Homecoming week, when high school communities typically think “sports.” But Watertown High School thinks “pink.”

WHS has showed its support for breast cancer awareness for the past five years with Think Pink events during Homecoming week.

The last event of Homecoming week is the Homecoming Dance, on Saturday, Oct. 20.  If you get your ticket in advance, it will be $7, but if you wait to get it at the door, it will be $10, so see a Pride Committee member soon and arrive to the gym with your ticket to save $3.

This year, the Pride committee has put in weeks of preparation to have another successful Think Pink Day, the first event of Homecoming week, on Thursday, Oct. 18.

The purpose around Think Pink is to support breast cancer awareness, but what makes it so special to Watertown High School? The pride committee has shared that the class of 2015 started this event in 2014 as a way to honor class president Kayla Johnson’s mother, a breast cancer survivor, who is the sister-in-law to culinary arts teacher Deb Johnson.

This year, WHS is honoring Donna Maher, who is a three-time cancer survivor.

In the first year, students sold 125 T-shirts where all the proceeds of over $1,200 were donated to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Every year since, all of the proceeds go to that organization. Last year, the students donated more than $3,500 to Dana-Farber. 

Adam Joyce, head of Pride and also a WHS gym teacher and assistant football coach, has been a part of Think Pink for all five years. When talking about being able to donate to Dana-Farber, he said, “To see where the money goes is a really great experience.”

This big event doesn’t just happen overnight, either. Each year Pride needs to get permission to be able to decorate the school, design and order shirts, and take orders from students and staff. (They sold 400 shirts this year.) They also hand-make the decorations.

“We make our own Think Pink ribbons to pin on people and that takes weeks of preparation to get together,” Joyce said about all of the hard work from the committee. “The students spend a lot of time in the mornings and even studies putting together those decorations.”

They have made more than 700 ribbons so far to pass out to students and staff, and, according to Joyce, everyone will be greeted with a pin to wear as they come into the school Thursday, Oct. 18.

Pride Committee will spend their afternoon of Oct. 17 decorating the school with pink decorations, like balloons, streamers, posters, and more.

So, what’s the deal between 8:30 a.m. and 3:05 p.m. on that Think Pink Day? Joyce explained: “Every student is going to be greeted with a pin to wear and everyone will be coming in in their Think Pink shirt and we’ll have all the decorations up. We usually take a group Pride photo in the lobby and at the end of the day any students that are wearing pink and are allowed to by their teacher, we take a huge picture down in the gym.”

Joyce explained the idea of WHS promoting breast cancer awareness, saying, “The idea is to get the club to come together in its opening event and bring the school together in school spirit and try to give the school a unified feel to it.”

(For more information about Think Pink events at Watertown High, or to make a donation, please contact Adam Joyce at [email protected].)

–Oct. 12, 2018–