Edie Falco had it.
Melissa Etheridge fights it today.
Two of “Charlie’s Angels” were diagnosed with it.
AU Professor Lucinda Peach died of it in summer 2008.
In addition to these well-known women, breast cancer affects thousands of victims each year. It killed 41,116 women in the United States in 2005, making it the seventh leading cause of death for women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC also reported that over 180,000 women and nearly 2,000 men were diagnosed with breast cancer in that year.
In addition to the disease, women face issues like domestic violence, unwanted pregnancy and lack of information regarding gynecological health every day.
That is why, for the fifth year in a row, Women’s Initiative descended on the quad in a flurry of pink and white on Tuesday to celebrate their annual Breastival.
Among the fallen leaves and students moving to and from class, WI volunteers in hot pink shirts distributed condoms, dental dams, lubricant and stickers. They also sold shirts with handprints on the chest, baked goods, pink rubber ducks and other products to benefit women’s health and empowerment. The slogan on their posters read, “Be Pink, Be Powerful, Be Empowered.”
Former WI Director, Jen Smyers introduced AU to the Breastival in 2005, according to current WI Director, Sarah Brown. Brown said that this year’s Breastival had the same goal as it did then: “to promote breast health amongst young women.”
Director of Women’s Health for WI Mariel Kirschen said because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, the Breastival serves as a venue for educating students about the disease and other women’s health issues.
“I feel like it’s something that women need to be informed about because the more informed you are, the more action you can take [to prevent contraction],” Kirschen said.
In addition to being personally aware of the maladies afflicting women today, she stressed the importance of passing on that knowledge to other people.
Kirschen also said that often the motivation to host events like the Breastival comes from personal experience.
“Everyone knows someone who has had breast cancer or knows someone who knows someone,” Kirschen said.
Though the Breastival has become a fall tradition at AU, the idea for it did not originate on campus.
The first Breastival took place in 2001 at Johns Hopkins University-Homewood, when a group of 13 students from the Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority teamed up with Director of Education and Outreach at the Johns Hopkins Breast Center Lillie Shackney, according to Debbie Stuart, a health educator and registered nurse at Johns Hopkins. The Breastival has since been recreated at over 100 universities across America, as well as in Canada and the Middle East, Stuart said.
The 2001 Breastival focused on giving information about breast cancer so students would not be fearful, but would have some knowledge at an age when the disease can — though rarely does — appear, according to Stuart.
Students at AU’s Breastival went from table to table with a faux passport to be stamped when they answered questions relating to breast cancer. They could then redeem these passports for food.
Though Stuart acknowledged that putting together a Breastival takes a lot of work, she said it was absolutely worth it, “just to see that there was learning ... It was interactive, and students enjoyed it.”
Stuart’s own interest in raising awareness stemmed from her own life experiences.
“I found a lump at 23,” she said. “And it took two years before it was diagnosed because my doctor said, ‘You’re too young.’ And that lump was cancer. So by the time I was diagnosed, it had already been sitting there for two years.”
That was in 1979, and when she was diagnosed for the second time years later, there were more treatment options and more information available to her, she said.
“We don’t want people to go through sudden emergency and we don’t want people to be fearful,” she said.
In addition to the serious side of the Breastival, Johns Hopkins students came up with the idea to have games like pin the nipple on the breast, Stuart said. Pictures of the group can be seen at the Hopkins Breast Center Web site.
Entertainment was a priority at this year’s AU Breastival, Kirschen said. The event was meant to strike a balance of being both fun and informative, she said.
“While we have games and dunk tanks and a carnival and free food ... we also have informative tables of organizations in the D.C. area that spread other information and inform people about the issues,” Kirschen said. “We try to create an atmosphere that is entertaining, like a festival, but we have that kind of harder, educational side.”
Organizations other than WI were also invited to table on the quad during the event.
Rachel Liscinsky, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the women’s rugby team, said her organization joined the Breastival for the third year in a row. On Tuesday they asked students to play a game called “Balloon Boob Darts,” and in years past, they had a dummy sporting a brassiere for tackling.
Liscinsky said the members of the team “believe in the cause.”
“[We] know people that have been affected by breast cancer,” she said.
Additionally, AU’s Public Safety, Colleges Against Cancer, EcoSense, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and many other organizations came out for the Breastival.
The continuous level of participation in the Breastival at AU impressed Kirschen.
“AU’s a very liberal school,” she said. “The fact that we can have something that has the word breast in it? I mean, it’s a festival for breasts ... just the fact that that has stuck — that just shows that AU loves boobs!”
While Brown was not as outspoken as Kirschen, she, too, expressed joy at the university’s ability to keep the Breastival alive.
“Women’s Initiative is proud to have started this AU tradition,” Brown said. It speaks to our university’s ties to local and national organizations and reflects well on AU’s commitment to public service. D.C. has a thriving women’s health and advocacy community, and we are pleased to join them to ensure healthy AU students, staff, faculty and the community through out work at the Breastival and with other programs.”
You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.
