Washington is in the pink — or will be Friday as businesses across town celebrate Paint the Town Pink, a day of awareness and fundraising.

Paint the Town Pink is part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and, for the past six years, has inspired the day’s clothing and shopping choices as local business owners have offered discounts and encouraged their employees to wear pink for the day.

It’s a multifaceted approach to awareness, combining T-shirt sales, a decorating contest and discounts to spread awareness of disease that will kill approximately 40,000 women in the U.S. in 2014, according to breastcancer.org.

The newest Paint the Town Pink T-shirt design is available at Eastern Radiologists, Upfront Café at Vidant Beaufort Hospital and the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center. All proceeds from the sales of the $12 T-shirts will be donated to the Cancer Center.

However, according to Paint the Town Pink coordinator Tanya Dixon, one doesn’t have to have an official T-shirt in order to the paint the town pink in his or her own way.

“We encourage local businesses to allow their employees to get involved,” Dixon said. “We just want it to be a community-wide event — we encourage employers to allow their employees to wear pink and dress down. We just want to see people out being seen in pink.”
An estimated 232,000 new invasive breast cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2014, according to breastcancer.org, and it’s those numbers that spur the Paint the Town Pink awareness campaign and community involvement. In addition to wearing pink for the day, business owners are asked to participate by offering discounts to those shoppers wearing pink on Friday and encouraged to decorate their places of business using the same theme — pink. At 11 a.m. Friday, judges will make the rounds and declare a winner.

“We have a lot of businesses that offer the discount. They don’t mind doing it at all,” Dixon said. “A lot of others ask if they can decorate — which we appreciate because it makes it visible.”

“Pink Partners” are the stores where shoppers can get a discount just by wearing the right color shirt. This year’s Pink Partners include Bloom Women’s Apparel, D&H Equipment, Tayloe’s Hospital Pharmacy, Down on Mainstreet, Grub Brothers, Marabella, Old Town Country Kitchen, Perfect Perks, Pizza Inn, Russell’s Men’s Shop and Wine and Words. La Bella Slices and Ices will be donating 20 percent of sales from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. to the Shepard Cancer Foundation, as well as hosting a bake sale and several raffles to raise money for the Foundation, and Washington Quick Lube will donate 5 percent of profits from their sales.

Those interested in getting involved in Paint the Town Pink, can call Tanya Dixon at 252-931-7722 or Pam Shadle at 252-975-4134.