My Definition: Finding a way to provide new experiences and opportunities for not only yourself but for others. This may mean going out and taking a risk or going outside of your comfort zone in order to make it happen. 

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My Criteria: Creative, optimistic, bold, adventurous, risk taker, and challenger.  

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Reflection: Pink Out Football Game

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Growing up in a small Texas town, sports, especially football, is what the town revolves around. Due to this, many of our fundraisers went to support sports team by buying them new equipment, improving the fields and gyms, and new uniforms. My senior year I was President of Student Council and the National Honor Society. After thinking about our typical fundraisers I asked both advisers why past presidents have always stuck with the same fundraising ideas. Both responded by saying, it takes a lot of time to come up with new ideas and it hasn't been a priority with past presidents.

 

These conversations led to me thinking of new ways we could help others who are not involved in sports while also having a successful fundraiser that our town would want to give to. A week later, still with no ideas, I was talking to my tennis coach about an upcoming tournament we had. Through this conversation my coach confided in me and stated that it was her three year anniversary of being cancer free. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. Right at that moment I knew what I wanted our fundraiser to be. 

 

It was the beginning of August and I knew October was not only football season but also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I brought up the idea to both my advisers about having a Pink Out football game that could not only support our football team but also support Susan G. Komen in order to help fight breast cancer. They both loved it but did state it would take a lot of time and effort to plan. I was up for the job. Someone I truly loved and cared for had gone through this horrible cancer and I was committed in helping others fight through it too. I started by getting a committee from both organizations to help get the ball rolling. We started with choosing where donations could be made and decided football tickets and t-shirts for the pink out game would be our best option. 

 

We designed a t-shirt that was sold around town at local businesses and at every school in the area. We also decided to get other clubs and organizations involved so I spoke to my band director and we ordered pink bandannas for each marching band member. One of the committees even had the idea of reaching out to local newspapers, radio stations, and news broadcasters. The game was a week away and t-shirts were selling fast and the news was spreading like wildfire to wear pink to the football game that Friday.

 

Friday October 25th rolled around and people were starting to arrive for both teams. Our news had spread to the opposing team that we were fundraising for Susan G. Komen to fight breast cancer awareness and they too were all wearing pink. Our entire stadium was full of our pink out shirts and money was rolling in. The band wore their bandannas, the football team wore pink socks, and the cheerleaders wore pink ribbons and shoes. It was a great feeling seeing all our hard work be worth it. It came time to announce how much money had been raised for Susan G. Komen and the football team but first our football coach had an announcement. He announced that all the money would be going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation because it was time to try and help fight this horrible cancer. I was aboslutely shocked and now was even more excited to hear the news of how much money was raised. After all our hard work, we raised over $9,000! This was the most money raised in a single fundraiser at our school. This pink out game has now become a tradition and has been done every year by Student Council and the National Honor Society. Being the creator of this tradition was an amazing experience and I learned so much about myself and my team.