On Sunday night members of the community gathered for a dinner to support a local research effort at Kansas State University.
The Kaw Valley Rodeo Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign started off with a spaghetti dinner held at the First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. The event was held to help raise funds and awareness for the Johnson Cancer Research Center on the K-State Manhattan main campus.
Center Director Rob Dennell explained the dinner is just the start of the longer campaign in conjunction with the rodeo, and provides a great synergy to promote the campaign to fight cancer. Dennell says the center is conducting exciting research such as a new blood test that will be able to detect early forms of cancer that will be going into clinical testing in the near future.
Char Henton brought the tough enough to wear pink campaign to the community after learning about it at another rodeo when the Wrangler corporation reached out to the rodeo community. Henton said at first the center was surprised by the outreach, but the effort has been very successful in the community for the past eight years.
The Kaw Valley Rodeo will feature its 8th annual Tough Enough to Wear Pink event on Friday, July 25th, at CiCo park during the Riley County Fair. Organizers encourage those attending that night to wear pink in support of the campaign, and shirts and ribbons will be available as well with the proceeds to support cancer research.
