During the first week of October TCNJ’s Zeta Tau Alpha organized its annual Pink Out Week. ZTA was successful in raising awareness on TCNJ’s campus as well as close to $5,000 in support of breast cancer awareness. I sat down with Meghan Coppinger, ZTA’s Vice President of Programming, to talk about the planning that went into preparing for the sorority’s biggest event of the year.
Q: What is the ultimate goal of Pink Out Week?
A: “Ultimately ZTA set a goal to raise $5,000 for breast cancer awareness. All funds go directly to the ZTA foundation and from there the foundation distributes the money to different breast cancer organizations. This year we raised just under $5,000 and we’re still collecting donations! Aside from raising money, ZTA aims to educate TCNJ’s community on the disease and the impact that it can have on individuals diagnosed and on their loved ones.”
Q: How were you able to involve TCNJ’s community?
A: “When planning Pink Out Week considering community involvement was critical! I wanted to stress that Pink Out Week wasn’t just a ZTA thing but a community thing because breast cancer affects everyone. For every event I tried having professors, staff members, students as well as community members in attendance, and most people have a connection to the disease so they were more than happy to volunteer their services or participate at our events. The balloon release was a big event involving the community. We wanted as many survivors there as possible, and we always end the week volunteering a few hours at Race for the Cure in Jackson. We received a lot of positive feedback from people around campus!”
Q: What creative changes did you make to this seemingly predictable event?
A:  “At the end of every Pink Out Week a survey is sent to all of the sisters of ZTA assessing what events went well and what needs revamping. As new VP of Programming I relied heavily on the packet that was handed down to me from the previous VP filled with her strategies for planning the weeklong event. The binder really came in handy! And feedback from the sisters during our first planning meeting was also very helpful.
The balloon release always raises the most money as a single event but there were two new events that were added. I was inspired by something similar to our smoothie sale on Pintrest and when I brought the idea to my sisters we built on this. I thought having yummy smoothies was a perfect way to raise money for the cause!
As for kickboxing, I wanted an event that would encourage empowerment. I wanted to have the overarching theme of empowerment and health, and kickboxing seemed like the perfect balance between the two! We wanted to introduce some empowering events that made everyone feel like they were taking control of their health! It’s sexy, trendy and cool to care about your health, particularly being aware of breast cancer.”