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Frat dons pink for cancer fundraiser
Courtney Lacy
Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Campus News
© 2007 The Kentucky Kernel

Alpha Gamma Rho members living in the fraternity house on Woodland Avenue watched firsthand as their cook, Dorothy Collie, battled through two mastectomies and breast cancer treatment after she was diagnosed in 1997.

That experience combined with other members who have been affected by breast cancer provided motivation for the fraternity's first Real Men Wear Pink fundraising event.

"I know this is not just personal for AGR, it is personal for everyone," said biology senior and fraternity member Jonathan Harney. "We just wanted to take a common problem and focus students' attention on it to see what kind of difference we could really make."

Students gathered in the Memorial Hall Amphitheater yesterday afternoon sporting pink T-shirts in honor and support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the philanthropy event.

The shirts, which read "Real Men Wear Pink" and "My Man Wears Pink," were sold to UK students and organizations by Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity members through yesterday.

The fraternity raised more than $2,600 from T-shirt sales and presented a check to David Moore, board president of the Lexington affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, yesterday.

Of the money raised, 75 percent will stay in Central and Eastern Kentucky, Moore said.

"The money will be used for educational programs, breast cancer screenings and breast cancer treatments," Moore said.

Event coordinator William Price Stahl was one of the 14 fraternity members who had been affected by breast cancer. His great-grandmother died at age 64 after battling the disease for a year.

"It is tough to get through the loss of a family member," said Stahl, an agricultural economics senior, "especially when that loss could have easily been prevented with the proper screenings."

Fraternity members are hoping this event raised some awareness of the disease, Stahl said.

"The more successful the event is, the more educated the public will become," he said. "People will know about breast cancer, talk about it, and then, hopefully, help fight it."

Alpha Gamma Rho hopes to make Real Men Wear Pink an annual event, said Frankie Edenfield, an English senior and fraternity member.

"We want to keep getting more and more people involved so we can maximize the amount of money we can donate to breast cancer awareness," Edenfield said.