By Joey Davis
Union sorority Zeta Tau Alpha hosted a weeklong event known as “Pink Week,” Oct. 4-8, to help promote breast cancer awareness.
The month of October is known nationally as Breast Cancer Awareness month. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of eight women will develop invasive breast cancer within her lifetime. With that in mind, ZTA chapters across the nation have taken awareness and education as their official philanthropy.
“We will be hosting ‘Pink Week’ to raise awareness and educate others so that breast cancer might possibly be prevented,” said Ashley Kwasigroh, junior chemistry major and community service chair of ZTA.
Zeta placed shower cards on all the women’s dorm room doors along with placing “Think Pink” ribbons in all the mailboxes. Zeta will be teaming up with the American Cancer Society by working at the “Runway for a Cure” event, a fashion show and silent auction. Along with those events, the sorority had an educational booth outside Brewer Dining Hall, Oct. 5-7. The week culminates on Friday, Oct. 8, with the sorority asking everyone on campus to wear pink to raise awareness at Union.
However, ZTA is not the only Greek organization on campus that is promoting breast cancer education.
“Zeta is teaming up with fraternity Alpha Tau Omega in order to work side-by-side on a project,” Kwasigroh said. “This past year we have talked about serving together as brothers and sisters in Christ and the impact we can make when it is more than just one chapter serving. ATΩ helped us coordinate and facilitate the bowling tournament Friday evening.”
Though “Pink Week” may end Oct. 8, ZTA will not stop raising awareness and providing support. After “Pink Week,” Zeta hopes to continue to raise awareness. One way this can be done is by collecting Yoplait pink “Save Lids to Save Lives” lids and putting them in donation boxes placed around campus. For each lid donated, 10 cents will be given by Yoplait to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer foundation.
About 39,840 women in the United States are expected to die in 2010 from breast cancer, though death rates have decreased by 2.1 percent since 1999. These decreases are thought to be the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening and increased awareness through events such as those that Union University’s Zeta Tau Alpha chapter will be hosting.
