The month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the students at the Ross Medical Education Center Ontario, Ohio campus participated in many activities throughout the month. Kicking off the festivities was the Mansfield Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk in downtown Mansfield. The walk begins in the historic carrousel district in downtown and winds through town passing by OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital on a 3.1 mile walk/run noncompetitive race and finishes at Richland Carrousel Park. Teams of walkers and runners sporting pink tutus, t-shirts, hats and ribbons raised money for the American Cancer Society. The Ontario campus team consisted of Survivor Michelle Barker who is also Ontario’s Assistant Campus Director of Education, as well as several instructors in the Medical Assistant program: survivor Carla Bennett, Marissa Maidment, Aly Butler, Cari Patton, and Michelle Davis along with friends and family.
There was a pink out day on campus where students were encouraged to wear as much pink as possible and were given pink ribbons to share about a survivor or an in memoriam of breast cancer that were posted on the front window of the campus for the community to see. “Our students have giving hearts and are supportive of community needs,” shared Erin Slusher, Financial Aid Student Support Representative.
This year Ontario also participated in the annual Make A Difference Day that is a community food drive to help fill food pantries across the county. Make A Difference Day gathered 19,011 items this year, and Ross students helped make the drive a success! Campus Director Michelle Peters said, “this is a great way for students as a group to help the community, and we pulled it together on short notice which shows the community Ross students can respond to an urgent need.”
Rounding out the month for Halloween, students enjoyed some “pumpkin poo” snacks and decorated doors in the annual Halloween door contest. Everyone, including staff and faculty, got a chance to vote on their favorite door. Students brought in decorations like skeletons, spiders, and other creepy crawlies to spook up the Ross corridor. Each class was given a door to decorate and the teams worked on design and application. Students were not able to vote for their own door and the winning door by popular vote was the morning Medical Insurance Billing and Office Administration class! Congrats students!