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The Spectator
Pink & White Party Supports Breast Cancer Alliance
by Lindsay Getman '10Production Editor
October 09, 2009
This Friday, Oct. 9 the sororities of Hamilton College will come together to host the second annual Pink & White Party in an effort to raise money for the Breast Cancer Alliance. The brainchild of Amy Goldstein '11, the party and its preceding t-shirt and bake sale in Beinecke Village seek to raise awareness about a disease that indubitably impacts the lives of every person on this campus in some way.
According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, with an estimated 200,000 new cases discovered yearly. It is also the seventh-leading cause of death among American women, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Based on such alarming statistics, and her past experience organizing a similar event in high school in mind, Goldstein, a member of Phi Beta Chi, first proposed the idea of a Pink & White Party to Hamilton sorority presidents last fall. The goal of the event is to raise money for the Breast Cancer Alliance (BCA), the fourth largest non-profit, private funding provider to breast cancer research in the United States, which disperses grants to high-impact breast cancer research centers such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Yale Cancer Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The planning committee for Pink & White is made up of two representatives from each sorority, usually one philanthropy chair and one social chair, who meet early in the semester to discuss the t-shirt design, as well as the logistics of both the party and the sale in Beinecke. The week leading up to the party, "each sorority is assigned a day to work at the table in Beinecke selling [baked goods and t-shirts] and offering self breast exam shower cards and breast cancer fact sheets," in order to also emphasize the event's "awareness component," said Goldstein.
Because fraternal and sororal organizations are not permitted to sell tickets to college-subsidized, on-campus events, the sororities "sell t-shirts, which were generously subsidized by the Kirkland Endowment, baked goods and more," according to Goldstein. She added that "100% of our profit from a week of sales was donated to the Breast Cancer Alliance," an amount that totaled $3250 last year.
Though they do not have a specific monetary goal in mind, Goldstein believes that one of the most important components of the event is that, "sororities come together to support such an important cause that affects so many of us," whether directly or indirectly through a family member or friend. She added that, "I've really enjoyed getting to know and working with people in other sororities that I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to. I hope that Pink & White inspires future events to be collectively organized and to rally behind great causes."