5K allows Valley to team up against breast cancer

BRAWLEY — From police patrol cars to football helmets to the Holtville water tower, the color pink has been on display this month throughout the Valley in observance of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

On Saturday morning, participants in Valley Women magazine’s I Pink I Can! 5K run/walk at Cattle Call Park were literally doused in pink, and for the most part, they were happier for it.

Pink powder, made of cornstarch and food dye, was blasted at the more than 250 participants during the third annual event, and they wore it like a badge of honor.

A portion of the proceeds raised from the event benefitted the Imperial Valley Cancer Support Center (formerly Between Women, Inc.), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to both the physical and emotional well-being of Valley residents living with cancer.

Sponsors of this year’s event, including Imperial Radiology, Hospice of Imperial Valley and March and Ash, among others, set up information booths at the starting line.

Once the run/walk began, Brawley Union High School cheerleaders with pink pom-poms sent participants off with good luck cheers.

It was the first time the squad had participated in the event, and they stood at the ready to cheer on every participant who persevered through the course and the gauntlet of color stations to reach the finish line.

Fifty pounds of the pink powder was flung from the five different color stations set up throughout the approximate 3.1-mile route.

Watching from the sidelines in her wheelchair as the crowd began the course was a Frank Wright Middle School teacher, Mrs. Davila.

Due to intense chemotherapy and treatment she’s currently undergoing, the teacher could only watch as participants passed by.

However, a group of teachers from the Imperial-based middle school dressed in Team Davila T-shirts showed their support for their colleague.

“She (Davila) was going through chemo, and she was getting really down,” Monica Munguia, a teacher in the group, said. “Then our principal, Mrs. Heraz, decided that, if we wanted to do the 5K, we could get shirts and support her and bring her spirits up a little.”

Davila has been undergoing her intensive chemo since the start of this school year.

“I think we’ve given her a lot of hope that it’s not in her hands,” Munguia said. “It has really brought her to understand that this is a lifelong thing, but the cancer does not define her. It’s just something that happened to her.”

At the halfway point of the course where a water station was set up, Brawley resident Nena Mendoza saw that her 67-year-old aunt, Carmen Watson, was getting fatigued from walking.

“I told her, ‘You can get a ride,” Mendoza said, “She said ‘I’m not going to quit. I’m going to keep going.’”

It wasn’t the first time that Watson had expressed that resolve to her niece.

In September 2018, Mendoza was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. Six month later, Watson was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer.

With six months of experience battling the disease, Mendoza stood right beside her aunt — just as she did during Saturday’s run.

“I hung onto her throughout the whole route because I wasn’t going to leave her alone,” Mendoza said. “I told her, ‘We’re both battling this. We’re going to get through it.’”

Mendoza and Watson were the last participants to finish the race, and they did so conspicuously, as they were shadowed by a group of about 20 family members and loved ones wearing Team Mendoza shirts.

“It takes a whole team for us to come together and be able to beat this,” Mendoza said.