On February 16th the Florida A&M University athletic department will hold its second banquet to recognize women’s athletics while spreading awareness about breast cancer.
It’s called the Think Pink tea, the Grand Ballroom will be turned into a Pink Wonderland decorated with pink heart confetti and pink carnations. The banquet will open with Miasha Mitchell, a volunteer at the American Cancer Society, who will speak about current information about breast cancer and how people can avoid it.
“They always want to talk about these things, one of the areas that have us at a potential risk is that we’re not talking enough, we’re not sharing the information,” said Mitchell.
“And so by the time we get to have diagnosis it’s very late so early detection is one of the things that is of utmost importance.”
This particular speech could also raise eyebrows when Mitchell mentions that it is possible for men to get breast cancer as well.
“People need to know that we are humans and men have breast too, and because they have breast they to have the risks not as great as females but they do have risk.” said Mitchell.
Freshman distance runner Nicola Lithrop said she was surprised to find out that men also get breast cancer. About 1 in 1,000 males will suffer from breast cancer.
“I really thought it was only females and even though it’s a small number it’s good to know that males get it and they should be aware.” Said Lithrop.
Following her speech the women athletes will be recognized by their head coaches along with any accomplishments made during the season
Marlynn Jones, women’s administrator will recognize the team’s GPA and the player with the highest GPA in order to reward the athletes for not only succeeding on the court but in the class as well.
“The main thing we wanted to do is to recognize the female student athletes and their coaching staffs and give them some recognition for the job that they do. We also wanted to recognize those who have high GPA because they are student athletes,” said Jones.
This event will be held in the Grand Ballroom on February 16th.