With support from the community, and Salmon Arm Legion #62, the Shuswap Dragon Boat Society Friends Abreast team raised over $1,000 to help fight breast cancer. 

On Friday, Oct. 8 after two weeks of Dressing the Town Pink and other fundraising efforts, the team of survivors and friends presented a cheque for $1,317 to the Shuswap Hospital Foundation for its Wireless Breast Cancer Detection Technology campaign. 

Before the fundraising even started this month, the initiative was bolstered by the Legion.

"With the generous financial support the Legion gave us this spring, we were able to expand our BC Awareness campaign," Friends Abreast president Margaret Hinchliff said at the presentation. "Our team was delighted with the outcome of this year's campaign."

While the team always hands out 300 pink carnations as a reminder for women to book their mammograms, this year the Legion's donation allowed them to also sell pink ribbons for a minimum donation of $2. Purchasers could then dedicate the ribbons to someone who has been touched by cancer, with those then taken down and hung on the wharf. 

"These ribbons represent a survivor who won the battle, some who fought hard but succumbed to the disease, and some who are still fighting," Hinchliff said of the pink markers that will stay up throughout the month. "As you can see, there are quite a few. In fact, there are over 100."

Learn more about Friends Abreast, or get involved, on their website at .