***Please note.  The Raffle is closed; the draw will take place the next time both Susan and Bill are in the same place; fall 2007? The goal for the new Women’s Diagnostic Imaging Suite at Ketchikan General Hospital was met a little while ago

  The winner will dictate a haircut/style (up to and including a complete shave) that will be the same for both.  This may include coloring, highlights… whatever tickles the fancy.

All hair will be donated to Locks of Love, a charity that designs hair pieces for disadvantaged children undergoing chemotherapy or suffering from chronic hair loss due to illness or treatment.  Check their website at www.locksoflove.org for further information.

All monies generated by the raffle will be donated to the KGH Foundation for the diagnostic imaging suite.  The drawing will be held live on Ketchikan’s KRBD morning show, the infamous haircuts to occur at His and Hairz day after the draw.

Contact Bill Hupe and Susan Batho at 907-225-3625 (www.beaustud.com and susan_and_bill@hotmail.com) for further updates when the raffle is started up.

Mammography

Computer Aided Detection (CAD) as a “second set of eyes” to read all mammograms

Bone densitometry

Ultrasound – including cardiac and vascular imaging

Stereotactic breast biopsy

The total cost for the Women’s Diagnostic Imaging Suite is US$450,000.  The goal of the KGH Foundation is to raise US$250,000 with Ketchikan General Hospital providing the remaining US$200,000.  For updates on this campaign’s progress, visit the website:

Bill and Susan met through a listing of publishers and editors back in 1984.  They corresponded without meeting until 1986 when out of the blue, Susan called Bill, asking him for a ride from the airport to a mutual friend’s home.  Unfortunately, Susan had no idea that Bill’s “drive” would require him to traverse four states, but since this was definitely easier than driving from Michigan to Sydney, Australia, he took her up to it.  After going out for the evening, Bill hit a comfy couch and Susan spent all her down time watching a squirrel, a creature she had never seen before.  That morning, she earned her new nickname – Squirrel-bait – but it took her about two years to figure that moniker out. That, as they say, was the start of a beautiful friendship.  They have been inseparable ever since.

Despite the fact that Bill is six-foot-seven and Susan five-foot-three, after dying their hair a matching color as a joke for Susan’s grandson’s first birthday, the joke was on them when family and friends realized they do look an awful lot alike, and people assume they are brother and sister.  Since that day, these two have earned the nickname “The Twins”…  even down to the gap between their upper front teeth.  Even Susan’s mother cannot believe the similarity, especially since they were born on opposite sides of the planet, and now refers to them as “Her Twins”.  And when a little tired, their respective spouses have been known to confuse the two.  Many Ketchikan residents will recall seeing them last August, wandering around the downtown area with their border collie puppy and wearing the t-shirts I had made for them with their photos on them and the caption: “The Twins – Best Friends Forever.”

Susan and Bill have collaborated on books, newspaper and magazine articles.  They commute between Australia and Alaska, taking photos, interviewing people, and traveling to many parts of these two breath-taking land-masses.  The Twins are planning more trips into the outback of Australia as well as the wilderness of Alaska, as research for some of the books they are currently writing.