About one in eight women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her life time. To help raise money and awareness, the Planoettes are holding a “Pink Out” football game for the second year in a row. The game will be held on October 28 at Clark Stadium, during National Breast Cancer Awareness month.
The drill team is selling shirts for the night of the game. They cost $10 and are sold during pep rallies and home games.
“We are not getting any profit from this,” Lindsay Placke said. “We are donating everything we make to the Susan G. Komen foundation.”
Students who buy the pink shirts will wear them to the game against PESH. Although the football rivalry may divide the two schools, they have come together to support this cause.
“This year, hopefully [the money that we raise] will be double from last year because we are teaming up with Plano East,” Placke said. “They are selling the same shirt over at their school.”
It’s not just the drill team and fans who participate. The football team does too.
“The football players last year wore pink tape on their ankles [during the game], because obviously they still had to wear their uniform,” Placke said.
Although the shirts are pink, Placke doesn’t believe there will be trouble getting male involvement. Breast cancer does affect men as well as women, but less commonly. An estimated 1,970 men in the U.S were diagnosed with the disease in 2010.
“There are a lot of men who are staff here at school and maybe if they don’t want the shirt they will buy one for their wives or sisters,” Placke said. “But I think a lot of the men buy the shirt and wear it too.”
Senior Logan Shaefer can personally relate to this cause.
“My aunt passed away from breast cancer,” Shaefer said. “Most people know people who have had breast cancer.”
Placke believes that many people on campus are affected by breast cancer.
“We chose to do this [event] because we figured that there would be a lot of people who would want to participate,” Placke said.
