The University of Alabama’s Kappa Alpha chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., is encouraging greek houses to decorate their porches with pink lights in support of their first Real Men Rock Pink campaign, which promotes breast cancer awareness.
Greek organizations that participate in the Real Men Rock Pink campaign will be charged $50 for a certificate of philanthropy, a large pink ribbon and pink light bulbs to decorate their house porch.
Proceeds will go toward cancer research to find a cure for the disease.
Alpha President Denzel Evans-Bell came up with the concept two weeks ago. His fraternity brothers noticed that many of the other greek houses had small, individual decorations in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. He wanted Fraternity Row to have a uniform look in relation to the cause.
“The fraternity then created a plan to light up the lane for breast cancer awareness,” Jahmir Jones, scholarship chair of APA, said.
Evans-Bell also said the fraternity realized Breast Cancer Awareness Month wasn’t being represented on campus as much as it should be.
“Supporting breast cancer awareness is something that our chapter really wants to highlight in the community,” Jones said.
Breast cancer awareness campaigns are often associated with women, but Myles Ward, Alpha treasurer, said the campaign shows that it doesn’t just affect women.
“In 2012, the disease has already taken the lives of 39,510 women and 410 men,” Ward said. “It is important to note that men suffer from this disease as well – hence the campaign name, ‘Real Men Rock Pink.’”
Evans-Bell reached out to greek organizations for participants. As of now, there are eight organizations ready to participate.
Logan Austin, Theta Chi president, said his fraternity decided to participate after Evans-Bell contacted him about the campaign. They thought it would be great to contribute to Real Men Rock Pink, Austin said.
Austin said Theta Chi has always sought out philanthropic causes, whether to bring awareness, fundraise or actively work to clean up or rebuild.
“All of our members believe that supporting a cause that impacts so many people around the country and world is most definitely worth the effort,” Austin said. “To be able to bring awareness while raising funds for a cause such as this is a great opportunity to help those that truly need it.”
Adrian Smith, correspondent secretary of Alpha, said his fraternity chapter plans to continue the campaign.
“Our hope is to grow this campaign and make it an annual effort so that we may help promote breast cancer awareness at The University of Alabama,” Smith said.
KA already has some willing participants for next year’s Real Men Rock Pink campaign. Theta Chi still plans to get involved.
“We look forward to Alpha Phi Alpha’s campaign again next year, where we will be more than happy to help out in any way possible,” Austin said.
The campaign, which is exclusively for greek houses, will continue throughout the month of October.
Interested participants should contact Evans-Bell at [email protected].
