The halls of Aragon turned purple when Aragon students and faculty wore purple for the American Cancer Society club’s first-ever World Cancer Day event on Feb. 4.
According to ACS Club President Anahita Ghajarrahimi, “World Cancer Day is an annual event that’s related to the United Nations. It’s part of World Cancer Month in February. The goal is to raise awareness about cancer by giving people information about cancer prevention methods and raising money for cancer research. ACS decided to have Aragon students wear purple, the color of cancer awareness for all cancers.”
ACS club member Maddie Lee adds, “Because there’s a lot of breast cancer awareness days already, people usually think, ‘Oh, it’s just another one of those days’ whenever we have them wear pink. This event was a success because people wore purple instead of pink, which made it more random.”
ACS club members advertised World Cancer Day to encourage participation, posting about the event in the daily announcements and advertising it on the School Loop sidebar as well as on Instagram. Lee says, “Considering the limited publicity [for World Cancer Day] it went well, but I think that next time we should start advertising earlier and specify the date better.”
Freshman Lizzie Heen, who participated in the event, says, “It was important for me to show support for all those who are ill and to raise awareness about cancer.”
ACS Club Member Jenney Zhang adds, “I dressed up because cancer is a pretty big issue in the world right now. Everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer and people should be more aware of it in fighting [the disease].”
Overall, Ghajarrahimi says, “I think for it being our first year it was nice to see people not in the club dressing up in purple. It was great to see that people care about the cause.”
