Phyllis Plotnick leads one winner of a silent auction while Cheryl Turner follows another in a waltz at the Harvest of Hope Breast Cancer Benefit Ball, October 1996, at the Historic Gulfport Casino Ballroom. Other dancers join. The ball memorialized Phyllis’ mother Sonia Plotnick who died at age 49 of breast cancer. The sold-out ball’s proceeds were donated to the Women’s Breast Cancer Fund. That year a board of directors formed to establish the Sonia Plotnick Health Fund (SPHF).  The fund continues to this day and holds an annual formal ball, the legendary Lady in Red Ball, to raise funds for lesbians throughout the 5 county Tampa Bay area who are in need of financial help to cover traditional and non-traditional health care.