The First Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Ceremony took place recently at the Gibson Bethel Community Center grounds near the basketball courts on a cool and cloudless Thursday evening. Over 60 area youth and family members attended the candle lighting ceremony to raise awareness in the community.
Deacon Butler offered an invocation, setting the mood for a contemplative moment of reflection. He mentioned a neighborhood family coping with the illness and had the children repeat after him in prayer to thank God for “life, health, and strength.”
Parks and Recreation Director Lorenzo Woodley had help from Gibson Center Commissioner Johnny and assistant director for parks and recreation Carl Williams as they all lit the candles provided for the kids. Afterwards they blew them out together in a solemn moment to show solidarity with those that have had to live with the disease.
“We want to be a catalyst,” said Williams about the evening, “by educating not only our youth but our community as a whole so we can take a proactive approach in the fight against breast cancer.”
The idea for the event came from Gibson Bethel football and cheerleading coaches and commissioners. For the Saturday October 13 football game on Murray Field players and coaches all work pink and the football field was marked with the pink ribbon breast cancer awareness emblem.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent statistics from 2008, 40,589 died from the disease that year and 210,203 women were diagnosed.
