Thank you.

Pink for October was rather successful and it is entirely thanks to you. I have a lot of ideas that being, “You know what’d be cool?” Thankfully this one came through, but I couldn’t have done it alone. Everyone who Went Pink and everyone who shared their stories made this event what it is.

I’d like to thank again Brian Gilham for providing the Men section, Tammie Lister for providing the design of this site, Nick Oder for making everything work, and many 9rules members for their support and ideas.

And while this started as a “cool” idea, I think it transcended cool. It mattered. I don’t say that in an ego-inflating way. I believe Pink for October made a difference. Big changes start small. Even if only one person was impacted by this it was a good thing. That one person might find a cure, or fund it, or now know how to convince their family member to do a self-exam every month. And I know we impacted more than one person.

I’ve been asked a number of times this week if I will be taking the site down. No. This site will be used next year and I don’t want to hide content that might help or influence someone over the coming months. There might not be many posts between now and next August, but you never know. I suggest pulling the feed (Bloglines, Google Reader, Feedburner) to stay up to date. Or stop by in the dark of winter (for you Northern Hemisphereians) to get a dose of Pink.

Speaking of Next Year

I’ve jokingly said to a few people that next year’s theme will be “automation.” But it isn’t a joke completely. Next year I will have a mechanism set up for you to enter info about you and your site so that list to the left stays current. I just couldn’t keep up with the requests when I was entering each site by hand, which is why the list stopped at 500.

I also want to provide some themes for people to download. That was a big request from most people who contacted me. Thankfully some designs were made available. But next year I’d like to get 5 to 10 designs for people to choose from.

More video. I had some ideas for short movies, but I have no video camera. Hopefully by next year I will be able to afford one. Actually, I could get one now but I want a good one. Which leads to the next Next Year thing…

Interviews. I’d like to do more interviews with people. Medical people, family members… And I’d like a way for you to participate in that too. It could be something where we allow uploading to this site, or we make use of sites like YouTube.

More posting. More from me, more from you. And please feel free to add your story even if it isn’t October.

Stats

~1500 sites Went Pink.
32 posts.
174 comments.
422 spam comments. None of them annoyed us thanks to Akismet.
700 extra spam emails in my account! :)
~54000 unique visits.
~100000 page views.

C’est Fin

And on that note, can I get a “woo hoo!” Until next time, my thanks to you for making this possible.

I hate pink, especially the pink ribbons. I really do. I don’t understand what they are for… support and solidarity, something like that, but I’m not getting that from a little twist of pink metal pretending to be a ribbon.

I think the pink ribbon marketing thing has totally turned me off to the idea of pink for October. I understand the idea of solidarity, but what I see is companies using pink to sell junk in the name of supporting women with breast cancer. Then I see the whole debate about pink merchandise in the press (and I’ve contributed to this) and it is taking attention away from important information about breast cancer and living with breast cancer that needs to get out there. Did you see the story Reuters sent out recently about how high suicide rates are among breast cancer survivors?

Instead of pink ribbons, I’d rather have national health insurance or any health insurance plan that insures SICK people. The way things are now, if you are young and healthy, you can get health insurance at a reasonable cost. If you are old or, God forbid, sick, forget it.

If you want to support people with cancer, forget the ribbon and lobby for national health care. Or for a state health insurance plan that is open to everyone, rich and poor, sick and well.

When someone without health insurance goes to a public hospital, and can’t pay for treatment, the hospital will write off the bill. One visit to the emergency room by an uninsured person can easily cost the same as one year of health insurance premiums, if not more.

Who makes up the difference when a public hospital writes off a bill? You and me, the taxpayers.

Making a web site pink for October is fairly benign compared to the pink-ribbon marketing that runs wild every October. Retailers offer pink-themed merchandise, then donate only a tiny share of the profits to cancer research.

I’m tripping over these products everywhere I go this month. At the pet store, a pink dog collar printed with pink ribbons sells for $9.99; the tag says 30 cents (30 cents!) from the sale of this product will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the 800-pound gorilla of cause marketing.

But wait, there’s more! At the tea shop, a pink tin of candy. At the supermarket, pink M&Ms. Other recent pink products: scarves, clothing, and nail polish.

Nail polish? All of this just encourages us to indulge in retail therapy while trivializing a very serious disease. This is not about raising money for cancer research; this is about companies selling you stuff you don’t need, just to make a profit. Don’t fall for it.

To read more, go to my blog:

• The Assertive Cancer Patient
• Pink Soup
• No More Campbell’s Soup for Me
• Breast Cancer Barbie

—Jeanne Sather