Monday, November 12, 2012

Chocolate Festival raises breast cancer awareness - News ...

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For the past nine years, the Women?s Center has commemorated the somber? subject of breast cancer through celebration. While recongizing ongoing research in the treatments of the disease, women and men affected by breast cancer have consistently turned to chocolate to mark the occasion.?

Lois Crowe, chair of the Chocolate festival, introduced one of the few male survivors of breast cancer present at the event ? Herb Pfeffer, who was diagnosed with 18 years ago.

Pfeffer currently holds the second fastest recovery time of any man diagnosed with breast cancer. While speaking to the audience, he emphasized that mental fortitude is crucial in fighting the disease. He has survived three bouts of cancer.?

?I can survive,? Pfeffer said. ?Cancer today doesn?t have to be a death sentence.?

The Chocolate Festival was open to the public and N.C. State faculty for $12 and to students for $7. There was an array of vendors and organizations participating to help raise funds for the Kay Yow Foundation.

Among the vendors were local businesses such as Gigi?s Cupcakes, Chocolate Smiles, Tiny Cakes and the Chocolate Boutique. Representatives for various fund raising organizations, such as the Pretty in Pink Foundation and the Kay Yow Foundation sold merchandise including clothing, jewelry and chocolate.

Barb Fields, community outreach and special projects manager for the Pretty in Pink Foundation, said the foundation does not raise funds for research. Fields said his organization raises funds to provide financial assistance to individuals with little or no insurance who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

?We fight beyond the ribbon,? Fields said. ?As a 12-year survivor myself, I want to help others affected by alleviating most or all of their financial burden.?

On display at the Pretty in Pink Foundation table was a map of North Carolina decorated with various pink rhinestones representing the ?champions? the foundation has assisted. In addition to the Chocolate Festival, the foundation sells t-shirts, bracelets, koozies, bumper stickers and raffle tickets to raise money.

The Pretty in Pink Foundation also provides financial assistance to provide survivors with wigs, bras and prosthetics. After the Pretty in Pink Foundation has approved an applicant they never see their bills and so they are able to battle breast cancer without having to worry about money.

Robin Pate, director of community development of the Kay Yow Foundation said her organization has been participating in the Chocolate Festival for about three years. Pate used to coach with Yow, the former champion women?s basketball coach, and he said it is great to seemingly be working for Kay Yow again.

?Since the Kay Yow Foundation began at N.C. State, the festival is a great way to reconnect with campus life and share the importance of the cause with the public,? Pate said.?

The Kay Yow Foundation has already raised $7 million in the short five years since it started. All of this money goes toward funding research to help find a cure for late stage breast cancer patients.

Sonja Edwards, an eighth-year volunteer for the Chocolate Festival, said the event grows larger every year and that the leadership at the Women?s Center hopes to host the festival in a larger venue for its 10th anniversary.?

?Volunteering is worth the energy because I know I?m helping to save another person?s life,? Edwards said.

The Women?s Center contacts various local vendors to volunteer and give out about 200 samples of chocolate per table to the festival. For those interested in volunteering in future festivals, Crowe said they can sign up through the Women?s Center website any time four weeks prior to the festival.?

Source: http://www.technicianonline.com/news/chocolate-festival-raises-breast-cancer-awareness-1.2792628

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