By Olivia DeScala and Caroline Miller
On Friday, October 14, Hunterdon Central’s Student Council hosted its second annual “Pink Out” event. The super fans, football players, marching band players, cheerleaders, and even the referees all sported pink to show their support for the event.
The “Pink Out” event is Central’s way of showing support for the Susan G. Komen foundation, a breast cancer organization dedicated to spreading awareness in the fight against breast cancer and assisting those who have it.
In the July of 2009, Sean Myers (former football captain and 2011 graduate of Central) lost a close family member to breast cancer. Myers was heavily affected by the loss. “She fought a long, hard battle with cancer, and in the end, the disease took her life. Her death was an eye-opening experience, and I had difficulty coping with it,” he said.
Myers realized that he was not the only one who had experienced losing someone to breast cancer when, in his junior year, a football captain at North proposed that both teams wear bands to spread breast cancer awareness. Once Sean saw how enthusiastic everyone was, he realized that he could make a difference by doing even more to support the fight against breast cancer.
Last year, Myers talked with his teammates, friends, and the Student Council about organizing a “Pink Out” at a home football game against Phillipsburg. Myers also contacted the other team and asked them to wear pink as well. Student Council supported the cause by selling pink wrist bands for students to wear to the game. Myers was taken aback by how successful the event was. “That night, when I walked out onto the field and saw a staggering number of fans wearing pink, I was truly overwhelmed with joy,” he said.
This year to help raise money, Student Council not only sold pink tee-shirts and pink bracelets to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, they also donated one hundred percent of the money collected at the Snack Shack to the foundation. Central’s continuation of Myer’s outstanding event this year was met with much praise and support from both students and Myers. “My vision for Central is that this tradition would happen annually. My hope is that it would not only raise awareness, but that it would bring comfort to those who are currently fighting the disease,” Myers said
A student at Central that has been inspired by Meyers’s message is sophomore field hockey player Julie Hyland whose grandmother and aunt both had breast cancer. Although both survived, Julie can only imagine what the journey must have been like for them. “It makes me sad to think that a lot of people with breast cancer have fewer opportunities in life to enjoy,” she said.
Hyland, along with the rest of her teammates on the junior varsity fieldhockey team, supported the fight against breast cancer by having a “Pink Out” game on Thursday, October 13. The team wore pink shirts that said “Drive out Cancer,” wore pink ribbons, and played with a pink ball.
The field hockey team is also in the process of raising money to help people with cancer by having a goal-a-thon. For every goal that is scored this season, sponsors will donate money. The team also sold tickets, and half of the proceeds went to the American Cancer Society.
The girls on the varsity soccer team have also been supporting breast cancer for the whole month of October by wearing pink hair ties and using pink tape on their socks.
Junior Paige Dillard, a goalie, was extremely enthusiastic about supporting the event. A close family friend of her’s had breast cancer for a long time, but was able to fight it off and is now Dillard’s role model. “I look up to her for strength and perseverance because she battled it,” she said, “When everyone wears pink it really warms my heart because I know that this cause is getting attention and that more people are rooting for a cure for it.”
One of the ways Dillard participated this year by wearing a pink goalie shirt. “Throughout October I wear [pink] proudly and play for those who have been affected by breast cancer, and those who continue to battle through it,” Dillard said.
The Student Council raised $1,400 from the Pink Out, which will be send to Susan G. Komen for The Cure Foundation.