It is starting to feel like spring is in the air in Michigan. I pulled onto our street after work and noticed all the PINK carts at the end of the driveways sitting pretty waiting to be picked up by our friendly trash collector in the morning. The carts are out every Tuesday evening but usually they are buried in a snowbank or covered by darkness. This evening however was different, this evening they were obvious. This is a word I use a lot lately "obvious", it's a good word and I tell people who complain that our PINK carts are just too bright or too PINK that the fact that they are obvious and it makes them a little uncomfortable is music to my ears.

When we started our PINK cart program last year we were focused on raising funds for the American Cancer Society so that good work could be done in the area of breast cancer awareness. We expanded the program north of the border and partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society to support breast cancer research as well. But these days what seems to resonate, what seems to be most important, is that PINK carts start a conversation. Now the conversation isn't always positive...my husband tells a story about the guys at work in the lunch room talking about the crazy PINK carts popping up all over town and how they'd never own one. A few of my friends have told me that their sons don't want to be seen pushing a PINK cart to the curb as if it assaults their masculinity. These are legitimate perspectives by good people but here is the thing...the guys at work and the sons of my girlfriends have never, and I mean never, had a conversation about breast cancer with each other before PINK Carts.

So, call PINK cart "obvious" as if it's a dirty word because you know what? I am ok with that.

~Jo-Anne