Giving Back: Breast Cancer Awareness Month
1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. This heartbreaking disease affects the lives of many people not only people diagnosed, but also their friends and families. With October being breast cancer awareness month, at Joshua’s Pest Control we wanted to take part in raising awareness of this disease and the need for a cure.
The first thing we did was traded our field expert’s regular navy blue hats for pink hats all month long. While driving around town, filling up gas, or inspecting and servicing homes and businesses, our field experts wore bright pink hats to help bring awareness to the cause.
The second thing we did was raise money for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in San Diego. We did this through an internal fundraising competition called, “Penny Wars.” We divided managers into three teams and then encouraged our field and office experts to drop money into the various team’s jars. A penny was worth 1 point and all other currency was worth negative points. For example, a dollar was worth negative 100 points and a nickel was worth negative 5. The team leaders with the most points after a two-week period had to give one of three incentives to the office. The choices were a week of homemade snacks, a car wash, or an upscale breakfast and lunch for the day. The team with the least amount of points got pied in the face by the entire Joshua’s team. The competition with the money was fun and really escalated in the final hours. In the end, the winning team ended up selecting the incentive of a week filled with snacks. The pied faces got messy, but had everyone laughing and we ended up raising hundreds of dollars for a worthwhile cause.
The final thing we did was participate in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on October 16th. Some of the Joshua’s team, along with 20,000 of our fellow San Diegans walked four miles in and around Balboa Park. It was an incredibly amazing sight to see so many supporters dressed in all sorts of pink outfits everywhere you looked. One of the most memorable parts was walking down the 163 and having people on the other side of the freeway honking and cheering from their cars.
We hope that one day we will find a cure for breast cancer, but until that day we will continue to do our part during the month of October to help remind our community of our desperate need for a cure.
