Seeing pink throughout October makes sisters Cara and Mary Kate Facchina feel fortunate.
More than most teenagers, the Mount de Sales tennis players understand the importance of the pink initiatives supported by many high school teams during breast cancer Awareness Month to raise money for the cause and emphasize the need for early detection.
Had it not been for early detection, their mother, Eileen Facchina, might not be coaching Cara and Mary Kate on the tennis court today.
Seven years ago, Eileen Facchina was diagnosed with breast cancer. Because her mother had died from the disease and her sister had had it, too, she was vigilant. Her cancer was caught early, when, she said, it was barely there. She had a double mastectomy and has been cancer-free since.
During October, many local teams participate in national breast cancer awareness initiatives such as the Side-Out Foundation's Dig Pink for volleyball and Longstreth's Play 4 The Cure for field hockey. Some also run the Komen Maryland Race for the Cure.
Others, including the Facchinas' Mount de Sales team, raise money by selling pink wristbands or pink shoelaces. The Sailors began selling pink shoelaces several years ago, donating the money to Mercy Hospital to help fund transportation for radiation patients.
Even though Cara, 17, and Mary Kate, 16, don't remember much about their mother's illness, they hope that hearing their family's story will make other girls aware of how the disease could affect them someday and how it could affect their mothers now.
"Seeing all the pink stuff around is just a constant reminder to them," Cara said. "Even when a parent asks, 'So, what did you do today with your team?' and they say, 'We talked about breast cancer,' that could trigger something in their mother's mind about getting her mammogram. Even just a little reminder. It doesn't have to be something big, just something like, 'We all wore pink today as a reminder about breast cancer.' "
Century's volleyball team hosted such a reminder with a Dig Pink event Thursday that featured a raffle of three pink volleyballs, each signed by a member of the USA Olympic women's volleyball team. McDonogh sold pink Gatorade and pink baked goods at its event last week.
Arundel and Park are among the field hockey teams competing in Play 4 The Cure. Arundel held its event Wednesday night when the Wildcats hosted South River, in part as a continuing effort to support Seahawks senior Brooke Griffin, whose mother, Jodi Griffin, died of breast cancer a year ago.
This year's Race for the Cure is Sunday in Hunt Valley, and the Friends, Mercy and Perry Hall field hockey teams as well as the John Carroll boys and girls soccer teams will be among those running.
Raising money is important to Eileen Facchina but not the most important thing.
"The main purpose of our campaign was not about money but about raising awareness," she said, "mainly to get the word out that you have to get it early and then you can move on."
Spreading the word about early detection through mammograms and breast self-examination is important to others who have been touched by breast cancer, including John Carroll badminton coach Tess Gauthier, a survivor, and Douglass athletic director Tina Queen, who watched the two women closest to her struggle with it, including her mother, who died at 57.
Gauthier was diagnosed in February 2008 and completed her final radiation treatment a year ago this week. Last fall, she coached field hockey every afternoon after undergoing radiation treatments each morning. She never hid her illness.
"I was so impressed by the majority of the kids that they would be able to engage you and ask, 'How are you doing?' I think that was an important thing. Not to just say, 'Hi Mrs. Gauthier,' but 'How are you feeling?'
"When I was young, all that scared me to death. Now, I think we have so many kids who are dealing with their parents with cancer, and I think if they can see you go through it, survive, handle a job, coach, that it takes a little bit of the fear away from it. It becomes a little bit more personal to them."
When Queen was in her first year at Coppin State, she was one of those scared kids. Her mother, Lena Lockett, died that year.
"I remember I was about to drop out and I met Miss Connie [Constance Blake-Parker]," Queen said. "She just befriended me and told me all the reasons why I needed to stay in school. She really saved me at that point. I call her my guardian angel. Maybe a year later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer."
Blake-Parker recovered. Her diagnosis came early while Queen's mother's cancer had spread too far by the time it was caught.
Although it happens rarely, breast cancer can strike teenagers. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths for women 15 to 39, according to National Cancer Institute statistics. In that age group, 26 percent of all cancers in women are breast cancer.
Queen said that while teenagers need to be informed for their own health, they also can be conduits to reach their mothers and grandmothers.
"My mother, she just did not know," Queen said, "and if I had been educated, I could have told her, 'Go to the doctor, get a mammogram, do breast self-examination.' What comes out of a child's mouth is powerful. To hear a 14-year-old child say, 'Make sure you have a mammogram,' is powerful."
For three years, Queen has walked the Race for the Cure with P.E. In Motion. Jessica Ivey, Baltimore City athletics and physical education specialist, came up with the name for the team of teachers, coaches and other physical educators. The group includes Queen; Ivey; Linda Holmes-Mitchell, the W.E.B. Du Bois athletic director; Dana Johnson, the Southside athletic director; and Gloria Greene, City's swimming coach.
"breast cancer affects all of us, and that doesn't necessarily mean we have it, but we know someone who has or had it," Ivey said. "I started running years ago when Mabel Wilson, who was the AD at Lake Clifton, died of breast cancer. She was my best friend. I would always run in her honor, and I've done it for years."
