Blog: Friday, Jan 9

Sorry for the delay, but we finally got this together. On 8/1/08, I hosted a charity show in Minnesota for an Asian-American Charity called, "Project Inspired/Model Me Mary" for my dear friend, Mary Ly & the National Bone Marrow Program. Mary is a cancer survivor, and is one of the strongest women that I know today. She has endured so much at a young age, but her optimistic spirit and her faith in God pulled her through some of the most traumatic times of her life. I met Mary in LA when she was in my music video for "Unmei No Ai" (Japanese MV). Little did I know that the "cute Hmong girl" that ran up to me on the set saying "Oh Gina, you are such an inspiration & a role model to me.....I look up to you so much!" was the girl who's story would touch my heart so deeply.

I have a strong affinity to this, because this past year, we lost our 9 year old relative (2nd cousin) to Leukemia. Dale Inouye was diagnosed at birth, and fought his entire life, even at one point finding a donor/match through his own brother, Derek. Unfortunately it failed and came back again, but this time he couldn't find another match in time. I know it was hard on Dale, suffering so much. I only wished I was a match......without hesitation I would've been a donor for Dale - but the chances are one in a million, I think. His mom, Juliann worked so hard at his blog, and I would always check it to hope for good news, but on 3/16/08, our family got the devastating news. Please support: (http://inouyeboynumba3.blogspot.com/)
**Interesting note: if you go in my Photo Gallery and click under FAMILY, I was a flower girl for his parents, Juliann & Wade's wedding. I was a little 9 year old at the time, the same age Dale was when he passed**

Anyway, the event itself was fun and it was amazing to see the support of the Asian community as well. When Mary & her mother told me that there were hundreds of kids/teens that couldn't wait to see me & that I should be prepared to sign tons of autographs, I didn't think too much of it......well, was I wrong! There was a huge line, and I even ran out of pics and DVD's to sign, so we had to take down their names and addresses to send them one later in the mail.

Enjoy the video~


she's so sweet! Mary & her mom came to pick me up at the airport w/flowers...



outside the hotel



the view from the room



love it when there's dependable wi-fi:



my old myspace page. After this event, I realized I needed to change it, since moms and kids thanked me for being a good role model for them - and that they check my myspace page frequently! whoa....uh oh. I know, I know....this isn't even a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I knew it was safer to stay on a clean image, hence the change in layout.



hawaiians in MN? what??



get away!



necessaries



cake



never had this kind of request before...



whatever floats your boat :)



i stole this pic for my default.....



waiting for the ink to dry......all the pics I had to sign/send back since I ran out at the event....my mom came over did all the packaging-mailing back labor for me.
thanks mom! ありがとうママ！