October is breast cancer awareness month, and there is plenty of awareness going on around Verona: Town Hall and the Verona Public Library are lit with pink flood lamps and the Minette’s Angels Foundation is tying pink ribbons around lampposts downtown while getting ready for a fundraising walk and sports events.
Michele Kiernan, RN, the vice president of Minette’s Angels, was joined in the ribbon tying by board members Karen Lavery and Patty Bishop, and volunteer Angels Lisa Lapone, Bev LaRiccia, Coleen Gurkas and Rosana Conry. Gurkas and Conry are both nurses with the RWJ Barnabas Health Breast Center. Minette’s Angels has supported patients at the Breast Center for many years.
On Thursday, October 14, the girls volleyball teams from Verona and Cedar Grove high schools will play their annual Dig Pink fundraising game, at 6 p.m. at Verona. Community members can buy t-shirts supporting the teams from Academy Apparel and all proceeds will support the fundraiser.
On Thursday, October 21, Minette’s Angels will hold its seventh annual “Real Panthers Wear Pink” fundraising walk in Cedar Grove’s Panther Park from 6 to 8 p.m. You can register for the walk through Cedar Grove’s Community Pass site.
In October, and at any time of year, people diagnosed with breast cancer can contact the Minette’s Angels Foundation for information and support. The foundation honors Minette Grosso McKenna, a Verona resident and nurse who died in 2003 after a long battle against breast cancer. In addition to its work for breast cancer patients and their families, the Foundation provides scholarships to Seton Hall University’s College of Nursing and it funds the pink gear that Verona High School athletes wear in every October for breast cancer awareness month.
