Pink was the color of the day Oct. 5 during the first Pink Out Extravaganza in Hollister, organized by Hope For the Cure Memorial Scholarship committee members.
Downtown businesses decked their shops out with pink-colored items in the display windows while local schools held fundraisers. The evening culminated with a Tackle for a Cure event at San Benito High School with football players, cheerleaders and band members wearing pink.
“I have been hosting a Pink Out Day at San Benito High School and Sacred Heart School for the last three years,” said Mary Andrade, one of the organizers. “I started thinking about it, and it really does affect the whole community. Some people don’t attend games so I thought let’s make it a whole town event.”
The Hope for a Cure Memorial Scholarship gives out five to seven scholarships a year to graduating seniors who plan to attend college and who have lost a parent or grandparent to any type of cancer.
“This foundation was started several years ago in honor of three special people,” Andrade said.
It was founded in honor of Juli-An Rowe, Rose Arnerich and Karen Flaherty.
Andrade said the nonprofit sold pink Tackle for a Cure shirts and Baler Backer Hope for a Cure sweatshirts for the last month. They sold out, but will continue to take special orders for the items by request.
Jeannine DiVincenzo worked with Andrade to organize the event. They gathered up several sponsors, including Rossi Tires, Tiffany Ford, Java Express, Domino’s Pizza, Postal Graphics, Greenwood Chevrolet, Dassel’s Petroleum and Gabilan Welding Inc. The car dealerships put up pink balloons around the lots last Friday, while some stores such as She’s put pink-colored clothing in the windows. Some residents wore pink for the day.
Local schools participated with fundraisers. Spring Grove students raised money in honor of Joey Corral, a long-time janitor at the school who succumbed to cancer in September 2011. Sacred Heart and Gabilan Hills also held fundraisers, while San Benito High School students donated with pink boxes around campus and bought roses for $3.
The idea for the football game celebration was based on NFL efforts, where teams wore pink shoes during the past weekend’s games and referees wore pink wristbands. At San Benito High School, the football players had pink Hs on their helmets while the cheerleaders used pink pompoms during the game. The Scarlet Regiment band members wore pink cowboy hats and covered some instruments in pink. Coaches and referees wore pink ribbons on their hats, while fans also wore the color to the game. They held a moment of silence at the beginning of the game for survivors of cancer and those lost to the disease.
At the football game, residents were able to visit booths promoting breast cancer awareness.
During the halftime show, Hazel Hawkins employees along with Hollister firefighters, EMT and hospital board members performed a dance to Jay Sean’s “Down.”
The hospital employees, board members and volunteers created a video for the Pink Glove Dance contest where they are competing with other hospitals for a grand prize of $10,000 to go to a local breast cancer charity. Voting starts today at http://pinkglovedance.com/home/. The competition is sponsored by Medline Industries, Inc. with a second-place prize of $5,000 and a third-place prize of $2,000. Frankie Gallagher, the spokesperson for Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital, has been promoting the competition for the last month. Voting continues through Oct. 26, with the winning video announced on Nov. 2.
