Head Start children march for breast cancer awareness

Children at the Head Start Kennedy Center in Crestview wear pink to show support as they parade for breast cancer awareness in Crestview. (Special to the News Bulletin)

CRESTVIEW — Children at the Head Start Kennedy and Lakeview centers in Crestview held a parade for breast cancer awareness Oct. 21 in Crestview.

Children marched around the block with soda can shakers, breast cancer stickers and other mementoes to honor friends and relatives who have had the disease.

One in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer, according to BreastCancer.org, a nonprofit organization. A number of Head Start children have seen this firsthand.

Parade participants included India Skanes, 2, who had a sign for her grandmother. Myra Skanes of Laurel Hill, a breast cancer survivor, and her nephew, Brandon Gates, 2, carried a sign for his grandmother, the late Laura Gates, who died with breast cancer.

That, Head Start officials said, is why they make breast cancer awareness a priority.

"It's something we try to do every year,” June Williams, a teacher at the Kennedy center, said. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Head Start children march for breast cancer awareness