Did you know that over one million people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer each year? That’s just accounting for the people who actually have cancer. But what about all of the people who know someone who is battling with this disease, has been in remission, and/or lost the fight? With so many different types of cancer, some with better treatment than others, it is hard to really understand the full impact that cancer can have on those who have it and their loved ones. To help raise more awareness, Boston University has officially added a new club called ColorCancer that will allow students to have hands-on involvement in helping those with cancer and supporting their families.
BU students Kassandra Nealon and Ivana Chtay started a campus chapter of the non-profit organization, ColorCancer, which is based in Austin, Texas. The goal of the organization is to raise awareness and gain support by connecting individuals through color. What does that mean? Basically, ColorCancer has assigned a specific color to 27 different cancers ranging from Ovarian, Pancreatic, Melanoma, and Breast to various childhood cancers. When an individual purchases a specific colored shirt from the ColorCancer website, the money will be donated to the corresponding cancer. Neat, right? In addition, donations also go towards care packages, which are given to families suffering with the disease.
At BU, Kassandra and Ivana hope to spread this amazing organization’s ideas, which they have started to do so by bringing it to our university. Since it has just been verified as an official on-campus club a few weeks ago, the first step in continuing their service is to gain membership and hold fundraisers to raise money for the organization. For now, the club hopes to have a booth at Relay for Life, passing out flyers as well as having a place for people to donate. The end goal of this chapter is to raise enough money to have an annual event focused on a particular hospital of the club’s choice. Here, ColorCancer members will have the special opportunity to hold a festival-like event for those in the hospital to attend as well as the patients’ family members and loved ones.
Cancer has become such a widespread epidemic, but now thanks to BU ColorCancer students have the opportunity to make an impact. Kassandra and Ivana continue to make strides with this organization and we wish them all the best in their actions to help raise awareness for such a terrible disease.
If BU ColorCancer is something you would like to get involved with, the club meets every Monday in CGS, room 511 at 7pm, or you can email them at bucolorcancer@gmail.com!