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Hidden Valley High School designated Thursday, Oct. 22 as Passionately Pink Day or Titans Wear Pink Day.  Two clubs at HVHS, DECA and FCCLA joined forces and encouraged students to wear pink shirts on Thursday in order to created a human pink ribbon during 7th-period.

According to Elizabeth Davis, marketing teacher and DECA coordinator, about 400 students participated in creating the pink ribbon and about half the student body participated by wearing pink Thursday. There are 1,100 students at HVHS.

"this is the first time we've done something for this," Davis said. "We have a very supportive administrative staff and student body. When it involves community service and involvement they are really supportive. It makes for a more well-rounded student."

Davis said that the two clubs decided to work together and do something for Breast Cancer Awareness month about two weeks ago. Students helped decorate the building and handed out fliers to students to encourage them to wear pink.

This event was particularly special to several teachers at HVHS who are breast cancer survivors, including Davis, Pat Ammen, and Sara Cann.

"As we watched everyone in pink we teared up numerous times," Davis said. "I was surprised that they picked this particular community type project, but our students here are so community oriented. They are very receptive, their minds are geared towards things like this. Three of us have had breast cancer and other teachers have had other kinds of cancer and I think think they're just into that kind of thing because we've had so many tragedies."

Ammen said that many teachers were involved in this project as well and donated $5 to wear jeans for a week, then they decided to donate $20 dollars a pieces to wear jeans all week.

"That's when it all started," Ammen said. "It snowballed from there. Everyone was like, 'let's wear pink'. I've used this opportunity to educate my students also."

Ammen said that in Roanoke, one in five women will get breast cancer at some point in their lives.

"We are very vocal about cancer and education. We are actively involved and we pass that along to the students. It's in our society so much that we need to be education people younger and younger," Ammen said.

"Everyone seems to know someone who has been affect by breast canacer or some kind of cancer. If we can make somen and anyone more aware of breast cancer and other cancers, have early detections, colon rectal screenings, mammograms, we've done our job," Davis said.

Their pink ribbon was a success and the teacher are very proud of the support they've received from their students.

"All I can say is we have an awesome student body. They just rise to the occasion. All the teachers and faculty here are so lucky to have this student body," Davis said.

"We could not have done it without the support of the students. It was absolutely incredible to walk into school today and see a sea of pink. I just cant say enough about the kids around here. They are just terrific," Ammen said.

HVHS students also created a human VT ribbon during the Virginia Tech Tragedy on April 16.