Locals to participate in Where's the Chair breast cancer fundraiser
The American Cancer Society’s Junior Executive Board will be holding a Where’s the Chair Wednesdays awareness campaign in October. The event invites participants to search for a giant pink chair around Birmingham in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.
During the challenge, participants can listen to Birmingham Mountain Radio (107.3) for clues of the pink chair’s whereabouts from 7-9 a.m. Using the clues, they will have to locate and post a picture following American Cancer Society Birmingham with #WheresTheChairWednesdays on Instagram. The first person to complete these tasks is the challenge winner. The locations will hold breast cancer awareness information, along with important facts and screening guidelines.
The JEB’s mission is to support the ACS in bringing awareness to all types of cancer through volunteering and fundraising. The Where’s the Chair Wednesdays awareness campaign is just one of their events created to aid the ACS in bringing awareness and care to Birmingham.
The JEB includes downtown residents JEB Co-President Catherine Goudreau and Sponsorship Chair Ian Diament.
Goudreau has served with the American Cancer Society for 13 years, first as a high school and college student with Relay for Life and now with the Junior Executive Board.
“For me, volunteering and donating to ACS feels like a way of fighting back against a disease that has taken so much from so many,” Goudreau said.
Goudreau has seen the ways the ACS helps patients, from fundraising for research to volunteering for patient care to help with the stress that hits patients and families during a battle with cancer.
“My grandmother passed when I was young and my grandfather in 2016,” Goudreau said. “Their strength and determination to fight the disease remains a major motivation for my commitment to the American Cancer Society.”
Goudreau got involved with ACS after losing a math teacher and mentor to ovarian cancer, and other family friends and a coworker have also undergone treatment. Goudreau has found working with ACS to be a way of playing her part in helping, and she even met her husband while volunteering at ACS.
“The American Cancer Society is hard at work to make sure we all get to share more birthdays with the people we love, and that feels like something I really want to be a part of, however I can,” Goudreau said.
Diament, a marketing manager at Shipt, began volunteering with the JEB after looking for a way to give back to the community.
“I figured it would be a great opportunity to get involved, especially with a cause that I'm very close to,” Diament said.
Diament and his family were shocked in 2004 when his father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. While his father was able to beat the disease, Diament and his family were glad that they had help from people around them.
“My father had always been an incredibly healthy person, constantly working in the yard or around the house, so it was shocking to see that someone so strong and healthy could be affected,” Diament said.
Diament said ACS has a life-changing impact for hundreds of patients and families each year.
Although Diament has chosen ACS to volunteer, he encourages everyone to find something that speaks to them and then use that in a way to give back.