September to November 2006, the women’s basketball team and sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, are leading the “Save Lids to Save Lives” challenge throughout campus. “Save Lids to Save Lives” is a Yoplait initiative that raises awareness and funds for breast-cancer research.
During the breast-cancer awareness and fund-raiser event, bins placed throughout campus collect pink Yoplait yogurt lids from people on campus. For each lid collected, General Mills, which owns Yoplait, will donate 10 cents to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for research for breast cancer.
“We do this for two major reasons: first, awareness for women to be even more aware of breast cancer issues and how many people it affects and you have to start your self-exams early on,” Robin Pate, director of operations for women’s basketball, said. “Education is a main thing and then obviously trying to raise money to go to the Komen foundation [that] is doing so much for research on how to find the cure for breast cancer.”
Pate also said this is a significant event on campus, as the women’s basketball coach, Kay Yow, is a breast cancer survivor.
“Coach Yow being a survivor is a big part of why we do this,” he said. “She always wanted our players to be very civic minded, to do things out in the community, and this is just one way we’re trying to teach our players and encourage them to be role models out in the community.”
Zeta Tau Alpha’s international fraternity is paired and partnered with Yoplait. As the sorority’s philanthropy is breast cancer research and awareness, they are participating in “Save Lids to Save Lives,” and are collecting the lids from collection bins around campus.
“We felt that it would be a great way to get the campus involved in our philanthropy,” Sara Baity, president of Zeta Tau Alpha and a senior in business management, said. “It’s a great way to just get the breast cancer research and awareness out there, especially with it being breast-cancer [awareness] month.”
General Mills proposed this “pilot program” to four universities, N.C. State included. Each university competes against the others to see which collects the most lids. N.C. State is competing against Georgia Tech, as Clemson competes against University of South Carolina.
“The women’s basketball challenge is a pilot program for four colleges,” Mike Toddish, account manager with General Mills, said. “[After] we evaluate the program, we are considering determining if we would like to take that broader next year so we have that many more colleges that maybe should participate.”
As Toddish hopes to broaden “Save Lids to Save Lives” to many more colleges, he also hopes to assign the schools in competition against state rivalries to make it more successful.
“We love to see the Wolfpack participating this year,” he said. “Maybe next year it will be the Wolfpack and Blue Devils or Wolfpack and Tar Heels to get that state rivalry that makes a great deal of passion and makes it that much more successful.”
Toddish created and implemented “Save Lids to Save Lives” as a competition on college campuses recently.
“General Mills is a company that supports women’s issues and I personally came up with this idea about 75 days ago,” he said. “The fact that we’ve got it in execution at four colleges makes me very pleased and quite happy.”
Toddish said every year General Mills guarantees a minimum of $500,000 and a maximum of $1.5 million to the Susan G. Komen foundation. During the last nine years, General Mills has contributed $15 million.
“The pink-lid campaign is national,” he said. “We advertise on television and magazines and encourage consumers to purchase Yoplait and save lids to mail them in so that campaign is widespread and national.”
General Mills committed a sponsorship during regular season to help the women’s basketball teams who agreed to participate in “Save Lids to Save Lives,” instead of prizes for the winning teams.
Pate said because this is a pilot program, he doesn’t know how many lids to expect to collect from each campus.
“We have nothing to go by to know that [10,000 lids is] a realistic goal because this is the first year of competition between schools,” Pate said.
Toddish said he agrees with Pate and said each year, since the beginning of “Save Lids to Save Lives,” the number of lids collected grows to a higher number.
“We honestly don’t know [how many lids we expect] because it’s a pilot program,” Toddish said. “We will see at the end, possibly get over 5,000 or 10,000. Ideally, if we could get one lid from every student and faculty, it would be a phenomenal success.”
Zeta Tau Alpha has high hopes to reach more than 5,000 lids.
“We would really like all of our girls to get personally 50 lids each,” Baity said. “And if all of our girls each got 50 lids each, that would be 5,000, so that’s what we are going for.”
According to Baity, so far, they have turned in 536 lids to Yoplait that were collected from the bins around campus.
Lids are sent to an agency in Rockford, Minn. that collects and counts the lids and credits the school for the number of lids collected.
Bins are located in campus stores, Centennial Campus and dining halls.
People can also donate lids at the first few basketball games, including the Oct. 25 Red and White game in Reynolds Coliseum before the event is closed in the middle of November.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation is a global leader in the fight against breast cancer through its support of innovative research and community-based outreach programs. The Komen Foundation is fighting to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by funding research grants and supporting education, screening and treatment projects in communities around the world.
“I would love to see one day that my daughter would never have to worry about breast cancer, and maybe possibly what we’re doing at General Mills,” Toddish said.”We can assist in that we do find a cure or possibly a way to live with [breast cancer], just like some other diseases. [“Save Lids to Save Lives”] will raise that awareness level and participate in trying to find a cure.”
