WHAT: A fitness event to fund mammograms for underinsured women and men under age 40
WHERE: Urban Athletic Training Center in Canton
WHEN: Monday, Oct. 24, from 4-9 p.m.
WHY: There’s a reason people opt to have their breasts squished between two plates: Mammograms use X-ray images to reveal tumors, which could be cancerous, before they can be felt.
Women and high-risk men are typically advised — by organizations like the American Cancer Society and U.S. Preventative Services Task Force — to wait until age 40-50 to begin this screening, so as to reduce the risk of false positives and overdiagnosis. And because these guidelines inform many health insurance plans, individuals may not be covered if they want to get a mammogram before age 40.
Barbells for Boobs, however, advocates for universal screening access. Through a fourth annual fundraiser by that same name, UATC hopes to help the nonprofit pay for tests and other services for younger patients and those without adequate income or insurance.
“It’s an active way to raise money for a good cause,” says Justina Goodman, the gym’s general manager and group fitness director. “We usually raise between $300 and $600.”
That figure includes online contributions, but most money is collected on event day, when members of the public can drop in for a group fitness session. “If they want to work out, we ask that they do a donation. It can be as little as a quarter or as much as they want,” Goodman says.
Attendees can also visit a mobile hydrostatic body fat testing machine to get an accurate measure of their body composition (by hopping in a water tank, so bring a swimsuit). And more casual visitors can purchase T-shirts and baked goods made by the gym’s instructors.
“There’ll be music and people hootin’ and hollerin’, sweating and cheering each other on,” Goodman says, and spectators are welcome, too. “We really encourage people just to show up.”
Visit facebook.com/UrbanAthletic for more information.
I think I like the cause, but for the name of the article, , really?
I’m lefty as @#$% but if a guy wrote that as a title, c’mon.
“These are my eyes”?
Fair enough. I went with the event/nonprofit name for the article title, because Justina mentioned that part of the fundraiser’s goal was to keep things light-hearted. That name gets the informality and cause across quickly.
Nothing like condescending speech about women to keep it light hearted.
Maybe a future title about lack of WNC reproductive services titled
“Use a Broom in the Womb when NC Gloom n’ Doom forces chicks to Lower the Baby Boom”
and watch a poster ignore everything but the word chick. Va va voom!