It all started with a viral video from Portland, Ore., in 2009.
Doctors, nurses, janitors and patients donned pink latex gloves and danced in hospital corridors and waiting rooms to promote breast cancer awareness. The video has been watched millions of times and spawned an annual video contest with prizes that are awarded as donations to breast cancer charities.
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Augusta breast cancer survivor Lisa Eaton thinks it’s time for central Maine to get into the Pink Glove Dance.
“It just sounded like it would be a lot of fun,” she said. “I watched some videos, cried my eyes out, loved it. I thought, ‘We can do this.'”
Eaton has been recruiting volunteers to dance and raise money toward the initial $2,000 donation that the group needs to make to enter the contest. One fundraiser that’s scheduled is a yard sale from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot outside the University of Maine at Augusta’s Jewett Hall.
The first day of filming will take place next week at the Alfond Center for Cancer Care, where Eaton received treatment. The Alfond Center will be the recipient of the $2,000 entry donation.
Eaton said if they win, she may want to donate the prize money to the Maine Breast Cancer Coalition, which provides financial support to patients and works on breast cancer awareness and education.
Eaton, 50, is on a mission to spread the word about the importance of regular mammograms. She tells a story about sitting in a waiting room before her last mammogram and talking with a 46-year-old woman who had brought her mom to get screened but had never had a mammogram herself.
“I told her, ‘Go have your mammogram, please. If you can’t afford it, there are programs.’ Then my name was called,” Eaton said. “I have been thinking about this woman just about every day since, thinking about whether she got her mammogram. Because it was a mammogram that saved my life.”
A mammogram caught Eaton’s cancer early. She had a double mastectomy, and as of Thursday she’s been cancer-free for a year.
About 12 percent of U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lifetime, according to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Dancing in the video will put Helene Turcotte outside her comfort zone, but she said it’ll be just one more way for her to support Eaton as she has through good times and bad during their 20 years as friends and coworkers at UMA.
“I’m looking at it not just as a dance, but as a celebration,” Turcotte said. “Even if something like this knocks you down, you can get back up and celebrate and use it toward the good.”
Debbie Bowden, administrative director for oncology at the Alfond Center, said it’s common for patients like Eaton to want to give back once they’ve recovered. Bowden said she always tries to support those efforts, so she’s glad to collaborate with Eaton on the Pink Glove Dance.
Bowden said Alfond Center staff were aware of the contest and had talked about participating but had never put something together. But they were enthusiastic when Bowden brought Eaton’s idea to them, and 30 to 40 doctors, nurses, secretaries and others plan to dance next week.
Even if there were no money involved, the video would be good for Alfond Center staff as a way to support a patient and have some silly fun.
“We do have our moments when we cry, but we also have a lot of laughter here,” Bowden said. “There’s a lot of hope, and there’s just a need to keep people’s spirits up. And there’s times when we’re rejoicing because people are in remission and it’s another clear scan.”
From seven possible songs, Eaton chose “Roar” by Katy Perry because it’s positive and upbeat.
UMA is not officially involved, but Eaton hopes to recruit people she knows there to dance, like some faculty members who are survivors and their students. What she really wants is to fill the university’s quad with hundreds of people dancing together.
The videos are due July 31, and voting takes place online starting Sept. 9.
Eaton has set up a Maine Education Credit Union account to accept donations. Checks may be made out to Pink Glove Dance and sent to the credit union at 15 University Drive in Augusta.
Susan McMillan — 621-5645
Twitter: @s_e_mcmillan
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