Masuk Free Press

On October 6th, Think Pink Monroe hosted their annual Pink Palooza, an event that has come to be a town staple. This community gathering has deep roots intertwined with the kindness of Monroe citizens that allowed it to flower into what it has become today.

“I’m a 19 year breast cancer survivor. As it turned out, the town was wonderful to me,” said the founder and president of Think Mink Monroe, Bonnie Maur. “I was a teacher in the town at the time, and I became the science director right about the time I was diagnosed. The town reached out and they provided meals on my doorstep everyday for my family. The teachers collected money and paid to have my house cleaned the entire time I was going through treatment.

“I just felt like I needed to give back in some way. It took me a little while to figure out what to do and how to do it, but I always knew I wanted to do something. I was involved in some other organizations first, but that just didn’t quite cut it. So I went and talked to the first selectman and tried to do something here.”

The determination that Maur possessed to give back to the community that had given her so much truly speaks to the goodness at the heart of Think Pink Monroe. This cycle of altruism is apparent in how much care is taken in putting together an event like the Pink Palooza.

“I love seeing the community together,” said Maur. “For me that’s the biggest part of it. Of course, we’re here as a fundraiser also, so it helps the people in town who are going through cancer treatments. It’s a balance, right? But I love seeing kids out here having fun.”

It is no understatement to say that the Palooza is a unifying force. Parents and children alike are able to walk about the green, finding different activities and contributing to a good cause.

“The part of the Palooza that I enjoy the most is watching the whole town come together,” said Matt Hirsch, the vice president of Think Pink Monroe. “This is unreal to me. We have all these people. Everyone pitches in. The Palooza, to me, is synonymous with community.”

Food vendors set up trucks, fundraising booths are opened and artists can sell their creations. With all of this town involvement, it is no wonder that Masuk students have also found ways to contribute towards the event.

“Masuk’s pretty great,” said Maur. “I know people need service hours, they can help the organization in that regard. Of course, we have the cheerleaders, and the chorus, and the band and the strings who all come out and do their thing. Sometimes we have dance companies. Masuk culinary baked cookies for the event, and then the volleyball team did a whole big bake sale for us. It’s really the whole community coming together.”

For all of this outreach, one might think that there is a large team behind the operation. That at least a dozen people were required to pull off such a successful event to this scale. The truth is far more impressive.

“Interestingly, the Board is very small. It’s about six of us,” said Hirsch. “But what we do is, we’re very good at rallying people to help.”

The positivity that Think Pink Monroe has brought to this town is inspiring, and was only made possible through the efforts of a few dedicated people trying to make the world a better place. It has certainly paid off, for they have accomplished a lot in the short time.

“We’ve grown a little bit every year. We started off where we used to, on October 1st, do speakers at night, and now we’ve grown to be this whole Palooza six years later. We’ve grown the organization so that we do awareness events and provide funds for people going through cancer treatments,” said Maur. “And we also now have support groups for people. So we’ve grown in a lot of ways, and keep continuing to grow.”

As the organization expands, they continue to stick to their founding principles and catalyst: bettering the town.

“We continue to raise awareness, raise opportunities for people,” said Hirsch. “Raise not only awareness but early detection. One of the things I’m looking forward to is trying to arrange to have what’s called a mobile mammogram truck come to town, so that people who wouldn’t otherwise go regularly for a mammogram, it becomes easy for them. They can come to the town green. So that is a major goal of ours. That’s what this is all about — us raising awareness to the point where we can get someone unfortunately who gets diagnosed, but diagnosed early enough so that it’s easily curable.”

The Pink Palooza may have been Think Pink Monroe’s first event of the month, but it is certainly not the last. There is an assortment of others, including nights at various restaurants around town and a Walk of Hope at Great Hollow Lake. Further information about all of these occasions can be found at a link on Think Pink Monroe’s website: https://www.thinkpinkmonroe.com/tpm-events. 

Think Pink Monroe started out as one woman’s dream to give back. That dream has become a reality over the past six years, and only continues to grow as we progress into October.