I have a confession. Not an Usher, cheating-on-my-baby mama type of confession, but worse: I have done the Athens breast cancer community wrong.
Are you aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month? For all the pink I wear, street patrons would think differently, but I have barely helped a lick so far.
I utterly neglected my duty as co-chair of Paint Athens Pink, a mission of the Athens Firemen and Chi Omega Sorority. It launched last year and we actually raised more than $3,000, which is more than the $24 to date.
While the Athens firemen wore their pink T-shirts on duty this month and sold shirts at the chili cook-off (I tend to avoid beans) the sisters of Chi Omega — namely me — slacked in our (well, my) duties as T-shirt and Walking Taco fundraisers.
So when I realized there is only one week left for us (me) to sell 200 T-shirts, I hit levels of panic rarely experienced outside of a 1950s bomb shelter. Not only have I let down the firemen (heaven forbid my Jack-o-lanterns run faulty) and my sisters who originally launched Paint Athens Pink, but also these really awesome Athens women.
See, the Southeastern Ohio Breast Cancer Survivors Network is different than other breast cancer organizations. Yes, they take part in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Athens County and Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure, but these vivacious Southeastern Ohio women fill a local gap.
The story: two women who met by fate on the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway saw a need. After learning they shared not only a bike path but also a medical history, the two agreed there was no place in Athens for women with breast cancer to go for information and support. Fast-forward to today: a handful of women meet the second Thursday of each month in a community building also used for Bingo. When you drive there you will likely get super lost because the roads are winding and all trees in The Plains look alike, but for many local women this is home.
These women help other survivors and fighters by providing gas money for doctor visits, buying groceries and offering emotional support in a safe place. They have something big foundations lack, which is warm words from friends who know that beating breast cancer is only half the battle.
To keep this up they need our help. Their local funding comes from us, as long as we remember to buy a $12 pink T-shirt. So come to the top of Baker Center this Thursday and buy a shirt between 12 and 3 p.m.
I am wearing mine not only for my grandma, who died of breast cancer when I was five, but also because there are others still fighting. It is for our mothers and grandmothers, and one day our sisters and bridesmaids too.
Steph Doan is a senior studying journalism and a columnist for The Post. Email her at sd476308@ohiou.edu.
