Cancer Schmancer Carnival Promotes Awareness, Early Detection

After surviving uterine cancer, actress Fran Drescher founded the Cancer Schmancer Movement, dedicated to ensuring early detection of female cancers. Cancer Schmancer strives to change the focus of cancer discussions from simply finding the cure to include education and prevention. On November 17, 2010, the UMBC campus held a Cancer Schmancer Carnival hosted by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi Sorority.

"The idea came out of nowhere," said Lauren Romano, a senior and president of the sorority. After finding rubber duckies online with pink ribbons in honor of breast cancer, some of the sisters threw around the idea of creating a game with the rubber duckies to benefit the Cancer Schmancer Movement. From there the idea grew into an entire carnival of games.

"We started planning this and we knew we couldn't do it alone," said Romano. The sorority reached out to other members of the UMBC community who they thought would be a good fit or who had hosted successful events before. Co-sponsors included professional services on campus like the Women's Center, a safe place on the campus for women and their needs, and University Health Services. Other co-sponsors included the Pre-Med Society, Colleges Against Cancer and the Student Events Board.

Several members of the Greek Life community co-sponsored the event including Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, Alpha Sigma Kappa sorority, Triangle fraternity, Kappa Phi Lambda sorority, and Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. The new Coordinator of Student Life for Fraternities and Sororities at UMBC, Susan DuMont, played a key role in helping spread the word about the event.

"The women of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi Sorority did a wonderful job of bringing together campus offices and organizations to host a fun and informative event for the UMBC community," said DuMont.

Each sponsor donated time and money to the cause by supplying the materials and running their own games. The games included a bean bag toss, trivia wheel, and ring toss. There was also a cupcake decorating station and tons of information about female cancers. Representatives were present to talk about health concerns and educate participants. Prizes for the games included movie posters, a lava lamp, shirts, stuffed animals, picture frames and more. There was even a guest appearence by UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. 

"Based on the success of this year's event I hope to see the carnival become an annual event for Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi and UMBC," said DuMont. "I had a great time and I won a rubber ducky!"