Cerritos College hosted a Breast Cancer Awareness walk in Falcon Square, Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Students and faculty braved the midday heat to join in the festivities planned and carried out by Ni Bueno, the Health Education department chair.
The event included a walk around campus, a speech made by a guest speaker, a raffle and an obstacle course for the Child Development Center kids.
“This is our 15 year doing the event,” Bueno said. “It is a walk and there’s a couple of reasons we do this. It’s to celebrate survivors who’ve had breast cancer, and also to honor those who didn’t survive. But also for people to recognize the importance of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, to be more proactive and aware of their breast health.”
Nikki Jones, a supervisor at the I.D. Center, attended the event for both personal reasons and to support awareness.
“My co-worker just overcame cancer, so we’re walking for her. And my mother also had breast cancer,” she said.
Before the walk began, Victoria Vaja, a Student Health Center employee, treated participants to a speech about breast cancer statistics and methods for checking for breast cancer, as well as highlighted the many family planning methods available at the center.
The walk began in Falcon Square with cheers from the volunteers and participants. The route wound around campus and ended where it began, where walkers could grab cold water and pick up pink ribbons or informational pamphlets to keep or give to others.
The Child Development Center also put their work in for the event by holding a bake sale.
The proceeds from this are then donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a foundation that focuses on breast cancer research.
Brisa Ocean, a teacher at the Child Development Center said, “We managed to raise $425…we had all our families who volunteer to sell at the bake sale and all the children had worked on making the pink ribbons, so when somebody stopped by to make a donation they could put on a ribbon and spread the word about breast cancer.”
In return for their hard work the children were treated to games, activities, hula-hoops and bouncy balls to play with on Falcon Square’s grass field.
“We try to be involved with campus events,” fellow Child Development teacher Andrea Turner said.
“It’s a good combination of being invited and being happy to take part.”
As an added bonus there is also a spirit award given to whichever division of Cerritos College had the most employees participate in the event.
The winner receives a plaque they get to keep in their office for a year.
After about 30 minutes the participants rounded the corner back into Falcon Square, a little bit slower, looking a bit more tired, but still in good spirits.
Monica Acuna, a Human Resources employee, expressed the importance of awareness and how having a brother-in-law with the disease makes the importance that much clearer.
“It’s really important for people to know that breast cancer is still a really big deal,” Acuna said. “We still need research and funding for it.”
