AT has concluded the 13th annual Go Pink or Go Home week which is occurring the week of Oct. 11-15, and helps to raise money for breast cancer awareness.
The week started off on Oct. 12 with a soccer game at 6:30 p.m. that for the first time had Cheer, Orchesis, Blazettes, Baton, and Flags performing their combined Go Pink routine during halftime.
Oct. 13 was the annual Go Pink walk from 6-7:30 p.m. on the track, where money was donated to go towards raising awareness for breast cancer. This event will also include the police who will be selling breast cancer awareness patches.
The football game at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 ended the weeks of events, with a pink out theme and the sale of Go Pink shirts and treats, which has all proceeds going to breast cancer awareness.
There were also Go Pink shirts and cotton candy sold all week during lunch periods in the cafeteria as a part of the event.
All the money raised from Go Pink events and merchandise will go to the Elmhurst Hospital’s Breast Cancer Rehabilitation Surveillance Program.
The program has recently been added on to Elmhurst Hospital and is funded from what AT donates from Go Pink every year.
AT has recently begun giving proceeds from Go Pink to the Elmhurst Hospital’s Breast Cancer Rehabilitation Surveillance Program with the goal of keeping the money local, to help those who are potentially a part of the AT community.
Elmhurst Hospital started this program as a resource to help people who have fought breast cancer or who currently are fighting breast cancer to ask questions and gain access to information related to the disease.
This was also the 5th year that Ladies is sponsoring the annual Go Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Scholarship In Memory of Elizabeth Clifford, who was a teacher at AT that passed away from breast cancer, where they will award up to $1,000.
With not having Go Pink last year there is a goal this year to raise the most money ever to make up for the money that was lost last year.
Go Pink started back in 2008 with the help of Blazettes coach Lori Irvin and Orchesis coach LeVonne Cesoclini-Boyer, where the idea was sparked from a fundraising seminar for coaches at a summer camp they attended.
That is where they heard an idea from another school that had a breast cancer awareness fundraising event. They loved the idea and began to think,
“What we could do as a fundraiser for breast cancer and the idea just started,” said Cesoclini-Boyer.
“It was important to us, we got so excited about it because we felt it was important to come up with something outside of Addison Trail,” said Irvin.
They were soon able to grow the number of groups involved from Cheer, Blazettes, and Orchesis to include Batons, Flags, Marching Band, Ladies, and Girls Volleyball who had their annual Go Pink game against Willowbrook on Sept. 7.
All these groups have been working together to raise awareness for breast cancer over the span of many years with the goal of helping those that have fought or are fighting breast cancer, as well as to encourage more people to think about how serious breast cancer is.
