Searching for a cure
Posted on April 26, 2007
A pink trailer was parked in the Godwin lot on Monday and Tuesday. It had laptops with headsets lined up across a pink bar, wooden patio furniture out on the porch, TV screens everywhere and soft rock played in the background.
It was on a mission to end breast cancer.
Komen On the Go, part of the non-profit organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is a mobile community education and outreach program dedicated to teaching people about breast cancer. During the 2007 tour two pink trailers will travel in tandum to around 150 campuses and communities.
JMU was the first stop on the tour for one of the trailers and came to campus complete with a full time staff of seven people from across the country. Team member Nick Blake from Minnesota thinks the experience will engage its audiences.
“[Komen On the Go encourages people] to come and really empower themselves about breast health,” he said.
One way Komen On the Go empowers people is through providing interactive computer programs that answer the most frequently asked questions about breast health and cancer, opportunities to get involved in the global breast cancer movement and an instructional guide to breast self-examination.
Team member Rassheedan Mundine is from California and chose to work with Komen On the Go because it allows her to give back and to educate.
“[Breast cancer] affects everyone,” she said. “It’s a world wide problem.”
Mundine said that JMU students took the time to check out the programs and videos instead of rushing through them.
“They’re soaking up the information,” Mundine said. “Which is what we really want them to do.”
Junior Carissa Vescovi said she liked the use of technology in comparison to a lecture and felt she learned a lot in a short time.
“It’s the little things you can do,” she said. “Taking those five to ten minutes may save you in the future.”
Junior Becky Schott enjoyed the set-up.
“I think it’s a really cool atmosphere,” she said. “It’s really comfortable”
Junior Mike Lightman said he learned a lot about the disease.
“It’ a good thing to be educated on, guy or girl,” he said.
Coordinator of Health Promotions Ann Simmons said that the Susan G. Komen campaign contacted the University Health Center to see if they would be interested in being a host site. Simmons thought the college setting would be a great place for the tour.
“It’s been a great experience to share with the community,” she said. “Not just the students but the faculty and staff.”
Program Director of Women’s Services at Rockingham Memorial Hospital Teresa Boshart Yoder volunteers with the closest chapter of the Susan G. Komen campaign in Richmond. When contacted about Komen On the Go touring Harrisonburg, she thought it was a great idea.
“Young women, college-aged women, are the people who we need to be getting [information] out to,” she said.
Other participants included the Women’s Resource Center, Zeta, Community Breast Health Coalition, RMH Image Recovery, RMH Health Focus and The American Cancer Society, many of whom set up tables providing additional information under a pink tent near the Komen trailer.
For ZTA, the Komen On the Go tour provided an opportunity to work with their philanthropy year-round, instead of just during October. Junior Fallon Casner and sophomore Ally Ramser worked at the ZTA table Tuesday morning, and both thought the bus tour was great for catching interest.
“People will see the big pink bus, “ Ramser said.
Casner agreed.
“This is really hard to miss,” she said.
Seniors Katie Rice, Katie O’Neill and Heather Maxey worked at the American Cancer Society table Tuesday morning, providing pamphlets and other educational materials about breast and cervical cancer.
“I like that all the societies are working together to make sure everyone has the right information and that they’re offering it in different forms,” Rice said.
Maxey agreed and said that this is one of the benefits of Komen On the Go.
“It comes here,” she said. “You don’t have to go out and find this information on your own.”