The crowds were roaring in a sea of pink Friday and Saturday at the men’s and women’s hockey games. This weekend marked the 2nd Biennial Make the Rink Pink event hosted by Zeta Tau Alpha and RIT Hockey. Make the Rink Pink is a huge event put on to raise money for breast cancer awareness and education. During this two day event, hockey fans came decked out in specially made limited edition Make the Rink Pink shirts, pink pom-poms and pink face paint. Some people even dyed their hair pink or got pink extensions put in thanks to the Shear Global Salon.
For over a month before the event, sisters from Zeta Tau Alpha – and even a few hockey players – helped sell t-shirts and handed out pink ribbons to the students, faculty, staff and community members. They also sold “In honor of” pink ribbons for those that know someone who has been affected by breast cancer or for those that are survivors of breast cancer themselves. Shirts, towels, raffle tickets and more were sold to help raise money during the games.
On the days of the games, the hockey players on both the men’s and the women’s team skated out in their specially made pink jerseys. The jerseys were also up for bidding online for one week. The highest bid for the men’s team was $800.00 on goalie Shane Madolora’s jersey. The highest bid for the women’s team was $500.00 on forward Julie Hall’s jersey.
The sisters of Zeta Tau Alpha and the RIT Hockey teams put in a great deal of effort to put on this event and to raise as much money as they could for a great cause. All of the money raised from the aforementioned sales and bids goes to breast cancer awareness and education. Throughout the last month and a half, over $20,000 was raised for the cause. Half of the proceeds will go to the Lipson Cancer Center at the Rochester General Hospital, the other half will go to the Zeta Tau Alpha Foundation who then disperses it to numerous breast cancer awareness and education organizations.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at RIT chapter.