Pink Out Night Has Become A Community Event To Celebrate, Remember Those Who Have Fought Cancer


Players and managers from the Glenwood Community School High basketball teams form a human pink ribbon chain during a Pink Out ceremony held Thursday night between the Rams’ varsity games against Red Oak.

The Ram student section had a pink look to it at Thursday night’s basketball games.

Members of the Glenwood dance team wore “Sink Cancer Glenwood ” T-shirts during their Pink Out night performances Thursday.

Dave Wilson was presented a pink rose as one of several cancer survivors in the audience honored at Thursday’s Pink Out ceremony.

Pink Out night at Glenwood Community High School.

Glenwood basketball players honored friends and family members who have fought cancer during the Pink Out ceremony.

Pink Out message on the video board in the GCHS gymnasium.

The annual Pink Out Night has become a winter tradition at Glenwood Community High School.

Thursday night, during the boys and girls varsity doubleheader against Red Oak, Ram basketball players, student managers, dance team members, cheerleaders, pep band members and spectators donned pink attire to promote cancer awareness and honor members of the community who have battled the dreadful disease.

Coordinated by the Reach/SADD chapter at GCHS, Pink Out has evolved into a community night to honor and remember loved ones who have battled the disease in one form or another.

“It has just become a really neat community event,” GCHS guidance counselor and Reach/SADD sponsor Kathleen Loeffelbein said. “It seems like it’s a really nice evening for the community to support those individuals that have gone through the fight against cancer or who are in that right now.”

Pink Out Night started out as a Hawkeye 10 Conference initiative, spearheaded by the FCCLA chapter at Kuemper Catholic High School in Carroll.  The student group raised money for a set of pink basketball uniforms that each girls team in the Hawkeye 10 Conference was allowed to wear once during the season to promote cancer awareness.

“Each school would choose a time they would use those pink jerseys,” Loeffelbein said. “The years have gone on and we no longer use the pink jerseys but we still carry out the Pink Out tradition.”

Loeffelbein said Pink Out Night is usually scheduled on an evening when both the Glenwood boys and girls teams have home games. In between the varsity games, players, managers and coaches from both teams form a human ribbon and the names of loved ones that members of the teams have chosen to honor are read aloud. If the honoree or a representative of that person is in attendance, he or she is presented with a pink flower, often with a hug and tears.

“That’s a pretty meaningful thing that happens,” Loeffelbein said.

Following Thursday night’s ceremony, donation buckets were passed around the audience with the funds going to the Mills County Relay For Life, an annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The theme of Thursday night’s Pink Out was “Sink Cancer Glenwood.”

The Opinion-Tribune

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