In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Murray State is teaming up with Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Ky. for the Pink Glove Dance competition.

What began in 2009 from a Portland, Ore., hospital, the Pink Glove Dance video competition has gained local attention from Western Baptist Hospital in an effort to promote breast cancer awareness.

“It’s a fun project for breast cancer awareness,” Dona Rains, Marketing Director for Western Baptist Hospital said. “The national contest is of videos produced around the country and the purpose is to raise awareness.”

The Pink Glove Dance video and public relations campaign, which won a 2012 Healthcare Advertising Award, is sponsored by Medline Industries Inc.

“We were flooded with calls, emails and letters about the joy the videos have brought, and people were asking if they could participate in another video,” said Sue MacInnes, Medline’s chief marketing officer, on the Western Baptist website. “We didn’t want to leave anyone out, so we thought a competition could include everyone. All these videos will help bring attention to breast cancer awareness and prevention.”

In 2010, 17 hospitals around the country joined the Pink Glove Dance. Last year was Western Baptist’s first time taking part of the dance with more than 135 other participants. They ended up taking sixth place.

“We learned about it during the second year. A member of our staff found out about it and really pressed us to do it. We had over 200 people (get involved with) the video from housekeeping to the president and CEO.”

The first video Western Baptist created, featured Katy Perry’s song “Firework” and received 17,000 votes, Rains said. The first-place video received 50,000 votes.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer to cause death among women, according to their website.

“One in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer,” Rains said. “So that’s going to be someone’s mother, aunt, grandmother, sister; it affects a lot of people and we like to see their passion come through.”

The videos are made not only to raise awareness but also as a reminder for women to get their annual mammograms.

This year, Western Baptist is hoping by teaming up with the University, they will win the grand prize.

“We asked Murray State to partner with us,” Rains said. “The video features some Murray State students such as the band and the dance team showing their support. We have a lot of Murray State graduates who work at the hospital so we thought it would be a great partnership”

Aside from Murray State students, the video will also feature doctors, nurses and patients alike.

“The video will show survivors dancing with joy, a lot of people having a really good time. It will also feature patients who are currently in treatment,” she said. “We have no dancing skills but we put forth our best effort.”

According to the Pink Glove Dance website, if the video is chosen for first place they can receive a $10,000 prize, second place receives a $5,000 prize and third place will receive a $2,000 prize and can be donated to the hospital’s breast cancer charity of choice.

If Western Baptist wins, Rains said, they plan on donating the prize money to the Kentucky Cancer Program which helps raise awareness of breast cancer to women.

Medline, who according to the Western Baptist website, is the nation’s largest privately held distributor as well as manufacturer of medical supplies, has donated more than $800,000 to pay for mammograms to individuals who may not otherwise be able to afford them.

The company will also take a portion of the sale of the pink gloves used to make the videos to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Voting for the video begins Oct. 12 and will be open for two weeks until Oct. 26. Voting can be done through the Pink Glove Dance website, pinkglovedance.com, by signing into Facebook.

“The video is a wonderful reminder for a serious topic,” Rains said.

Western Baptists also plans to promote Breast Cancer Awareness month by holding Baptist at the Box Office on Oct. 15 by screening a free movie, and also by having physicians and others come in and talk about the different aspects of breast cancer.

They will also give away special prizes to anyone who comes in for a mammogram during the month of October.

For more information, visit pinkglovedance.com.

Story by Savannah Sawyer, Assistant Features Editor.

This post was edited 12:46 p.m. Oct. 3. The photo credit has been corrected.