Selling stickers, wearing the “Think Pink” t-shirts from the spirit pack and hosting the breast cancer awareness volleyball match are all examples of ways that LHS is raising breast cancer awareness this month.

Stickers are being sold by the marching band, Advocats and Student Council to collect money for breast cancer awareness outside the cafeteria from Oct. 9-27. The money being raised from the stickers will be donated to the Lynn Sage Foundation, according to a marching band director Mr. Adam Gohr. The stickers consist of an orange Wildcat paw and a pink ribbon wrapped around the paw that says “Cats Against Cancer.”

The spirit packs came with a “Think Pink” t-shirt and some of the proceeds from the spirit pack will go to the American Cancer Society, according to Mrs. Andrea Lara, a Student Council advisor. These shirts are intended to be worn during the final home football game on Friday, Oct. 20.

On Wednesday, Oct. 4, there was a home volleyball game against Mundelein held as a breast cancer awareness match. The Main and West Gyms were decorated in pink, gift baskets were raffled off and t-shirts were sold to raise breast cancer awareness.  Almost $2,500 was collected and the proceeds that were collected from this match went to the Dig Pink – Side-Out Foundation, according to Mr. Greg Loika, the girls volleyball coach.

He stressed why it is important to raise breast cancer awareness.

“We are going to acknowledge and honor the people who’ve got friends and family who are dealing with breast cancer, [and] who may have lost their battle with breast cancer,” Mr. Loika said. “So I think even more so than the money we get to raise, the idea that, hey, this is something that impacts a lot of people and get people talking about it. So that when there is another event, at a football game or the Bears game or the NFL or NCAA that people are thinking about it and consider helping out by volunteering, donating time, or donating money. ”

Along with selling stickers, the marching band is also going to apply pink breast cancer awareness tape to their drum sticks, wear pink bandanas and armbands and/or put the Cats against Cancer stickers on their uniforms for the football game on Oct. 20.

Mr. Gohr explained why he feels raising breast cancer awareness is important.

“Each year, we try and find something that’s a little bit different or a little bit more. This year, getting something that could be schoolwide and not just marching band-wide is a priority for us because I want to wear one of these stickers around every day during October because, why wouldn’t you?” Gohr stated. “I’ve had a number of my family members affected by cancer and lost three of my four grandparents to cancer. That’s something that’s touched everybody in one way or another, so it’s something that everybody can relate to. So we want to have a more visible way that we can both show that and then actually raise some money for a good cause too.”