Jenison dresses in pink to help cancer fighters

GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Jenison High School’s Friday basketball games against Grandville are more than just a hometown rivalry: The whole town is dressing up in pink.

You may have noticed the pink flags popping up along Baldwin Street this week. It’s part of Jenison Pink Out, a fundraiser and nonprofit that has been raising money for people fighting cancer since 2009.

“Every year in February, we have this event called the Pink Out event and the flags fly the week before, the week after, businesses sponsor the T-shirt,” Katy Hevelhurst, founder and director of Jenison Pink Out, said.

The event happens between the girls’ basketball game, which starts at 6 p.m. Friday, and the boys’ game, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Both play against Grandville High School.

The nonprofit is selling T-shirts featuring the phrase “Supporting the Pink and Fighting for the Green” — Jenison’s colors are green and white — to wear for the basketball games Friday night. The money raised from T-shirt purchases and sponsors, who are named on the back, is donated to people in the community fighting cancer. Hevelhurst said the annual event normally sells over 2,000 shirts.

“All the money that we raise stays right here in Jenison. It doesn’t go to any national organization or leave the community,” she said.

People can also donate online or on the night of the event, during the Miracle Minute Drive. Some even mail checks in.

Jenison Pink Out started 16 years ago when Brenda Huyser, the mother of a player on the Jenison girls’ basketball team, had a recurrence of breast cancer. Hevelhurst and a few other women got together to put on a Pink Out event, selling over 2,000 T-shirts.

“The gymnasium was standing room only. It was packed. So that was a lot of fun,” said Hevelhurst. “So we really thought it was a one and done and we gave all the money we raised that year to that family.”

But Jenison Pink Out was far from over.

“The next year, everybody said, ‘Are you going to do the event again?’ … and we were like, ‘I just don’t know if you can create that emotion again.’ But that family was still in need, and that mom was still in the fight. So we did another event and it turned out the same way — standing room only, 2,000 shirts,” Hevelhurst said.

Over the years, the organization has expanded to include people fighting all types of cancer. Jenison Pink Out gives quarterly to every fighter it sponsors, sometimes 20 to 30 people at a time. The nonprofit pays for things like medical bills, gas to get to and from doctors’ appointments, mortgage payments and even car repairs.

“They are so appreciative that they don’t feel like they’re in that fight all by themselves. They get a ton of support from the community. We tell everybody (that) when you put that Pink Out shirt on, you’re really saying to your neighbor who might be in the fight, ‘I’m here. I support you.’ I think that means so much at a time like that,” Hevelhurst said.

Jenison Pink Out is currently sponsoring people of all ages with cancer: a 1-year-old, a third grader, a college student and up to people in their 70s, Hevelhurst said.

For 16 years, the Jenison Pink Out board, made up of Hevelhurst, Cyndi Covell, Moni Marlink and Jean Krzewski, have put on the event. This year, for the first time, the Jenison High School’s National Honor Society is organizing it.

“It’s really a big community event,” Hevelhurst said. “This is a community that really supports their neighbors and I have just great admiration for them.”

The 2024 shirt has 35 sponsors, including a corporate sponsor in Corewell Health. Some of the fundraising comes from Senior Survivor, a gameshow-like contest where students compete to raise money. Other Jenison teams like hockey or swim have also hosted Pink Out nights in the past, Hevelhurst said.

“It’s a way to come together and support your neighbor. And you might not even know your neighbor, but everybody knows somebody who has cancer. Everybody knows somebody who’s been affected by it,” she said.

Only a day away, Hevelhurst says the anticipation is palpable:

“You can start to feel the energy and the excitement. It’s almost like they are looking forward to a Super Bowl. You know, they’re like, ‘It’s Friday, it’s Friday, it’s coming.’”

Tickets to the basketball games can be bought at the door. To donate, visit the Jenison Pink Out website.

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