Various groups around campus began their breast cancer awareness campaigns, focusing on promoting awareness and spreading information about the disease, on Oct. 1.

The Tulane Lives Beyond Breast Cancer society and Sodexo have partnered with the baked goods distribution company Otis Spunkmeyer to support Cookies for a Cause this month to promote awareness and raise funds for research. The cookies are being served at Bruff Commons and the Lavin-Bernick Center. TLBBC will also sell cookies from a cookie cart, which will take donations and go around campus from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Sodexo and TLBBC have set a goal for Tulane students and faculty to eat 100,000 cookies in October.

“[The cookies] have become a tradition at Tulane that symbolize Breast Cancer Awareness,” Sodexo

Marketing Department General Manager Thomas Beckman said. “All of our fundraising is centered on the cookies. For each box of cookies purchased, Otis Spunkmeyer donates $1.50 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.”

There are also several additional cookie events held this month. Sodexo is holding Pink Teas at the Josephine Louise residence hall on Oct. 17 in partnership with local charity Fleur for the Cure. In addition, Bruff Commons will donate all proceeds from sales to local cancer charities and will be handing out cookies at Fridays at the Quad on Friday.

TLBBC plans to distribute ribbons around campus and collect donations for research, TLBBC president Sydney Licht said.She also said she hopes more organizations will become involved in breast cancer awareness.

“In the next few years, I would really like to see more support in our movement,” Licht said. “Our organization, while very dedicated and motivated, is very small. I would like to see the organization gain more momentum. The goal of awareness is to corral people with different networks, skills and interests to make a difference. I hope that my student organization can spearhead that effort.”

Daniel Mochon, a social and online marketing class professor, assigned his students a project to create a YouTube video promoting healthy behavior. Students Carter Andereck, Stephanie Bekerman, Ryan Hayes, Lichtand Marissa Wollsteindecided to focus their video on breast cancer awareness. The video featured students and staff, including Tulane University President Scott Cowen, dancing with pink gloves on.

Mochon said he thought the video was creative and helped raise awareness across campus.

“It is generally easier to generate attention for a video when it revolves around a topic that others are already talking about,” Mochon said. “The video already has [more than] 1,000 views, so it is clearly raising awareness both within and outside of the Tulane community.”

Marissa Wollstein said promoting breast cancer awareness was something the entire group could agree on doing. Licht expressed her thoughts about what Tulane, as a whole, should continue doing to help raise awareness.

“I believe that we’ve been very successful in spreading our mission,” Lichtsaid. “It is really important that we raise awareness for breast cancer, not just during this one month, but all year. Breast cancer awareness is more than pink ribbons and wristbands; it’s about making sure women affected with this disease know where they can go to understand and navigate the complexities of breast cancer.”