Students marched across campus, pink balloons in hand, to raise breast cancer awareness Saturday.

The John H. Clarke Honors Society, along with other campus organizations, held a breast cancer walk in celebration of those who are fighting the disease or who have already been cured. This walk has been held three times and raises money for breast cancer awareness organizations. Candice Patrick, senior sociology major and member of the society, said the idea for the walk began at a 2011 retreat.

“We decided we wanted to create an event that would give back to the community, and we thought about raising breast cancer awareness,” Patrick said. “We sell ribbons every year to people who join us for the walk and are usually able to raise around $300, which we donate to breast cancer organizations.”

Deborah Abassah-Manu, junior actuarial science major and secretary of the society, said this is the organization’s way of doing something for the community beyond the campus.

“Our purpose is just to raise an awareness; this way students can be educated about breast cancer instead of believing the things they hear about it,” Abassah-Manu said.

Abassah-Manu said this event is especially enlightening because every year the organizers invite a guest speaker — usually a breast cancer survivor — to talk about what it’s like to struggle with the disease and what it means to be a survivor. This year’s guest speaker was Anita Davis, a two-year breast cancer survivor and mother of one of the students participating in the march.

The society members were not the only ones present. Several campus organizations, including S.I.S.T.E.R.S and E.B.O.N.Y Women, helped with organizing the event.

“The idea really came from the John H. Clarke Honors Society, but we really felt passionate about raising breast cancer awareness so we partnered up with them to co-sponsor the walk,” said Omni Dean, alumna and member of S.I.S.T.E.R.S.

At around noon, Honors Society adviser Regina Curry began handing out pink balloons and rounding up all the participants in order to begin the walk. Almost everyone present was honoring a mother, grandmother, aunts or sister who had struggled with the disease.

Patrick herself said her aunt died of breast cancer. For this reason, she believes it is important to continue raising awareness for breast cancer because “it’s something that’s going on in the everyday world.”