The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine recently created a video featuring staff, students and animals in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month that was submitted to this year's Pink Glove Dance Competition.
Medline, the nation's largest privately owned manufacturer and distributer of medical supplies, started the Pink Glove Dance Competition last year as a way to raise awareness about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. Last year's competition featured 139 videos submitted by hospitals and other organizations throughout the United States and Canada.
If the Cummings School wins, they will be able to donate $10,000 to the charity of their choice: the UMass Memorial Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center, which is located in Worcester, Mass.
"We chose this charity because ... we want the charity to be more personal and more local to us," Monahan said.
The video features many Cummings School staff members wearing pink gloves while dancing, and a staff member dressed as a pink glove doing activities such as riding a pony.
Karen Monahan, supply coordinator at the Hospital for Large Animals at the Cummings School, organized the Pink Glove Dance video for the competition this year.
"After I received approval from the dean, I just opened it up to everyone and [informed] them about the dance competition," she said. "Over 90 people participated in this video."
Over 260 organizations are competing this year.
Medline is the supplier of medical equipment at Cummings' Hospital for Large Animals, according to Monahan.
The video took 10 weeks to produce, according to Amy Hogan, central sterilization technician at Cummings' Large Animal School, who was featured in and helped shoot part of the video.
"It's very challenging, especially with animals involved," Hogan said.
Voting is online at www.pinkglovedance.com and open until Nov. 2. Three winners will be announced on Nov. 9, with the winning video receiving a $10,000 donation in their name to the breast cancer charity of their choice. Second place will receive $5,000 for their charity and third place will receive $2,000.
"We are trying to be more creative, so we had some animals become involved in this video as well," Monahan said. "My dog is one of the dancers, and it took over 15 minutes to get him to sit behind the table in order to be ready. He gets wild very easily."
