Last October, PMHS hallways were filled with students dressed in pink attire and dawning pink heart sunglasses sold by the Breast Cancer Awareness Club. Alongside other high schools around the country, the national campaign “Real Kids wear Pink” sponsored by the American Cancer Society challenges kids to wear pink in support of fighting breast cancer. 

Pelham Goes Pink stemmed from an 8th-grade community project five years ago. Current seniors, Maddy Finster, Claudia Hoeh, and Cristina Stefanizzi were inspired to raise awareness after Maddy lost her mom to breast cancer in 2017. For their project, the girls raised almost $3000.

“Then sophomore year, Maddy and I wanted to keep the effort going and decided to start the Breast Cancer Awareness Club at PMHS, to host a ton of fun events all while raising money and awareness for such an important cause,” said Breast Cancer Awareness Club president and founder Cristina Sefanizzi. 

This year will club’s 3rd time sponsoring Pelham goes Pink. The fundraiser has expanded out of the high school with many of Pelham’s small businesses and the Chamber of Commerce participating. Thrive, Danilee’s Helping Hands, Pizza Fenice, and several other businesses in the town wore pink, donated proceeds from sales, held giveaways, or sold pink products in support of BCAC this past weekend. Saturday’s Colonial Cup was a pink-out game for spectators and students. 

BCAC will be accepting donations until December 31st with a goal of $5000. The club has never achieved this goal but has come very close in past years raising $4900. To donate, there is a link in the bio on the club’s Instagram. 

“The goal of the Breast Cancer Awareness Club was to raise money for an important cause that not only impacted us personally but impacts so many people in our community and in the world,” said Stefanizzi. “During our 8th-grade project we found out just how many community members had gone through or had a family member or friend go through breast cancer, and we really hope one day a cure is found and our contributions help that happen.”

With it being Stefanizzi, Finster, and Hoeh’s senior year, the trio has high hopes that the club will continue hosting Pelham Goes Pink and has high expectations for the future leaders. 

“It’s a really great group of such kind people, and I couldn’t ask for a better group to work with,” said Stefanizzi.