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National Breast Cancer Awareness Activities for Senior Adults

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and at my retirement community we as staff and residents walk in the local Susan G Komen "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" Walk. It has become an annual event that is spearheaded by our Fitness Director and raises money for this worthy cause. It also shows the community at large that the residents and staff within the retirement community where we work and live cares!

I was searching the web to find some other ideas that would help raise awareness and funds for this cause. If you go on-line, there are a lot of ideas. Some bigger, some smaller. Some are practical for our population and some are not. You can get lost in reading them all. It is fantastic that they are so available. Below are a few thoughts that I believe are the best choices for you, as activities director to review and include on your calendar for October. 

  • Have a Doctor or Nurse come in and give your female residents free breast exams and show them how to do an self-exam.
  • You can have volunteers make pink bow pins to sell for breast cancer.You will need pin backings, pink ribbon and glue. I like to use the hot glue gun, but crafts clue would be fine. Sell them for $1.00 each and give the proceeds to your local breast cancer organization or hospital.
  • Have a day at your community where everyone wears Pink .Those who wish to participate must donate $1.00 to get to wear the pink clothes to work. Give the proceeds to your local breast cancer organization or hospital.
  • Hold a Raffle. Get pink raffle tickets and have local stores and businesses donate items to raffle off. Have a table set up in the front lobby with the raffle items so that everyone can view the prizes. Give the proceeds to your local breast cancer organization or hospital.
  • Have a Think Pink Bake Sale.  Have a bake sale with the requirement that each item have some type of pink on them, such as pink sprinkles,pink frosting, pink candies, etc...
  • If you have a chorus group, arrange for them to be a part of you areas local walk. Usually there is entertainment before and after the walk. Make sure they are dressed in pink and that those who hear them know that they are senior adults from your community.
  • Put pink candies in a jar and residents can pay to place their guess of how many pieces there are in the jar. Winner takes the jar of candy home, and the funds go towards the breast cancer organization or hospital. (Sometimes buying pink candy goes towards the candy company's donation at the corporate level.... so you are helping there also.)
  • Check out this amazing collection of photos for more ideas from a Pinetrest collector. (Click on the pictures to get more details.)
Here is a link to the other article that I wrote about this event. . . .  Cancer Walk with Residents

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