Author: Josh Bryant
To Our Volleyball Community,
You may not know this, but Dig Pink® and The Side-Out Foundation are inextricably linked. In 2008, with the help of a “hippie” t-shirt salesman, The Side-Out Foundation’s executive director, Rick Dunetz, developed the term “Dig Pink®” as a way to capture and brand the work that volleyball teams around the country were doing to support The Side-Out Foundation’s metastatic breast cancer clinical research. The term Dig Pink® quickly spread throughout the volleyball community and has truly become a proprietary eponym to describe such events. While it’s been incredible to see this term grow, Dig Pink® is a registered trademark by Side-Out and any event using the term Dig Pink® should support The Side-Out Foundation specifically.
The reason for this is about the mission. Because Dig Pink® and The Side-Out Foundation are ONE, we feel liable for all funds donated using this term, and how those dollars are allocated. When Dig Pink® funds go toward organizations that are not Side-Out, especially when they are not used responsibly, it can link back to us and others may question our mission.
However you choose to allocate your funds, we appreciate your efforts. The volleyball community alone is raising millions of dollars for breast cancer research and needs to recognized for that. We ask that when choosing a charity to support, know what their mission is and what impact they are having. The Side-Out Foundation’s mission is to support the most challenging and least funded part of the disease, and because of our supporting volleyball teams, Side-Out’s research is giving more time to stage 4 patients around the country.
One of our goals is solidarity throughout the sport of volleyball. We invite you to support our cutting-edge research and hope to someday have the entire sport supporting The Side-Out Foundation. Our research could eventually impact treatment for ALL cancers, and though we are a national organization, members of your local community could be in our clinical study right now.
If you choose to support elsewhere, we praise you for your efforts towards the cause. Our only request is that you leave the term Dig Pink® out of your event in honor of the work Side-Out and it’s teams are doing. If your wish is to support locally, Side-Out has a 25% grant program in which you can still support a local cancer organization.
Again, THANK YOU for your incredible support and understanding as we continue to work towards changing the way breast cancer is forever treated.
Sincerely,
Your friends at The Side-Out Foundation
This article was originally published at the “Article” source noted above and distributed by The Tutu Project for informational purposes only.
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