On pink ribbons and fundraising

On my way to the office this morning, I saw that downtown Lansing has been covered in pink ribbons.

I despise the pink ribbons nowadays.

Don’t get me wrong – my aunt died of breast cancer at the age of 38. I was about 7 or 8 years old at the time. What I remember of that time was a big stuffed dog that she had – there’s a picture of me with it somewhere. I also remember a stuffed bunny puppet that she gave me and I still have it today.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  But somehow, April has now been hijacked for breast cancer awareness. I can only guess that’s because the Susan G. Komen Foundation in this area has their big race the last weekend of April.

I wonder - why does our society pay so much attention to breast (female) cancer? Actually, I don’t wonder much. It’s become a multi-million dollar business to make things pink and sell them, and hey, men like boobs, so we must save them!

But there are many other cancers that people suffer from every day and have higher mortality rates. However, I suppose that colon cancer and blood cancers just aren’t that sexy.

Personally, I choose to donate my time and money to organizations like the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, to name a few. And that brings me to the fundraising part of this blog.

I’ve written a bit about the running part of my journey for my half marathon. But the part that I was equally freaked out about was the fundraising portion of the task. To race, I committed to raise a minimum of $3200 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

This number seemed daunting when I started. I hadn’t ever raised that amount of money before for one cause. But, bound and determined, I set out to reach my goal and more.

One of the things I learned through this process is that in a lot of cases, you just need to ask. I asked everyone I knew. I posted on Facebook on a daily basis, I invited people to fundraisers, I sent out emails and I sent out written letters. I asked people I wasn’t sure would donate, because you never know until you ask.

I’m sure people got tired of it, especially when I had another fundraising going on for a friend.  But you know what the beauty of being asked for money is?

You get to say NO.

It doesn’t matter why you say no. It doesn’t matter if you just don’t respond, or you let me know that you can’t. But the reason that you’re asked is because someone like me is following all the available paths to reach a goal. We KNOW people will say no, which is why we ask way more people than we need to donate to our cause.

It’s your money and you choose what you do with it. There will always be people asking you for money, and like my choice to donate to other cancer organizations, you get to choose where your money goes, no matter how often you’re asked.

As I write this, I am almost to $3500 raised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I don’t know who everyone who donated is, but they’ve donated via the website, by bringing in pop cans/bottles to return (and slips) and by coming to the various fundraisers I’ve had during my fundraising period.

Did I mention that if I get to $3500, I’ll be shaving my head? Yeah, that’s happening, I’m sure.

I run my first half marathon on Sunday. I raised more money than I thought I could to begin with. I can also continue raising money until May 28.

YOU have helped me do something that will make a difference to others.

If you feel so compelled to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, you can do so here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/nikewhlf13/angelaclock

For me, this April is a purple month, not a pink one.