October is Breast Cancer Awareness Week, and our community’s pre-eminent event for advocacy and support for those battling cancer in St. Cloud happens Oct. 21 at the St. Cloud Lakefront from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The annual Pinktoberfest, presented by Pink Heals St. Cloud and the City of St. Cloud, helps to raise awareness and funds for the St. Cloud Charter of Pink Heals, a non-profit healthcare support group that provides financial and emotional support for individuals and families battling cancer. All funds raised for Pink Heals St. Cloud stay in St. Cloud, going directly to local residents and families currently battling cancer and other long-term chronic diseases.
This free family event will include raffles, vendors and a bounce house. The highlight of the event is the Pink Fire Truck Pull Contest. The contest consists of teams of ten competing to pull a pink fire truck at the St. Cloud Lakefront as fast as possible. Call or text 407-267-0109 to find out how you can get involved as a sponsor or vendor. Come out and help support our community cancer warriors.
Sydney Sagel, a St. Cloud Fire Rescue paramedic and president of Pink Heals, said the need to help more St. Cloud residents fighting these debilitating disease meant moving the event from outside of City Hall to the Lakefront.
"Because we've had more vendors, more teams and more people involved," Sagel said. "We've tripled or quadrupled the number of families we've helped. It's great for us, but it creates more help we need from volunteers. People see this at Pinktoberfest and think of it once a year, or think we're just helping cancer victims. We're doing this year-round. We're raising more and more money, but we're helping so many more people."
Sagel noted a recent Pink Heals social event, where all those who've been helped since she got involved in 2020 were invited -- over 120 people from 60 families attended. That's a lot of families that we've helped."
Pink Heals Vice President Logan Smith, Sagel's co-worker at SCFD Station 31, has also big a big help, showing that help is needed in the cause.
"It's not just monetary donations we need," said Sagel. "It's also to find those who can be emotional support for the families of the patients. We're hoping to get more people willing to do that."
Locally, there are programs to promote breast cancer detection. The Florida Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (BCCEDP) makes it easy to have doctor-recommended breast and cervical cancer screenings like Clinical Breast Examinations (CBE), Mammograms, and Pap Smears for uninsured women between the ages of 50-64. In addition to testing for the early detection of breast and cervical cancer, this program also provides further diagnostic testing and referral to treating providers for those women who have been diagnosed with either breast or cervical cancer.
