This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Crestview and Northwest Florida are certainly ensuring everyone knows about it.
This month, check out these events:
•Pink Street Party, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Main Street, Crestview.
Downtown businesses will decorate their storefronts, pink ribbons will adorn light posts and pink lights will grace the Okaloosa County Courthouse terrace's gazebo, event organizer Alicia Booker has said.
North Okaloosa Medical Center's Healthy Woman event will include a breast cancer survivor march, and NOMC specialists will be available to educate attendees about breast cancer detection.
•Relay For Life Kickoff: 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Shoal River Middle School, 3200 E. Redstone Ave., Crestview.
The American Cancer Society annually presents an all-night walk to celebrate cancer survivors, remember those who died from the disease, get some exercise and have fun while doing so.
Thursday's party will include free refreshments for those who sign up a team for the 2015 event. In addition, event organizers will announce next year's theme — as the event's publicity chairperson, I'm keeping my lips sealed, but it's a good one! Get ready to party! — and reward spirit points to those who donate canned goods.
•Making Strides Against Breast Cancer: 9 a.m. Oct. 18, Uptown Station, 99 Eglin Parkway N.E., Fort Walton Beach. Register at 8 a.m. or sign up to walk as an individual or on a team at www.makingstrideswalk.org.
The American Cancer Society's annual fundraiser for breast health programs, services and research may be in Fort Walton Beach, but participants come from all over Northwest Florida.
This is just a sampling of events. Check your church bulletins and club and organizations' newsletters, as there are surely more ways to raise awareness.
So, why is this important?
We'll, we probably all know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but funding fuels research. And some of the findings have saved lives and made symptoms manageable. (Death rates have dipped 32 percent in the past 20 years, according to the American Cancer Society's website.)
That's some promising progress, don't you think?
But the fight against cancer is not over.
That's why wearing pink this month, supporting local breast cancer research fundraisers and donating toward the cause is crucial.
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EDITOR’S DESK: Think pink, change lives, North Okaloosa (VIDEO)