SVMC continues to honor Breast Cancer Awareness month with ‘Pink in the District’

Sierra View Medical Center (SVMC) kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with “Pink Friday” on October 5, which set the tone for a month-long series of events within the hospital and in the local community.

Pink Friday consisted of Sierra View’s pink door decorating contest, and SVMC staff were also encouraged to come together and wear pink to show their support of those affected by breast cancer.

With clipboards in hand, the judges for the hospital-wide contest, including Sierra View Foundation Board Officers, Dennis Townsend and Debbie Landers, walked the floors Friday to give scores on all departments that participated.

The judges were impressed with the creativity and enthusiasm brought forward by hospital staff. Although the cause was the same, the inspiration, ideas, and execution were all very different, making the judging more exciting and quite a challenge.

In an effort to get the community involved, The Roger S. Good Cancer Center Treatment Center challenged Porterville businesses to show their support with a “Pink in the District” business-to-business decorating contest.

Local businesses were challenged to use their creativity and competitive natures by decorating a public space, window or front door at their location to draw attention to the cause. Once the decorating commenced, businesses were asked to tag Sierra View Medical Center on Instagram and Facebook (@sierraviewmedical) with a picture of their completed space. To vote for your favorite business (10 local businesses competed in total), please visit Sierra View’s Facebook page @Sierraviewmedical.

Awards will be given in three categories — Best Decorated Door, Best Recognition of the Cause, and Most Original — both for the internal hospital decorating competition as well as the community-based competition.

Winners will be announced at the Sierra View Breast Cancer Awareness event “Let’s Flamingle to Fight Breast Cancer” on October 18. Sierra View has extended the invitation to the public and staff to join them in the Sierra View Courtyard between 6-8 p.m. The free event will include food, games, vendor goodies (including Lularoe and Color Street), prizes, giveaways, and mammogram certificates.

This year, the awareness is focused on all who have been involved with the battle of breast cancer, including the estimated 266,120 new cases of invasive breast cancer in the U.S. in 2018.

Sierra View is optimistic that their month-long events will bring awareness to their community, and most importantly, they hope the public stays informed and takes the right steps to fight breast cancer, including early detection through annual mammograms.