As Breast Cancer Awareness Month is in full swing, organizations and individuals at Texas A&M are standing in solidarity and raising support for people affected by breast cancer. Some of these organizations include the Texas A&M volleyball team and the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is special to A&M sorority Zeta Tau Alpha, whose national philanthropy is breast cancer. In October, members pass out pink ribbons around campus and host profit shares. Allison Parks, landscape architecture senior and philanthropy chair for Zeta, said the organization has recently shifted their focus to promote early detection and prevention efforts.
“Even a few years ago the big focus was that this is something you’re gonna have to do in your 30’s and 40’s, but a big push recently has been to start checking when you are a college student,” Parks said. “We had a survivor spotlight a week or two ago of a woman who was diagnosed at 26 years old, which is just so close to the age that we are now.”
At their weekly meetings, Zeta members nominate a survivor to visit and share their experience. Parks said many Zeta members know loved ones who have been affected by breast cancer, which makes this opportunity so special. This is true for health sophomore Hope Brittain, a member of the philanthropy committee of Zeta.
“My mom is actually a breast cancer survivor herself, so this philanthropy is really close to my family’s heart,” Brittain said. “The whole reason she even went to get checked was because people started talking about October and breast cancer awareness month coming up, so she went and got her mammogram.”
Zeta partners locally with the Pink Alliance, a nonprofit that helps with Breast Cancer Awareness and funding for treatment and research.
The A&M volleyball team held their annual Dig Pink match on Oct. 19 to raise awareness for breast cancer and bring in money for the Side-Out foundation.
The foundation is a nonprofit based around the volleyball community that raises money for breast cancer research and puts on the Dig Pink program. Volleyball fans who wore pink to the game were able to buy tickets for only $3, and free tickets were offered to any breast cancer survivor or those who currently have breast cancer. Libero and defensive specialist on the A&M volleyball team Amy Houser said the platform the team has is special.
“Its cool that we can support these people and provide them hope and hopefully contribute funds that can help patients with Breast Cancer,” Houser said. “To go do something like this — something that means more than what we’re doing with volleyball — [is] really cool.”