By By CHRIST PROKOS
Staff Writer
People who wear pink in parts of Beaufort County on Friday will save some green when they shop at certain stores.
It’s the second-annual Paint the Town Pink event, and merchants in Washington, Bath, Belhaven and Chocowinity will be offering discounts to anyone wearing pink clothing or pink ribbons. The money raised will go to the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center in Washington.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Eastern Radiology promotes Paint the Town Pink to draw attention to the importance of early detection of breast cancer. The company covers the cost of printing 900 pink T-shirts that are sold for $10 each, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the cancer center. It also raises money by selling pink ribbons and a cookbook with recipes from Eastern Radiology employees. Last year’s event raised a little more than $5,000.
“Paint the Town Pink is a Beaufort County event,” said event coordinator Tanya Dixon with Eastern Radiology. “All these funds go to the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center. Our pink partners with signs are offering discounts to anyone wearing pink. It went really well last year. We were really surprised we sold 500 T-shirts. We ordered 900 shirts this year and are almost sold out. The design changes every year, and people like to collect them year to year.”
Hairstylists at Just My Cut, another major Paint the Town Pink sponsor, are volunteering their time Friday and will donate all profits to the cancer center.
“The biggest thing is letting friends, co-workers and neighbors know that the community supports them,” Dixon said. “We want people to be aware of breast cancer and the importance of keeping yourself checked out.”
Others getting “into the pink” will be Washington firefighters/EMTs, who will sport pink T-shirts for the day.
“I guess our motto that day will be: We’re brave enough to wear pink for the cause,” said Robbie Rose, chief of the Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS Department.
To honor his grandmother who died of cancer, Bath volunteer firefighter Chris Chrismon purchased a pink regulation fire helmet for $300. Part of the money spent on the helmet goes to breast-cancer research. He plans to wear the helmet to car wrecks and rescue calls.
Employees at the Bath State Historic Site plan to decorate their Crabs on the Move crab with a pink boa and pink ribbons for the day.
“We wanted to take part in that this year,” said site manager Leigh Swain. “I know it’s primarily a Washington event, but I saw Belhaven was going to participate, and maybe we can be the connecting piece of the puzzle there.”
American Cancer Society statistics show that breast cancer is one of the most-common cancers among women in the United States and the second-leading cause of death in women, after lung cancer.
For more information about Paint the Town Pink, call Eastern Radiology at 252-946-2137.