Every cookie matters.
That’s why Stillwater High School teacher Jody Webber so strongly encourages students to buy one – or more – during the bake sale of “Pink Out Week,” the school’s annual fundraiser for cancer research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
“We tell them, ‘What if the dollar you spend on that cookie helps a scientist perform the research that finally solves cancer?’” Webber said. “That’s the ultimate goal of Pink Out Week.”
Each football homecoming week for the past 15 years, Webber has overseen the fundraiser as sponsor of Stillwater’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) chapter. In addition to the traditional bake sale, this year’s Pink Out Week also featured specially embroidered pink bandanas and a 5K run.
The school designated OMRF as its beneficiary of Pink Out Week proceeds in 2011. Students have since raised nearly $145,000, including $15,000 this year.
Two dozen FCCLA students presented this year’s check at OMRF on Dec. 17, then heard from two scientists, one of whom has developed a special connection with Stillwater students.
Jake Kirkland, Ph.D., studies the foundational science of cancer cells. Of particular interest to him is doxorubicin, a breast cancer chemotherapy drug often called “the red devil” for its distinctive color and its reputation.
“It kills cancer cells faster than they can reproduce, but it makes most patients really, really sick,” Kirkland told the students.
The chemotherapy drug is effective in about half of those who receive it. Kirkland hopes to someday predict who will or won’t benefit to help oncologists make better treatment decisions.
A beloved girls’ basketball coach at Stillwater, Kendra Kilpatrick, was on doxorubicin before dying of cancer at age 36 in 2022. Most of her students and players have since graduated, but among those who still remember her is Ally Aguilar, a senior who is president of the FCCLA and Pink Out Week director.
“We all associate Pink Out Week with Coach K,” Aguilar said. “When we were planning it this year, we talked about how we needed to go all out, because the seniors on this year’s girls’ basketball team are the last ones who ever had her as a coach.”
Aguilar is also an OMRF Teen Leader, one of 56 Oklahoma high school students who come to the foundation monthly to learn about nonprofits and the impact that charitable giving makes on a community.
Hearing from Kirkland, Aguilar said, brought home the importance of Pink Out Week.
“It opens your eyes, especially for the students who knew Coach K,” she said. “It reminds us that cancer affects everyone and that our money is going to help people that we know.”
