced its Franklin County Classics calendar, an exquisite 2009 calendar featuring local women showing off the charms of the female body in a provocative and artful way.

"Actually nobody is naked," said Susan Bull, a professional event photographer who divides her time between Cape San Blas and Marietta, GA.

"Everybody is wearing something and we had to tuck everything in very nicely," she said.

In January, there's Joyce Estes, baring her shoulders, wrapped in a properly Republican mink jacket as she strolls along the beach.

In February, there's Hollis Vail smiling in the buff, covered only by a painting that she holds in front of her hips.

For March, when the weather turns blustery, Margy Oehlert prances on the dock of her home in Magnolia Ridge, her form obscured only by a gigantic kite.

"We had workmen on the roof next door," she giggled, explaining why she remained clothed underneath.

Kozlowsky said the effort began earlier in the year, with "six gutsy thespian women over the age of 50" coming together to see what they could do to help bring much-needed breast cancer services to the women of Franklin County.

The women formed Franklin Needs, Inc, a non-profit 501 (C) (3) sponsoring organization, to oversee the effort and have high expectations to what calendar sales and future fundraising may lead to.

"We're hoping to make $50,000, $70,000 up to $100,000" in the next two months," said Kozlowsky at Sunday's affair.

Calendars are available for a minimum donation of $20, although already some donors have saw fit to aid the effort in even more generous ways.

"I sold five calendars to one man and he gave me $100, and kept two and said to resell the other three," said Mel Kelly, who appears as the pinup girl for April.

With campaign signs covering her, she sits in the original phone booth in Carrabelle. "It's what she does," said Bull. "It was a matter of getting to know them and sharing what they do."

May's pinup is Liz Sisung, topless and playing a violin with the picture taken from a modest angle. In June, the picture is more strikingly sensual, with Adelle Hungerford draped in gauze on a ladder in front of a picture window.

"Miss Adelle has some great ideas for us on the float ladies," said Kozlowsky, as she touted the group's upcoming booth at the Florida Seafood Festival. "I don't even want to disclose what she's thinking."

July features Nedra Jefferson stepping out of the shower, wrapped in towels, while in August there's a nude Ruth Schoelles, covered by a straw hat, shot on a branch of a tree at her antebellum home on Indian Pass.

Schoelles, along with Vail and Kelly, are the three breast cancer survivors who agreed to do the shoot.

In September, Janice Loughridge can be seen au naturel completing a painting, while October is reserved for Pam Vest, dressed as a witch for Halloween, her breasts hidden by two jack-o-lanterns.

"We talked each other into it (the photos)," said Vest, who chose her pose, coincidently for her birthday month, out of a love of costuming.

She's never had the difficulty of facing breast cancer but she said it's never far from her mind. "I understand the scare, of when you're not sure but you've got a lump," she said. "That's very scary. It's a frightening proposition. Every woman worries about it."

November is covered by a shot of the four ladies on the Franklin Needs board seated in their birthday suits around the kitchen table, celebrating "the bounties of the sea" for the Thanksgiving holiday. They include treasurer Mary Ann Durrer, secretary Ann Siculiano, vice-president June Dosik and president Kozlowsky.

In December, there's a shot of all the pinup girls in a festive holiday pose. The calendar also features a photo of cancer survivors T. McLain, Pat Harrington, Terry Kemp, Mary Slocum, Sue Leach, Kelly, Schoelles and Vail.

"It was all collaborative,": said Bull. "These are very interesting women who have valuable lives, a lot to offer, and unique personalities.

"I don't believe how brave you were to trust me," she told the gathering.

Kozlowsky said that with the exception of the printer and graphic designer, "every dime is going to breast cancer," beginning with help in transportation to places outside of Gulf and Franklin counties where women can get mammograms.

But that will soon change.

Weems Memorial Hospital CEO Chuck Colvert has secured a $40,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health to help in buying a mammogram, the first for Gulf and Franklin counties. He said a state-of-the-art digital unit could cost in the neighborhood of $200,000, while a used analog unit would be about $40,000.

The hospital has already sent two radiation technicians off to be trained, and once the unit is up and running, the images will be sent via telemedicine to be read. Patients with possible growths will then be referred by their primary care physicians to oncologists in Panama City or Tallahassee.

Funds raised also will be used for local education and awareness programs through churches, clubs and neighborhood organizations, and to help cover the costs of mammography for underinsured patients. The group also has been working closely with New Beginnings, a support group for Weems Memorial Hospital.

Calendars are available at the Apalachicola Times office, 129 Commerce Street, or from any of the "calendar girls." Contributions may be sent to Franklin Needs, Inc. at 55 S. Bayshore Drive, Eastpoint, FL 32328.

CUTLINE

Pictured on the front of the "Forgotten Coast Classic" calendar are, from left, Pam Vest, Janyce Loughridge, Mary Ann Durrer, Adelle Hungerford, Ann Siculiano, June Dosik (seated), Nedra Jefferson, Elaine Kozlowsky (seated in driver's seat), Liz Sisung, and Ruth Schoelles. Photo by Susan Bull.