Little girls, and pink ribbons

Breast cancer, the very term is numbing to most, horrific to those living it. While cardiac disease continues to be the number one killer of women, it is breast cancer that fears the heart. Every woman is at risk, without discrimination; every woman a daughter. I have a daughter myself, she's eleven, far too young to worry about mammograms and self examinations. The same ambivalence isn't true for her worrisome father. A worry perpetuated, rightfully so, by constant reminding. Perhaps more so than any other cause, the drive to cure breast cancer remains at the forefront of a nations conscience. Corporate sponsorships and philanthropic trusts shine light on what has become an American obsession. Even the temporarily pink-clad National Football League has joined the fight, and so to it seems has Tacoma Community College.

The home volleyball match on Monday, October 26th featuring the number one ranked TCC Titans and Pierce College is reason enough to show up. In reality though, it almost serves as a backdrop to the nights main event. To honor National Breast Cancer Awareness month, TCC Volleyball will be hosting a donation driven benefit supporting the Susan G. Komen Foundation for a Cure. Laura Reichert, Vice President of Legislation ASTCC, Jennifer Manley, Coordinator of Student Life, and Student Leadership members will set up shop in the gymnasium accepting donations, passing out candy, and distributing a breast self-awareness handout.

Expectations are high, despite normally low attendance at volleyball games. “We would like to make this an annual event. With the support of faculty and the students, we could make this a blowout event,” Reichert said. “We will be in pink. We want a pink out [referring to all in attendance wearing the color],” Reichert said, describing her end vision for the night, “We want it packed.” Game time is scheduled for 7:00pm in the TCC gymnasium. Students displaying TCC identification, as well as Faculty members will be admitted free. Donations are being accepted prior to game day as well, coordinated by Reichert, and Manley upstairs in building eleven.

Throughout the day, TCC's campus will be colored pink. A breast cancer awareness march, the Pink Parade, will emanate from the Child Care Center and weave its way around campus to the Student Center, where a fashion show will follow. Anyone wishing to join the walk, are asked to meet outside Early Learning, building 2, at noon. The most creative, pink adorned outfit will win a very special prize. While Reichert wouldn't elaborate as to what the prize was, she did say that by purchasing the prize from a breast cancer sponsor, it afforded the donation of one free mammogram. Imagine that; one purchase possibly saving a life.

The simple math of October 26th is this, if every student and faculty member donated one dollar, 75 women could get a mammogram. Seventy-five. One dollar. A life saved, for less than the price of a Coke. Some will donate more, some less, but every penny counts in the end. Think of it as a really important, one day piggy bank.

My daughter understands that the more money she puts in her piggy bank the more money she has: What my daughter doesn't know is that breast cancer runs in her family history, possibly even her DNA. She doesn't remember her Aunt in Texas who survived, or met the great-Grandmother who didn't; she was only six as she watched the ravishes of the disease work its horror on a step-Mother. All she knows is the innocence of immortality in the eyes of a middle school student. By the age of 12, she will find out yet another family member will undergo chemotherapy. I want her to understand, to be weary of the dangers, and foresee the implications of what may lie ahead. My hope is she will never have to know. Most of all, I don't want to see her strung up with tubes of radioactive life support probing her veins. For that reason, I will march at noon, and be there at 7:00 pm on Monday. I will be grateful for survivors, remember loved ones, feel anger, and seek hope, sitting with my daughter, explaining the unimaginable, while she watches a volleyball game.