By Adrianne Hutto, Production Editor
Manhattan College students from Greek life to athletes were present at the annual Breast Cancer Walk in Central Park on Sunday, Oct. 16. Some of the groups included Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Delta Tau, The Lasallian Women and Gender Resource Center and several sports teams.
For Delta Kappa Epsilon, participation in the Breast Cancer Walk is a tradition as the fraternity has chosen breast cancer awareness as their chapter’s charity. This year marks the chapter’s eighth year participating in the walk, with a two year break during COVID. Jacob Rine is a junior at Manhattan College studying economics and global business and recruitment chair for DKE.
“We’ve all had people that, you know, family or friends, who have had to go through this and it’s kind of the least that we can do,” Rine said. “And we all have fun with it too. We get up in the morning, some guys will paint their faces, paint their fingernails. And then we head down, take the train all together, and it’s all great time.”
For Rine, the walk is important because of his personal connection to breast cancer.
“I’ve had some family members and some family friends who have had breast cancer, unfortunately, lost their lives from breast cancer,” Rine said.
Rine explained that the fraternity’s enthusiasm at the walk shows through to others. Which is something that usually catches other participants’ attention.
“There’s this lady who was wearing a shirt that said survivor on it, that she was a survivor of breast cancer, and she had this dog that she completely spray painted pink,” Rine said. “And so as we were finishing the race, we were kind of walking and we noticed the dog and came back and she asked to get a picture of all of us, you know, we were wearing our letters, we were on our shirts, and she got a picture of all of us with the dog.”
“So that was pretty cool. Because as we’re walking by and we’re walking past people that work there, or just any other people, we’re always showing our enthusiasm, and they love that about us when we go to the walk,” Rine said. “And so it’s great to see the contribution that we’re making and how appreciative the people working and other people walking in the race are of that.”
Rebecca McCann is a senior at MC and a member of Sigma Delta Tau. While it was her first year at the NYC Breast Cancer Walk, McCann explained that it is still an important organization for her personally.
“Breast cancer is a huge thing that runs in my family,” McCann said. “So, every year I do other walks, but I haven’t done this one in particular. So, giving back and donating is very nice for me.”
Despite having a personal connection to the illness, McCann enjoyed herself at the walk.
“All the frat guys [in] DKE, they’re so funny,” McCann said. “They played music the whole time and just kept the energy going and got everyone else, even people we didn’t know, to be like, ‘Yeah, let’s go,’ that was fun.”
The Lasallian Women and Gender Resource Center was another group with a large representation at the walk. As a part of their participation this year, the center raised 1,500 dollars on their fundraising page. Dr. Evelyn Scaramella is a professor in the Modern Languages Department at Manhattan College and is the faculty director at The LWGRC.
In honor of her mother, Scaramella has been working with the American Cancer Society for over 10 years. For her, fundraising became an outlet for her healing process and as a means of supporting her mother.
“My mother passed away from breast cancer when I was younger, in 2004,” Scaramella said. “And so when I was in high school and in college, she was going on her journey with being a survivor and going through different phases of her battle with the illness. I would walk with various organizations, through my school with friends and with other family.”
MC students had participated in the past, however, not to the degree they did this year, Scaramella explained.
“This year, it was a real pleasure to see all the sports teams participating. There were hundreds of students from Manhattan participating, which was super exciting,” Scaramella said. “So when my group we walked, we started a little bit later because it was a staggered start, by the time we got there and started the organizers were like, ‘Which group from Manhattan [College] are you?’ because we had hundreds of students participating. So it was very exciting to see the school contributing to the cause in that way.”
Despite the walk having already passed, students who were not able to attend and want to contribute to the cause can donate on The LWGRC’s fundraising page using the QR code.
While it can be a joyous and celebratory event, it can also be very emotional for those who were deeply impacted by breast cancer.
“There’s always obviously members in different teams who have personal connections who are survivors themselves,” Scaramella said. “So I always get emotional when I see people walking and people caring about the cause because it’s nice to see other people who are either going through their own journeys with breast cancer or survivors and that’s very inspirational.”
MC students and staff showed their support this weekend en masse, truly embodying the Lasallian spirit of the college. For more information about ways to support Breast Cancer research visit cancer.org.