The Climax Springs basketball teams wear their Pink Out shirts before their game. The founder, DeNay Blanche, is in the middle and holding the basketball.
Have you ever wanted to do something for people in your community struggling with something like cancer? Well, one of my school’s students had an idea to do something for cancer patients in our community.
This student is DeNay Blanche. She decided to start our Pink Out games. Leading up to one game every basketball season, Climax Springs has a weeklong fundraiser that includes selling T-shirts to hand out and ribbons to hang up at the game. Every year, the school we compete against for the Pink Out games is Macks Creek, our biggest rival in sports.
In addition to the games, our schools compete in T-shirt and ribbon sales. This adds more competitiveness to the fundraiser. Once we add up all the money from the fundraiser, we use it to make chemo bags to give to the cancer patients at the Lake Regional Cancer Center. The bags consist of things like gum, games, blankets, fidgets, water bottles, water flavor packets and more.
When asked what her main motive was, Blanche said, “to make a difference in someone’s life.” She also expressed some of the stresses from the entire process, such as the preparation and selection of T-shirt designs. Even though she struggles with these tasks sometimes, she finds joy in bringing two communities together for a good cause.
The fundraiser always adds anticipation to these games, and the community feeds into it. Everyone loves the competition, and the factor of helping others seals the deal for everyone who is involved. This cause has brought both schools together and created something pretty great.
