Women tout their 'Aha' moments

Your online vote could thrust three local women into TV ad stardom.

The women auditioned in August on Mutual of Omaha’s Aha Moment Tour seeking real people to tell real stories for 30-second inspirational commercials. They stepped inside the mobile studio in a 34-foot Airstream trailer parked at Garden of the Gods to share their “aha moments” on the insurance company’s 25-city tour.

Three people from each city were selected from about 1,000 hopefuls for the online vote that ends at midnight Thursday. The top 25 advance to the final vote, Oct. 19-31. The 10 favorites will make the company’s 2010 TV ad campaign.

What’s an aha moment? A simple defining moment that can transform a life and a town. As tour spokeswoman Brittany Thoms put it: “There is no such thing as a bad aha moment.”

Local contenders are:

Dianna Cates Dunn, Colorado Springs:  “Art is a real job.”

As a kid, Dunn wanted to be an artist, but her parents told her she had to get a “real” job. “I went off and did corporate America, and made lots of money. And I was dying inside,” Dunn said. “I got a studio and got back into art.” She is associate director of Gallery Two-Ten, 210 E. Cimarron St., where a show of her contemporary-abstract work runs through Oct. 21.

Pamela Burton, Colorado Springs: “A reason to lose it.”

Burton weighed about 350 pounds when she became fascinated by adventure races on TV. “Yet I never believed I could compete in one of those races. Hell, I could barely walk to my mailbox,” she writes in her blog, theminimeinme.blogspot.com.

Several years later, and 200 pounds lighter, as she approached the finish line, she realized that she could do anything ... and has been doing it since.

Polly Letofsky, Denver area: “Walking for a cure.”

Letofsky covered four continents, walking 14,000 miles to benefit 13 breast cancer organizations to honor the women in her life who have battled breast cancer.

To vote: ahamoment.com/pg/voting?city=colorado+springs%2C+co

—

Call the writer at 636-0253.