See It: The Community being helped

On November 21-23, 2008, Team GOPINK! and thousands of other San Diegans will join the fight against Breast Cancer by walking in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-day, a sixty mile walk, to benefit Breast Cancer Research and Education. Team GOPINK! is a group of women made up my mother, 10+ women, and myself. Each walker has a minimum fundraising goal of $2,200.00 that they must fulfill. Team GOPINK!’s fundraising goal is $30,000.

In order to benefit both breast cancer research and to involve the community, Team GOPINK! would like to host a Benefit Fashion Show & Silent Auction on April 26, 2008. This fashion show will feature local designers and boutiques. Prior to the show, a silent auction will be held to auction off small to large ticket items donated by several San Diego companies. A reception with gourmet hors d'oeuvres and complimentary drinks will occur simultaneously.

Team GOPINK! Captain, Kassandra Sandstrom, plans to continue this project and mission beyond this year's fashion show and walk. With enough support, GOPINK! will continue to grow and thrive. Its mission to end Breast Cancer will live on beyond November of 2008.

See It: The Community being helped

This past year, I was a chair for Miami Country School's annual breast cancer walk that took place on October 27,2007. All of our proceeds went directly through the Heidi Hewes Chapter to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer center at the University of Miami in order to provide tools, equpment and pay researchers to find a cure for cancer. Our goal this year was to obtain $ 50,000. For over seven months, my colleagues and I oversaw and planned the entire event. From selecting merchandise to sell, asking for donations from families and friends, to solely planning a school assembly to motivate people to walk, my agenda was pretty filled up. As a head of public relations for the walk itself, I had to make sure newspapers and local television stations were covering the walk itself and created various forms of advertisement to spread over the Miami Shores community in order to gain support. The summer prior to my senior year, my friend and classmate, Harry Greenberg, was diagnosed with cancer in his leg and had to have his leg amputated. Harry became a prime motivation for me to make this walk as successful as possible. Due to his optimistic look on everything, my fellow chairs and I decided to honor Harry by naming the walk after him. In order to bring awareness to my peersl, I ran a schoolwide assembly where I had speakers of both sexes who had once been victims of breast cancer and recovered and had Harry's parents speak about his progression to show that cancer can happen to anyone at any age. I also had to make sure that committee members were fulfilling their goals and would sometimes had to fill the spots of those who didnt. On the day of the walk itself, I was running around making sure every aspect was perfect and going smoothly. With our merchandise sales, donations and mass support of 300 walkers, we were able to raise $107,667 in Harry's name, which was a 243% increase and had the best walk Country Day School has seen yet! We far surpassed our expectations and to see how much my school united as a whole for one cause was unbelievable. It has been incredible to know that my involvement in this walk has had a huge impact and hopefully the cure for cancer will be attainable in the next few years.