Through school-wide Pink Outs and sponsored sports games, the school district encourages students and athletes to support breast cancer awareness by donating money to assist those in need.
Having worked as a previous Cancer Center Administrator at Grandview Hospital, Kara Febus believes that the biggest struggle people with breast cancer face, besides fighting the disease, is money.
“When you’re diagnosed with cancer, the patient needs to take time off,” Febus said. “The support person has to miss work. That’s all lost income, then it’s hard to pay your bills.”
At Grandview, they have programs in place to help with household expenses and provide patients with food.
“We give them a bag of food that has enough for at least one full day. We give them gift cards to the Grandview cafeteria and kiosk, and we give them Giant gift cards,” Febus said. “All of this is to tide them over until we can get them signed up for the local food pantries.”
According to Febus, Grandview also helps patients obtain wigs, lymphedema compression sleeves and transportation.
“These things cost money, and when you have cancer, sometimes it’s hard to come up with that money,” Febus said.
This is where Souderton’s Pink Out events come into play.
“Funds from wonderful events like Pink Out sit in an account, and it all goes directly to patient needs,” Febus said. “It’s really, really great to be able to take that stress off of someone, and to say we’re here to help, so you can just concentrate on getting better.”
Throughout October, various high school sports teams hold their own Pink Out games to raise money for breast cancer awareness.
“Each team has its own version of Pink Out,” athletic director Dennis Stanton said. “It’s really up to those student athletes, coaches and booster clubs to choose when to do their Pink Out and how they want to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
Stanton feels that Pink Out is “a great opportunity for student athletes to take part in something that’s bigger than themselves.”
For field hockey goalie Nika Fulginiti, she looks forward to her team’s Pink Out game on October 14 because she is “excited to wear our shirts together as a team and just be united.”
Eighth-grade English teacher Heather Gossler said Indian Valley Middle School supports breast cancer awareness by holding an annual Pink Out day.
This year’s Pink Out was held on October 24.
On the day of the Pink Out, students and staff wore pink clothes and accessories.
During the day, pictures were taken of students arranged into the shape of the pink breast cancer ribbon.
Later on, the school sold cupcakes.
“Because all the cupcakes are donated, [the school] doesn’t pay a dime for that. There must be hundreds of them,” Gossler said.
The money made from the cupcakes goes towards the organization Unite for HER, which helps diagnosed women with “all the little things.”