On October 13th, the students at Rio Norte got an opportunity to participate in a spirit day in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In order to show their support, they could wear the color pink, which represents breast cancer. The color pink is used to symbolize Breast Cancer because it represents care and femininity, which shows how we support women struggling with this. People first started supporting it during the October of 1985, and 42 schools had their first annual Pink Out on October 30th, 2009. Students and staff came up with many ways to participate in this spirit day.
Students all over Rio came up with various ways to show their support. For example 8th grader Mahlani Tanap states, “I borrowed a bracelet from my friend, I don’t own anything pink”. This was just one of the many creative ways students showed their support. Other than wearing pink, there were many other things students did. For example, almost the entire school put pink face paint on as another way to show support. Some went above and beyond, wearing every possible pink item they own like bracelets, necklaces, hats, and shoes, along with face paint and other clothing and accessories. It wasn’t just the students, many teachers also participated in this spirit day. Some teachers applied the same pink face paint the students were using, and almost all the teachers wore pink, as it was one of the few basic ways to show support and how we care.
We know that pink is the color associated with Breast Cancer, but do we know why? Well, the color pink is said to have soothing vibes which give you comfort, hope and compassion, all of which are related to Breast Cancer in some way. For example, we feel compassion toward the women experiencing this, which is why we have a spirit day to acknowledge the fact that we care. Now that we know why pink was chosen, what about the ribbon? The ribbon was created by a woman of the name, Alexandra Penny. Alexandra Penny worked as an editor-in-chief of Self Magazine and as a reporter for the New York Times Magazine. When Breast cancer Awareness month came around, she wanted to make the magazine’s annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month memorable, so she created the pink ribbon and distributed them to stores all over New York. Since then, we have always used this ribbon to identify Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and it is highly likely that it will not be changing it anytime soon.
Everyone at Rio had a great time showing their support and enjoying this spirit day. Participating in this also got you and your team spirit points which were added up at the end of each quarter. The winning team would get some sort of prize so this also motivated students to support. Supporting this was not required, but the fact that students did it anyway also shows how we care. This day was very significant and will be remembered as one of the largest spirit days at Rio Norte so far.