April 20, 1999 - American Cancer Society (ACS) volunteers in Wisconsin have teamed up with the Lac Baie Girl Scout Council to develop a breast cancer awareness badge for Junior, Cadet, and Senior scouts. To earn the badge, the Girl Scouts (who range in age from 9 to 17) must complete four of six tasks:
- First, all of the scouts must find out about breast cancer risk factors and develop a family medical history; then they can
- Learn about mammography by visiting a radiology center or gynecologist's office
- Distribute educational materials to at least two women.
- Volunteer for the Relay for Life or the breast cancer awareness run/walk in Green Bay
- Watch a video about breast self-examination
- Learn about breast cancer symptoms and treatment options
- Invite a breast cancer survivor to speak at one of their meetings. The ACS provides educational brochures for their use.
"We're always trying to think of ways to spread awareness about breast cancer," says Patricia Finder-Stone, an ACS volunteer in DePere, Wis., who helped develop the program. "We feel youngsters can do a wonderful job educating people."
Finder-Stone and Valerie Plasky, assistant executive director of the Lac Baie Girl Scout Council, began meeting last summer to design the program. Both felt it's never too early for young women to learn about breast cancer.
So far, one troop of 20 girls has earned the badge and Plasky said more are working for it. The badge has a simple design with the pink ribbon symbolizing breast cancer awareness, along with the Lac Baie Girl Scout Council and ACS logos on it.
The Girl Scout Council serves Northeast Wisconsin and parts of Michigan where there are 550 troops with more than 5,000 girls.
Finder-Stone said she would like to see the patch program adopted by other Girl Scout councils. "We hope it will be a model," she added.
ACS News Center stories are provided as a source of cancer-related
news and are not intended to be used as
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