[Georgetown’s women’s volleyball team](https://www.thehoya.com/sports/consistency-eludes-GU-at-Home/) will host the University of Pittsburgh Friday at the second annual Dig Pink Volleyball Game, an event held each October at Georgetown for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Side-Out Foundation organizes the Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Rally, holding hundreds of high school and college volleyball matches across the country to educate and raise money to fight breast cancer.
Georgetown raised $300 for the foundation last year, according to Lynette Moster, assistant coach for the women’s volleyball team. Three hundred thirty college teams and 285 high school and middle school teams participated in 2008, raising a total of $390,000 at all Dig Pink Rally matches throughout the country.
This year, Georgetown’s Dig Pink will honor a group of local survivors at the game. The Georgetown Athletic Department helped to organize the event, and Breast Cancer Outreach and Hoya Blue have helped to publicize it.
“I think the best way to spread awareness is to start the discussion,” BCO Marketing Chair Brigitte Granger (NHS ’10) said.
The women’s volleyball team will hand out free T-shirts at the event. Chipotle is donating free food, and while the game is free, donations are accepted. At the game, BCO will sell its signature “Think Pink” and “Save Second Base” T-shirts and candy, and will hand out pamphlets about early detection to raise awareness.
“It’s so important for even women as young as we are to know about early detection, risks and prevention,” said Laura Linville (COL ’10), president of BCO.
oster learned about the Side-Out Foundation and the Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Rally through her alma mater, Georgia Tech, and wanted to get Georgetown involved. Georgetown’s other women’s sports teams, like the basketball, softball and soccer teams, also participate in events that raise money for breast cancer throughout the year.
“One of the reasons women’s sports do this is because [almost everyone] has a friend or a friend of a friend that has been affected by breast cancer,” Moster said. “It is definitely a cause-worthy issue.”
BCO has participated in several events for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On Oct. 3, BCO and the Georgetown University Grilling Society partnered at Grill for a Cause for the third consecutive year. They raised over $500 from the sale of burgers, cookies, pink lemonade and T-shirts, according to Linville. BCO has raised a total of $1,000 since the beginning of the semester, Granger said.
On Oct. 15 and 16, BCO will assist registered nurse Minna Manalo of Georgetown’s Betty Lou Ourisman Breast Health Center at the U.S. Senate Health Fair. There, they will teach women to administer breast exams themselves and distribute informational pamphlets.
In addition, BCO’s first annual Run for the Hill 5K Walk/Run will take place on Nov. 7.
“We hope to make it an annual event if it is successful, and want to reach the greater D.C. area too,” Granger said. “I think this is a topic people really care about.”
Other Breast Cancer Awareness Month events include Adelphi’s Open Bar at Rhino on Oct. 22, BCO’s Think Pink Day on Oct. 23, when students and faculty are encouraged to wear pink, and BCO’s Qdoba Night on Oct. 29.
idnight Mug will donate 10 percent of proceeds this month from the Drink of the Month to BCO.
BCO will use proceeds to help the Betty Lou Ourisman Breast Health Center purchase self-breast exam models and Cancer101 packets for patients.
The Betty Lou Ourisman Breast Health Center is honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month by giving out free massages on Oct. 27 to patients via a lottery system.
“Because about one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer within their lifetime, it becomes very easy to find extremely dedicated and motivated individuals who are truly passionate about the cause,” Linville said. “We have a very busy month ahead of us, none of which would be possible without our great, dedicated members.”
