by Gabrielle Carbonara, Juris Blog Contributor
For over 25 years, October has been National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, raising awareness and educating people about breast cancer. Around Duquesne’s campus, you likely have seen pink ribbons and signs for relay events and if you have ever strolled down Academic Walk, I’m sure you have seen the pink fountain. Here at the law school, students work hard throughout the year to raise awareness and do as much fundraising as possible to help find a cure.
A little over a year ago, a friend and fellow third-year law student sadly lost his mother, Peggy Panucci, after her long battle with breast cancer. A group of us rallied around him and his family and helped create the foundation, Panucci’s Promise. Over the last year, especially in October, a group of law students joined Panucci’s Promise, including the Woman’s Law Association and the Italian-American Society, and have co-sponsored fundraising events ranging from lunchtime pizza and bake sales to musical concerts, featuring some of Duquesne’s finest professors and students.
Panucci’s Promise has recently teamed up with Yankee Candle for “Candles for a Cause,” donating all the proceeds to the American Cancer Society for Panucci’s Promise Relay for Life team and has branched out into the community to hold some events in the Southside. In the Fall of 2011, Panucci’s Promise, with the help of friends and family, sponsored an event at the Blind Pig in the Southside. At the event, local bands, the Gunners and Mace Ballard, put on a fabulous performance. More recently, Panucci’s Promise held a fundraising event at Carson City Saloon and had some of the Panucci’s friends and family guest bartending and collecting donations.
When it came time to decide where the proceeds of the fundraisers would be donated, Panucci’s Promise chose to work with Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. Peggy Panucci received treatment during her battle with breast cancer there, and the cancer treatment was in need of updates and renovation. Last year, with the overwhelming help and support of friends and family of Panucci’s Promise, the foundation raised enough money to donate two brand-new chemotherapy chairs to Magee-Womens, with the hope to donate even more this year.
If you want to get involved with the fundraising efforts of Panucci’s Promise at the law school, check out Panucci’s Promise on Facebook to find out about upcoming events.
