Feb. 1, 2011
The pink in breast cancer awareness has a new groove: the art of dance! Get Inspired EventsTM, a company who promotes fund raising for charity has created the Get Your Pink Gloves OnTM Dance project, a community-wide campaign to heighten awareness and benefit charity. The event is being planned to coordinate with the Maryland Women's Basketball Pink Zone game on February 13, and is co-sponsored by Maryland Athletics and The Campus Recreation Services.
Get Your Pink Gloves On represents the importance of early detection, and breast cancer awareness. Money is being raised by donations for pairs of the pink gloves and donated to The Kay Yow Cancer FundTM Put the gloves somewhere visible to act as a reminder to get your tests and screenings, early detection saves lives.
The pink gloves are a re-energizing symbol for breast cancer awareness. The University of Maryland sororities are participating in two ways: by distributing pink gloves around campus and in the community, and joining together with various dance and civic groups to perform a pink glove dance during the halftime of the Maryland Women's Basketball Pink Zone game on Sunday, February 13, at 2:00 PM. "We are excited over the commitment from the sororities to support this project as one of their spring philanthropic ventures. Raising breast awareness is a cause that everyone can relate to and feel passionate about. Get Your Pink Glove ON is something that mothers, daughters, and grandmothers can do together. We are registering participants of all ages from the surrounding area for the pink glove dance halftime show. You don't have to be a dancer to perform the two minute routine, its fun, easy to learn and designed for visual affect and accented with the pink gloves. The dance workshop teaches the dance step by step or you can learn it online be visiting our website", stated Brenda Brosnihan, event coordinator. Back in October, Brosnihan organized a similar event in Garrett County, Maryland, and the event heightened breast cancer awareness with the distribution of 45,000 pink gloves and raised nearly $16,000 for a local breast cancer charity.
A dance workshop is being sponsored by The Campus Recreation Services is being held on Tuesday, February 1, from 7-9 pm, at the Eppley Recreation Center at the University of Maryland. You can learn more at www.getinspiredevents.us, the registration deadline is January 31. Persons wanting to donate or receive Pink gloves can contact any UMD sorority or Get Inspired EventsTM. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to perform at the UMD Women's Basketball Pink Zone game; together we share many of the same objectives. The women's team is having another excellent season and we hope everyone will get their pink on and attend the game on February 13, to enjoy an evening of athleticism and activism, a winning combination for women in sports and life, commented Lesa King Whittemore, President of Get Inspired EventsTM.
Background - The Pink Glove Dance originated with the staff of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, in Portland, Oregon donned pink surgical gloves and performed what is now called the Pink Glove Dance. They videotaped their performance and posted it on youtube.com. Since then, their video has gone viral! Medline the manufacturer of the gloves donates a portion of the glove sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Last year they donated over $100,000.
The WBCA® Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The late Kay Yow, and former N.C. State head women's basketball coach served as a catalyst for starting the WBCA Pink Zone. After three bouts of breast cancer, Yow passed away in January 2009.
Over the past four years, the WBCA Pink Zone initiative has raised a phenomenal amount of awareness for breast cancer, as well as a significant amount of donations for women's cancer research. In 2007, more than 120 schools unified for this effort and helped make the inaugural year a success. In 2008, over 1,200 teams and organizations participated, reaching over 830,000 fans and raising over $930,000 for breast cancer awareness and research. The 2009 campaign raised over $1.3 million, reached over 912,000 fans, unified more than 1,600 participating teams and organizations, and saw 56+ schools break attendance records at their event. In 2010, over 1,800 participants came together to surpass $1,045,000 in donations and reached more than 922,000 fans across the nation. Over 22 schools broke attendance records through their participation.
Overall, the WBCA Pink Zone has raised nearly $3.3 Million, has reached almost 2.7 Million fans, and has unified over 4,700 participants in only four years.
