Courtney Wins Houston Pro; Keeps to Her Word of Donating Money to Breast Cancer Research

This weekend, Courtney West made her pro debut at the Houston Pro, and I mentioned earlier that should she placed in the top three in her debut, she would donate her entire winnings to breast cancer research. She ended up winning the Houston Pro Figure contest, qualified for next year's Figure Olympia, and kept her word by donating her winnings this weekend toward the fight against breast cancer. A very memorable way to kick off a pro career, as well as giving back to those that need it the most. We at FitGems Nation send out our deepest and most sincere gratitude to Courtney for this awesome show of class. If more people were more like Courtney, this world would be a much better place.

Photo credit: RxMuscle

If you want to follow Courtney, join her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/ifbbprocwest.

2010 FitGems Sponsorship Update (As of February 27)

As of today, there are 27 competitors in 2010 FitGems Sponsorship contest. You can view all the competitors here.

The sponsorship package has been updated, thanks to Matthias ($50) and Siouxcountry ($25). Over the last 24 hours, they donated 75 dollars to the fund. So now, the sponsorship consists of the following:

*A MINIMUM of $300 USD towards the contest of your choosing (money paid via PayPal)
*A entire page dedicated to the winner on both EFBBN and FitGems Nation
*Your own website (if you don't have one already) or MySpace/Blogger layout (if you have one) created by Kirk Ashley of Imageworks Jamacia

Don't forget, just for participating, each competitor in the sponsorship contest will have their own Yahoo fan group created by Eldor of EBBFN.

Time is running down. You have until this Sunday to enter the sponsorship contest or to contribute to the sponsorship.  Click here to learn how you can contribute to the sponsorship, or you can always contact me via email. Put on the subject line "SPONSORSHIP CONTRIBUTION"

The winner be chosen by a secret panel that will be chosen over the next few days. They will be checking to make sure each competitor is meeting the requirements and will chose who they feel is the one that deserves the sponsorship. No one will know who will be voting other than myself. To make this as fair as possible, I will have no say in the matter of who will win. The winner will be announced sometime during Arnold Weekend. Besides the winner herself,  the announcement will be made first via Twitter.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at admin@fitgemsnation.net. Please put on the subject line "2010 SPONSORSHIP"

EDIT: The post was updated from yesterday due to Siouxcountry's donation this morning. Thanks Sioux!! :)

Help Bring Pro Women's Bodybuilding Back to Tampa

The economy has not been kind to the world as of late, and the world of muscle is no exception. The Tampa Pro Women's Bodybuilding show has been canceled for this year, leaving the number of women's bodybuilding shows to just 2 pro shows, if they want to qualify for the Olympia. That's it. As fans, supporters, and fellow competitors, we've got to unite as one and show the people that we care.

Siouxcountry has once again showed why they are true innovators of female muscle support by starting a fund for the show's promoter, Tim Gardner. He needs $12,000 by December to bring back women's pro bodybuilding to Tampa 2010. As of this writing, Siouxcountry members have donated $1850 to the fund. Yours truly will be donating to the cause over the year as well. Click on the donate button below to donate to the cause and help keep women's bodybuilding alive in not only Tampa but the entire industry as well.

This same button will also be on the blog for the remainer of the year as well as the FitGems Nation website.

If you would rather donate to Tim himself, go to www.ifbbtampapro.com.

Let's help a fellow member out and give what we can. Thanks in advance, everyone!