The Power of Pink
Moneta Farm & Home Center, Moneta, Virgina
For Moneta Farm & Home Center‘s Pink Day it’s all about bringing together the small community of Moneta, Virginia, with surrounding areas for a good cause.
“One of the employees that works here was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she recovered from it, thankfully, so we wanted to something to honor her and to raise awareness,” says nursery manager Darlene Hensley. “That’s how it all began.”
Deciding on a Time
Five years later, and Pink Day continues to look about the same. It has raised more than $30,000 since its inception, about $6,000 per year, for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
“There’s not a whole lot that we do different honestly,” Hensley says. “We have people come in at the beginning of spring, and they ask us if we’ll do our Pink Day again.”
The fundraising begins in April when cashiers start asking customers if they would like to donate a dollar to breast cancer research. It then culminates with an all-day event in May.
“I know most of the time breast cancer functions are in October because that’s the breast cancer awareness month, but we decided we’d rather have ours in the month of May,” Hensley says. “That’s our busy season, and we knew we could attract a lot of people at that time.”
The event attracts more than 500 people throughout the day.
“We overflow the parking lot to where we have to park people in the field and ride them up there in golf carts,” Hensley says. “And it’s a really big parking lot.” 
Something for Everyone
The Moneta Farm & Home Center staff decorates everything in pink, and the local church does a bake sale and barbecue to contribute to the fundraising.
Pink Day is free to attend, and then many people buy raffle tickets. The raffle includes things donated from other local business, like a furniture company or an employee who crafts handmade tables.
“We also get in hundreds of pink hanging baskets, and for every basket that we sell, we contribute $5 toward Pink Day,” Hensley says.
Hensley and her team do a lot of advertising for the event including social media, three area newspapers and an appearance on the local television show, Living in the Heart of Virginia.
With everything going on during the day, it’s clear that Moneta Farm & Home Center keeps the cause at the forefront.
“There’s a lot of women that have had breast cancer or are going through breast cancer, and we love for them to tell their stories,” Hensley says.
“We just like to have a crowd come out because the more people who come out the more people are aware of the problem that we’re having and how we’re trying to fix it.”
Videos
