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Community Corner

Paint the Town Pink Strikes Red Bank, Monmouth Beach, and Fair Haven

Riverview Medical Center kicks off Paint the Town Pink with "Paint Everything Pink: A fully pink family day."

It’s not October, yet everything seems to be pink around here.

Three hundred and 65 homes and 205 businesses in Pink Bank, Pink Beach, and Pink Haven have decided to take a stand against breast cancer by participating in Riverview Medical Center’s Paint the Town Pink week.

This weeklong event aims to incorporate the motto of “prevention, detection, and treatment” of breast cancer in women.

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“Early detection is a women’s best defense against breast cancer. And, with it, these women still get to be mothers, sisters, and daughters,” Stacey Donovan, Paint the Town Pink Chairperson, said.

In its entirety, Paint the Town Pink includes fourteen events in seven different towns. The cluster was kicked off on Sunday with “Paint Everything Pink: A fully pink family day.”

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A half-mile of pink paint striped down Broad Street, courtesy of Mark Arnone and donations from Sherwin Williams, lead to a pink carnival in the Riverview Medical Center parking lot.

This gathering of several hundred people was divided into five different zones: Kid's Fun & Games, Pamper Me, Rockin’ Country Thunder 106, Tom's Lincoln Experience, and Real Men Wear Pink.

Various sponsors provided services under the request of monetary donations.  While the kids played on bouncy castles, trains, and ponies, their mothers enjoyed manicures, massages, and makeup applications. The dads who attended got to show their strength on the mechanical bull or with the ring-the-bell hammer. All the while, the crowd got to listen to some rockin’ country music and see some pretty cool cars.

Tom Paolella, public relations manager at Riverview Medical Center, expected that this would be their biggest event, with an anticipated 2,500 attendees throughout the day.

“We sent out over 8,000 mailers to homes letting people know about the event,” he said in an interview.

But, Wendy Dworak and Rosemary Kiel of Red Bank - two breast cancer survivor - didn’t need to be recruited.

“Whenever there’s anything to do with breast cancer, I go to it,” Kiel boasted.

The two long-time friends both agree on the importance of awareness and annual mammograms. 

“It’s just so important to make the effort. Even if sometimes the outcome stinks,” Dworak, who recently underwent a double mastectomy, said.

For this reason, Kiel even does some recruitment of her own to keep her friends aware.

“I really get on my friends at work if I hear they don’t get regular mammograms,” she said in an interview.

Officials say simply building awareness dictates a successful event. 

“Success is a funny word. We don’t think of success in terms of money. Our real success is how many more lives we can save,” Donovan said.

Roberta Angermiller, Manager of the Jane H. Booker Women’s Center, measures success in the number of phone calls they receive following the events.

“In years past, we have definitely seen an increase in the number of requests and inquiries for mammograms. That means that more women are doing what they need to do to detect breast cancer.”

Estimates for the profits of this year’s event are not known, but last year’s Paint the Town Pink grossed over $50,000.  And, at $500.00 per mammogram, that will allow about 100 uninsured women to be checked for breast cancer.

One hundred percent of the profits from Paint the Town Pink directly benefit a Pink fund, providing free mammograms to any woman in need. More information can be found at www.paintthetownpink.com.  

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