Pink Party marks fourth successful year for Bonnie’s Bus

The fourth annual Pink Party to benefit the Bonnie Wells Wilson Mobile Mammography Program (Bonnie’s Bus) was a huge success. Nearly 200 attendees, wearing their favorite shades of pink, enjoyed a special evening at Touchdown Terrace at Milan Puskar Stadium on November 13 to support one of their favorite causes – Bonnie’s Bus. “Thank you for being so supportive,” Jo Statler told the crowd. “Because you are here, that tells me you have big hearts.” She and her husband Ben made a generous gift to the WVU Cancer Institute eight years ago to establish the mobile mammography program, named after Jo’s late mother, Bonnie Wells Wilson.

Bus Director Sara Jane Gainor expressed her appreciation to the sponsors, whose names were prominently displayed on the jumbotron between the ribbon boards that were aglow in pink and featured the WVU Cancer Institute logo. “Through your sponsorship, you have shown that you trust us and care about our program, and that makes us work harder,” Gainor said.

Mary Myers of Grafton gratefully shared her experience as a patient on Bonnie’s Bus. “My breast cancer was detected early because one snowy day in March 2006, Bonnie’s Bus visited Reedsville and I made a trip there to get my mammogram,” she said. Myers was diagnosed and treated at WVU.

“You are donating to a good cause,” Ben Statler told attendees as he held the microphone to auction off a wide variety of items donated by numerous businesses, organizations and departments within WVU. Celeste Clutter, founder of Project Pink, made a surprise $1,000 donation from a golf tournament her organization hosted in Clarksburg this June.

WVU Cancer Institute Director Rich Goldberg, MD, said he was pleased to see such a great turnout of women and men. The Pink Party was also an opportunity for him to share what he called “big plans” for the Cancer Institute, including 38 new positions for cancer doctors and the buildout of the upper two floors at the Institute’s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, and eventually construction of a cancer hospital.