Breast cancer awareness ball raises $1,000

 

Closing out the month-long breast cancer awareness efforts was the Pink Tie Ball, an event that raised over $1,000 Saturday.

Although there was a lack of guests, the event served its purpose. There was a musical performance by a fairly new band organization M.E.I.S.A; two breast cancer survivors also shared their stories with the audience.

Some students said the event was not as successful as last year, while others were worried that the turnout would be as low as it was because there wasn’t enough pubbing for it.

“I’m not sure how the turn out will be, because I only seen it on Twitter and I don’t know how affective just Twitter will be,” said Honesty Brennan, a fourth year music industry student.

The Pink Tie Ball was scheduled to start at 8 p.m., but had only the band and the survivors there half-an-hour later. While the presentation was nice and eight tables were sold only less than half were actually filled.

Some students said the event wasn’t that great.

“It was alright, it wasn’t special,” said De’Andre Sheppard, a second year pre-pharmacy student. “The energy wasn’t great.”

Jennifer Metayer the deputy sergeant general for the event was expecting about 140 people to show up.  But that didn’t show in the audience. While the attendance was not what was expected, many who did show up enjoyed the event.

“I think it was successful, anytime you have an event that brings together people for a positive cause, and then allow them not to always just worry about the pain but to be able to have fun and to get people thinking positively about breast cancer awareness,” said Candy Churchill, a fourth-year political science pre-law student from Chicago.

Some students who were at the event have been personally affected by breast cancer.

“The cause is dear to me,” said Lyndsi Caldwell a grad student. “My mom is a breast cancer survivor for 5 years.”

Even though the two speakers left shortly after their speeches, they got out their message across and left the audience with some facts about breast cancer.

“Caucasian women are diagnosed at a higher rate, however, African-American women die at a higher rate,” said Lella Carter, a breast cancer survivor. “That seems a little backwards doesn’t it.”