Tuesday, October 14, 2008

We Made the Front Page!

...of the second section, but hey, we'll take it!

Tribune Photo/JIM RIDER

ND associate dean dons pink to fight breast cancer
By MARGARET FOSMOE Tribune Staff Writer r
SOUTH BEND -- Daniel J. Myers peers into his closet each morning and mulls his choices.

Hmmm, what should it be today?

Pink shirt, pink tie, pink sport coat?

To raise money to fight breast cancer, Myers is wearing pink to work every day during October -- Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

It's part of a large effort in the University of Notre Dame's College of Arts & Letters to raise funds for the cause."I have 12 to 14 pink shirts of one sort or another," said Myers, 42, of Granger, a sociology professor and associate dean. Friends and supporters are giving him additional pink apparel.

Myers provides updates and posts a daily photo of himself in his latest pink attire on a blog: indeliblepink.blogspot.com.

He's raised more than $1,870 so far. All the money is donated to United Health Services to pay for mammograms and related treatment for women in need in St. Joseph County.

Myers' undertaking is part of a wide-ranging effort to raise money for breast cancer prevention and treatment. Arts & Letters employees are outdoing themselves in coming up with creative ways to attract pledges.

Dean John McGreevy is auctioning off the opportunity to be "dean for a day."Associate Dean Stuart Greene is riding his bike 20 miles a day every day this month, asking sponsors to donate 25 cents per mile or $5 per day.

Employees in the music department are leading a weekly $3 walk around the campus

lakes and contributing the proceeds.

For a $50 donation, a graduate student has agreed to dress as a nun. For $100, another will quit smoking for a day. For $200, another will dye his hair pink.

The dean's office is selling Notre Dame note cards with artwork by Barbara Roche, a cancer survivor and wife of the former dean, for $10 for a pack of eight."This thing has snowballed," Myers said last week, dressed in a pink and white candy-stripe shirt and a pink hat. People are e-mailing him pledges and dropping off spare cash donations.

Myers came up with the idea to wear pink because he likes to make fun competitions out of things. "It's made everything so much more lively," he said. Visitors regularly stop by his office to check out his outfit in person.

To contribute, checks should be made out to United Health Services and mailed to Myers at: Dean's Office, College of Arts & Letters, 100 O'Shaughnessy Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

Because he's gathered more than his $1,000 original goal in pledges, Myers on the last day of the month will fulfill a promise: He'll wear an outfit completely composed of pink items (pants, shirt, tie, belt, socks, shoes and a cape) and ride a pink bicycle around campus to personally thank everyone who sponsored him. He'll carry a pail that day to collect additional donations.

The breast-cancer fundraiser started eight years ago as a team-building activity for the college, said Mo Marnocha, office supervisor in the dean's office. It's grown every year since.Over the years, the college has raised more than $37,000 for the cause.

For more information about the fundraising project, call the dean's office at (574) 631-7085 or see: http://al-race-to-raise.blogspot.com.

Staff writer Margaret Fosmoe:
mfosmoe@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6329

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

congrats! and that's a great photo!