One in eight

Students help raise awareness of breast cancer with events throughout the week

A mother, sister, friend, grandmother, aunt, cousin, daughter or granddaughter will become one of every eight women to be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. In an effort to change this statistic, Zeta Tau Alpha is hosting its third annual Breast Cancer Awareness Week this week, with all proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, according to Courtney Sullivan ('03).

"Everyone knows eight women," said Sullivan, who launched the first BCA Week during her junior year at JMU. "Just imagine. Chances are you, or someone you know, will be diagnosed with breast cancer."

Senior Katie Coleman, Zeta Tau Alpha BCA Week co-chair, said breast cancer awareness should be important to everyone — even younger generations. "Mothers are no longer with us, grandparents and aunts … have been diagnosed, and we have even had chapter members with scares," Coleman said. "This affects everyone, and we are so proud that we can make a difference by contributing to the research that Susan G. Komen provides."

The Komen Foundation, which sponsors events like Race for the Cure and Lee Denim Day, serves to "eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening and treatment," according to the Foundation's Web site, www.komen.org.

Setting the standards
One of the important aspects of BCA Week is combining the seriousness of the cause with fun events to get students involved.

"BCA Week is a week of fun events, high emotions and the drive to make a difference," Coleman said.

Several goals were identified for the week. Coleman said she hopes to raise $18,000 this year — an increase from the two previous years' goals of $10,000. Almost $2,000 was raised before the week's official beginning yesterday, she said.

She said another goal also is to "increase awareness of our event throughout campus and the JMU community and … help save lives through donating to the Susan G. Komen Foundation."

Increasing awareness is important, Coleman said, because, "as a chapter, we want the JMU community to be aware that breast cancer affects everyone, and there are so many new developments that we as students and a community are unaware of."

Sullivan also mentioned other goals of the week. "Although we had all of these monetary goals," she said, "the real goal of the week was to raise awareness [about breast cancer]." While current goals are similar to past goals, "this year, we feel like we are truly making it happen," she said. But, she did identify some differences between this year's goals and previous years'. "I don't think we've set our monetary goals this high before, nor have we involved the community as much as we have this year," Sullivan said.

Senior Lauren Slade, who planned BCA Week last year, said she wanted to build a strong link between the campus and the community through the week's events. "After all, breast cancer does not stop at the campus boundaries," she said.

How to get involved
At JMU, breast cancer awareness expands beyond a few hours of a guest speaker's lecture or a single day devoted to cancer prevention, according to Coleman.

"[ZTA's] approach of a one-week promotion is different than many breast cancer activities at surrounding schools," she said. "We make it a mission to make sure the entire campus knows something is going on with breast cancer for a week."

Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., free pink ribbons will be distributed, while 500 pink Madison T-shirts will be sold for $10. Raffle tickets and balloons will be sold for $1 to win Longaberger backets, or the baskets can also be bought for about $30 each, according to Coleman. For each basket sold, the Longaberger basket company will provide a matching donation, she said.

The week, which has been in planning since December 2002, kicked off last night with a University Program Board-sponsored movie night, showing "Life as a House" at Grafton-Stovall Theatre. "This cancer-related movie was a good choice because it takes you through the stages of the horrible disease," Coleman said. This year is the first BCA week to have a movie night.

A benefit concert, featuring several a cappella groups, will be held tonight at 8 p.m. in the College Center Grand Ballroom for $5, payable at the door.

A cappella groups, including the BluesTones, Exit 245, Into Hymn, Low Key, The Madison Project, Note-Oriety and the OverTones, will perform, in addition to the improvisational comedy group, New and Improv'd. "The groups are going to help excite the students and provide great entertainment at the same time," Coleman said. She expects about 1,000 people to attend.

"Survivor Night," a panel of breast cancer survivors and medical professionals speaking on their experiences, will be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Ballroom A of the College Center. The panel is free and also is a Wellness Passport event. "After [the survivors and professionals] have spoken, we open up the night to any and all members of the audience to express their feelings and stories dealing with breast cancer," Coleman said. She described the night as very moving.

Thursday is "Pink Day," which encourages students and members of the community to wear pink to show their support for breast cancer awareness. "We encourage the campus to become a sea of pink in order to show that we are not just trying to raise money, but also awareness," Slade said.

A 5K for Komen walk/run, which was published in the November issue of Runner's World, will be held Saturday at 9 a.m., starting at the College Center Field. Early registration is $10 per person and registration at the race is $15 per person.

"About half of the money we raise for the foundation comes from the race," Sullivan said. "About 400 people participated in the race's first year, and 500 the year after that. It's great to see the domino effect in action."

For more information or to preregister for the race contact Coleman at colemakj.

The week culminates over Parent's Weekend, Sullivan said, because "breast cancer is a disease that affects the whole entire family."

Coleman encourages students to wear pink and attend every event they can. "Students can get involved by coming and supporting all events posted around campus," Coleman said. "Any and all donations are accepted."

When students attend BCA Week events, awareness is increased in all of the community, Coleman said. "Everyone walks away with a little more knowledge and a little more awareness," she added.

Far-reaching impacts
To raise that awareness, the entire chapter of ZTA, totaling about 150 girls, is involved with the week by serving on committees responsible for different aspects of the week. The sorority works closely with the University Health Center to help plan events, according to Coleman.

Ann Simmons, coordinator of the Health Education and Wellness Program at the Health Center, said that the Health Center has worked with ZTA each year. It was a natural pick, according to Simmons, because the sorority's national philanthropy focus is on breast cancer, and many of the girls really want to raise awareness.

"While breast cancer isn't prevalent in [the college-aged generation], there are so many preventative techniques to share, and I really think that [ZTA] knew the importance of that," Simmons said, adding that the Health Center offers classes on breast cancer prevention. Contact simmonae for more information.

In addition to learning prevention, Sullivan also said that the events are very important to breast cancer survivors. "It gives survivors a chance to celebrate, and for people who have lost loved ones to feel that they have a channel by which they can make a difference to benefit others who are suffering with the disease," she said. "These events can bring the idea [that breast cancer affects entire families] closer to home and inspire JMU students to get involved in this very important battle for life."

She said that it was exciting to see how the week became an event in which the entire campus could be involved. "Every time I walked through campus it brought tears to my eyes," Sullivan said. "It's just a sea of pink."