This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

The blacktop at Lower Creek Elementary School was a mass of pink Friday afternoon.

Students and teachers were decked out in every kind of pink you could picture – pink leopard-print leggings, neon T-shirts, wigs, hats covered in pink glitter. Hair was sticky with temporary pink dye, and pink ribbons were pinned to shirts.

At eye level, it looked like chaos. From the hill that overlooks the school, the pink-clad students formed the shape of a ribbon.

It was the conclusion of the school’s “Pink Out” day, a breast cancer awareness event that was the brainchild of several fifth-grade students. Throughout the week, students collected donations in classrooms and morning car-rider lines, ultimately raising $1,050 for the Wig Bank of Caldwell County.On Friday, everyone plastered themselves in pink and posed for a photo in the shape of a breast cancer awareness ribbon before presenting the check.

The event was spearheaded by fifth-grade students at Lower Creek, who brought the idea to their teacher. It started as a push to have the whole school come in dressed in pink, then grew into a fundraiser.

On Friday, the fifth-graders joined each other class of students at Lower Creek as they all arranged themselves into the shape of a ribbon. It was obviously a ribbon made of kids, with a few members stumbling over their feet a bit as they took their places, and the kindergarteners in front very seriously shushing their classmates as the photos were being taken.

But that just made the donation more special, Wig Bank co-founder David Icard said before accepting the $1,050 check (all raised in one week).

“This means so much more because it comes from these children,” Icard said. “That’s almost like a double blessing.”

And for the fifth-grade students who started it all, seeing the photos snapped and the check dispersed was a pretty good feeling.

“You can really do anything you want to do,” fifth-grader Simon Hawkins said. “You can really be the smallest person and you could change the world.”