This is a guest post by paramedic and service director Chad Pore. If you want to guest post or review on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
October is breast cancer awareness month. We believe that EMS is an integral part of our community and feel it is important that we work to show we can do more than just simply respond to calls. Therefore, we have decided to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). Many of us have either been impacted by someone with breast cancer or know someone else who has been impacted. During the month of October we are planning the following events to raise money for BCRF:
1. Pink Out The Stands: Throughout the month of October we will be selling T-shirts with our school logo (Maverick) which is a bull. The shirts will be pink and the logo black. The eye of the bull will be a pink ribbon. 100% of the profits from the shirts will go to BCRF. The shirts cost $4.50 and will be sold for $10 so that $5.50/shirt. On October 28th is the actual Pink Out The Stands Event. Our high school team plays that night (against St. John) and we are hoping to have everyone wearing a pink shirt. We are also going to have big pink ribbons painted on the football field.
2. Pink Lemonade Stand: We plan to set up a pink lemonade stand at the Pink Out The Stands Event with 100% of the profits going to BCRF. We are also discussing the possibility of setting it up at other high school events throughout the month.
3. Walk A Mile For Breast Cancer Research: Once the game is over on the 28th we are asking people to walk a mile for Breast Cancer Research. In order to get on the track they have to make a donation. It could be $0.10 or even $100. We do not care how much, just something. 100% of all donations will go to BCRF. We will also have a band playing while people are walking.
4. Cake: Once they have completed their mile walk they get a piece of pink or white cake to eat. This is provided to them free of charge.
5. Invisible Bracelet Purchase: We have recently implemented the invisible bracelet program in Kiowa County. You can find out more at www.invisiblebracelet.com as it a great program that benefits emergency responders in obtaining necessary health information. Their materials are pink in color so we approached them about letting us sell the memberships throughout October for the $10 price, but letting us keep $5 from each one to donate to the BCRF
Also, our EMS crews have chosen to purchase some pink t-shirts with the EMS logo on them to wear throughout the month of October while on-duty to show support for breast cancer research.
We are asking for your help in one of two ways:
1. Set up a similar event during the month of October. There is still plenty of time to set-up a similar event and we would be more than glad to help with the planning by getting in contact with our resources from BCRF, t-shirts, Invisible Bracelet, etc…. This is a great way to get involved in the community and show them we are more than just responders.
2. Contribute to our donation to BCRF by visiting our Time For Research website at https://support.bcrfcure.org/civicrm/contribute/pcp/info?reset=1&id=168 and making a donation.
Feel free to contact Chad with questions. Thanks for all you do!
Chad Pore – BA, MICT, IC
Director, Kiowa County EMS
