Philipsburg:--- On Sunday, October 9, the Positive Foundation and the Elektralytes Foundation will be hosting the annual PINK PHIT PHABULOUS walk-a-ton as a part of the breast cancer awareness drive.The presidents of the foundations, Shelly Alphonso and Mercedes "Elektra" Wyatt respectively, are encouraging women from every segment of our community to come out and make this the most successful walk to date.
"This walk, in the years past, has always had a great turnout, but this year we really want to make it the best ever. This means that women who have walked with us in the past need to come out once again, but also need to bring their daughters, their mothers, their sisters, their aunts, their friends and then still grab their fathers, brothers, uncles, sons, etc., until they have their whole circle with them," Alphonso said.
Alphonso said that it had been heart-warming to see families or groups of friends or colleagues walking together at this event in years prior.
"Breast cancer, like all cancers, does not only affect the individuals who have the disease, but impacts their whole family and by extension their community, so we have to fight this illness as families, and as a community. We need to remind each other to get checked, we need to help inform each other about the facts related to the disease and in order to do that we have to come out and get that information. We also have to support those who are fighting everyday to overcome this illness, and that is what we try to do each year with our walk," Alphonso said.
This year's walk-a-ton starts at Divico in Colebay at 6:30am and ends at the Festival Village at 10:30am. The walkers will leave Colebay and head into Philipsburg via Link One. Once at the village breakfast will be on sale and also there will be Zumba workshops and other informative activities for those in attendance.
"I would really like to see a turnout nearing a 1000 people. As I said before, every year our turnout keeps growing and this year I would really like to for our community to show up to support those who are valiantly fighting against this disease. It is important that those fighting know that they have our unwavering support while they fight on. Everybody knows somebody who is fighting cancer, if not breast cancer, then some other form, so on Sunday we are encouraging you to come out and walk for them.
Participants are encouraged to dress in pink, which is indicative of the pink ribbon icon used to symbolize the fight against breast cancer. There will also be 700 commemorative shirts distributed by the two foundations on that day, but they will shared out on a first come basis, so participants are encouraged to turn up no later than 6am.
"The fight against breast cancer is an important one. Annually we lose too many of our women, locally, regionally and internationally to this disease and it is also one which is affecting our men at increasing rates. As I said before, early detection is the best protection, and this can only occur when there is awareness. So come out and help us send an important message to our community about breast cancer specifically and our health in general," Alphonso said.
