Now that the semester has come to an end, it’s time to relax. The second annual Pink Yoga on the Green helped students do just that outside the Klotsche Center on Friday.
“It’s really exciting that they can come in and do yoga for free during finals, and take a little break,” said Sara Luelloff, the fitness program director with University Recreation.
University Recreation partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to offer this fun event where they provide educational resources all about women’s health.
Booths providing information about different kinds of women’s health issues stood in front of the yoga area where women in pink listened to relaxing music as their instructor guided them through the motions.
Amberlea Childs represents Kohl’s Conversations for the Cure, a breast health, education and screening program. Childs is especially passionate about reaching out to the younger generation.
“The hope is that if we can get young adults active in lifestyle changes and living a healthier life in their 20s, by the time they’re in their 30s it will be easier to continue a life like that into your 40s and 50s,” said Childs.
Childs was diagnosed with breast cancer in her late 30s. As a seven-year-survivor, she strives to encourage young adults to live a healthy lifestyle, to be preventative about their health, and to not wait until they’re sick to make healthy life changes.
“Listen to the body,” said Childs. “It’s telling us things all the time, but we’re so busy working our internships and classes that we forget about it or push it to the side.”
Susan G. Komen Mission Manager Gloria Singleton-Young was there representing Sister Pack, a new initiative that she’s doing in the city of Milwaukee that’s primarily based on the black community. Her mission is to inform and educate them that they need to have the awareness of breast health education and to know that they need to be seen by a physician to have their breast exams and mammograms.
According to Singleton-Young, who is also part of the Wisconsin Cancer Taskforce, there are seven zip codes in the city of Milwaukee where black women are dying at twice the rate as their counter sisters.
“I live in one of these zip codes,” said Singleton-Young. “I live in 53206 and so just working there and me being aware of what’s going on in there makes me more passionate.”
For the past four years, Shelby Wester, a nursing student at UWM, has collaborated with Komen Race for the Cure to provide breast health education and breast exams and to promote self-care and self-love.
During the semester, most of the Klotsche’s exercise classes are free, including boot camp, Zumba and guts and butts. Wester was in the Klotsche Center helping provide the free breast exams given for this event.
“It’s really important for something like this to be here on our campus because breast health is not just for older women over 40, it’s for all women and men too,” said Wester, who is ready to graduate this semester and start working at Aurora West Allis in the woman’s pavilion.
Wester says self-breast exams and knowing your body are crucial ways to preventing breast cancer. Women’s breasts are not all the same. Some can feel more fibrous inside while others can feel smoother.
“Know your normal, so you can feel when something’s not normal,” said Wester.
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