Memorial Middle School Students Honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Last Friday students, teachers and administrators in the Point Pleasant Borough School District joined people from around Ocean County as they swapped their usual attire in favor of donning pink duds in celebration of “Pretty in Pink Day”.

Sponsored by the Ocean County Health Department, the Ocean County Cancer Coalition and the Long Beach Island Health Department, “Pretty in Pink Day” encouraged residents to participate in the day by wearing pink in recognition of the month of October’s designation as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

All four district schools as well as central administration promoted and participated in “Pretty in Pink Day” however, one class at Memorial Middle School took it a step further and made the day their own.

“The students in my class renamed ‘Pretty in Pink Day’ to Pink Panther Pride Day,” said Memorial Middle School Seventh Grade Language Arts Teacher Miss Megan Baglivio. “They wrote persuasive paragraphs to elicit student involvement, and posted persuasive posters around school.”  

Miss Baglivio said the students’ paragraphs were also read over the school’s morning announcements throughout the week.

 “The students worked in pairs or sets of three to write their paragraphs,” said Miss Baglivio. “They really got into the spirit and they came up with some compelling reasons for their fellow students to wear pink in order to raise breast cancer awareness.”

“You should wear pink at Pink Panther Pride Day to raise cancer awareness, and to show caring and respect for people who are sick,” wrote students Elvin Media, John Kuri and Jordan Serra. “Cancer awareness brings knowledge and knowledge brings power.”

Students Casey Young and Cory Defeo advised students to wear pink in order to raise awareness that breast cancer can strike both men and women.

According to the American Cancer Society over 200,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. While most of those diagnoses are made to women a growing percentage are men.

“Unfortunately, breast cancer is something that will inevitably touch the lives of nearly everybody,” said Superintendent of Schools Vincent S. Smith.  “By teaching general awareness we can potentially lessen its impact.”

Mr. Smith said the entire district was involved in raising breast cancer awareness throughout the month.

“Ou district has taken a proactive approach to raising awareness about breast cancer for nearly ten years,” Mr. Smith continued. “For the past nine years, Point Pleasant Borough School teachers have participated in the Lee Jeans Denim Day to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In addition, our sports teams have helped to raise awareness about breast cancer by adding pink to their uniforms and participating in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk,” he said. “Activities such as these help to reinforce our district’s strong character education program and demonstrate a positive model of behaviour for our students and our community.”