A tradition of the past 20 years at Henry J. Kaiser High School, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month events undoubtedly have had an impact on many students, teachers, and staff. However, with the events taking place directly after homecoming week, some felt that it was more rushed than previous years.
“Every year it changed,” said Jamie Psak, a teacher at Kaiser High School, to summarize her experience, “This year was rough because we had homecoming right after (the break) so I think this year was the least amount of time that we had.” Psak’s passion has inspired these events for the past 20 years. For her, her source of motivation is personal. “Well, my mom had breast cancer. She was 79 years old, and I was very shocked. You never expect that to happen, you know? When she was diagnosed, I was like ‘What?’ She was active, she danced, she did tennis lessons, she did the Aloha Runs twenty years in a row! And then, at that age, she got it.”
Psak’s mother wasn’t alone. 1/8 of American women will have breast cancer in their lifetime, and there are currently four million breast cancer survivors living in the United States. Breast cancer poses a serious threat to many people, and is best addressed by spreading awareness throughout our communities. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, “Awareness of the facts and statistics surrounding breast cancer in the United States is key in empowering individuals to make informed decisions about their health” (Shockney, Lillie). This is what Psak has been aiming to achieve during these events throughout the years.
This year’s events included a wear-pink to school day on Oct. 28. in which many students participated, including most students in Psak’s classes. On Oct. 24. and 25, there was a memory board behind the K Building, where students could fill in a box to remember someone who has fought or was fighting breast cancer. The stand was run by Psak and several students from her health classes.
“Generally, I just enjoy volunteering for various things, and it was a fun way to help out.” said a volunteer, Cody Nakajima.
Sofie Oba, another volunteer who is a freshman student in Psak’s health class said, “I chose to help out because I wanted to help with something, and I felt like volunteering was important. I also thought that the memory cards were a really nice idea.”
Psak stated that her inspiration for the memory board, a new event this year, came from her experience with other cancer awareness events. “I was watching a baseball game yesterday, and it was Stand Up to Cancer Day or something? And it was amazing and very emotional to see that in a certain inning, all the fans had signs that said ‘I stand up for’ and they wrote people’s names. The whole stadium, we’re talking about 50 thousand people, had the signs. And then the baseball players themselves had the signs. It’s so powerful. It makes you get chicken skin. So I thought, that’s how I wanted the board to be a little bit, where it brings out emotions, that people see it, and can really have empathy for them, knowing ‘Wow, this many people.’”
Unfortunately, many students seemed to be uninformed of this year’s events. “One of my friends expressed surprise after the fact that it had happened and said that they would have stopped by. Unfortunately, we were doing it in the same place and at the same time as the volleyball sign-ups, so there was some confusion there.” Sofie Oba told me, adding, “I hope that it will happen again next year, as it got postponed and overshadowed by homecoming week.”
Seeing the work that Psak and her students are doing shows how important it is to raise awareness about illnesses that affect people in our communities. Hopefully, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month events here at Kaiser High School will continue to be a lasting tradition, despite temporary setbacks.
Psak said, “We didn’t get that many names, but I like the number of names that we got. I’m surprised that not many people came to the sign. Maybe that’s a good sign. Maybe there’s less and less of that happening.”
