Each year in October we honor those who were lost to or are fighting breast cancer, through the color pink, and this year the student council has organized a school-wide ‘pink-out’ volunteering event where students wrote encouraging letters and notes to women battling breast cancer.
The student council planned and worked to prepare everything up to the two weeks following the pink out pep rally and volunteer event.
“Our historian Alexa works with a non-profit outside of school, they collaborated and got together and essentially they created the event, which helped with raising awareness for breast cancer,” Student Council Vice President, Beatrice Levin, said. “Throughout the entire two weeks leading up to the pep rally, we also sold pink-out shirts that we designed last year. And we gathered all the volunteers from [the student council] club and had them help with that.”
Along with setting up for the volunteer event, the student council members have put a lot of effort into setting up the supplies and creating an appealing environment around the school.
“Every year we decorate the foyer, the main entrance of the school and we also try to do the rotunda because most people go there,” Levin said. “And this year we actually had some of our students and also members from our class just put them along the staircases so that people see all sorts of pink out [decorations] whenever they pass by.”
Additionally, the student council organized an event after school on October 17, where students wrote notes to women fighting breast cancer. The Student Council historian, Alexa Cordero, worked with the National Breast Cancer Foundation, a non-profit that serves to provide help and instill hope into those affected by breast cancer, to organize this event.
“I have been volunteering at the NBCF for 3 years now and I am a High School Ambassador for them. Being an Ambassador means spreading awareness of the organization and promoting the volunteer events they host,” Cordero said. “I worked with their Volunteer Events Coordinator, who I know well, to plan this event. She printed cards with the LT logo and gave us instruction sheets [for the volunteers]. StuCo’s Volunteer Event had volunteers write Encouragement Cards; these cards have uplifting messages and go into HopeKits that the NBCF sends to breast cancer patients to bring them joy in a difficult time.”
The Student council encouraged people to come and participate by advertising it on social media, telling students about it on the morning announcements, and more.
“StuCo had to reserve the cafeteria for use and advertise on social media, during homeroom, around the school, and on announcements,” said Cordero. “During the Student Council class, we set up the cafeteria and spread out stacks of cards, cups of pens, and instruction sheets. We also provided a table of snacks and drinks for volunteers.”
The students who attended the volunteering event after school said they enjoyed making the cards and thought it was a nice environment where everyone gathered to give out encouragement and support.
“I loved spending time on writing cards and helping others with breast cancer and spreading awareness about it,” sophomore, Sahana Thanigainathan said. “It was nice seeing everyone gather for the same cause.”
Overall, there were over 250 people who took their time to stay after school and ended up making over 1,000 cards.
“We’re really happy with the turnout this year for the pep rally and also the volunteering that we did after school,” Levin said. “We didn’t expect that many people to come and help out and it was honestly really awesome to see the whole school coming together.”
