The Panthers will kick off the home football game at 7 p.m. Friday at the Apple Bowl with a blast of pink.  

The Wenatchee High School cheer team has organized a “Panthers Go Pink,” theme for the football game to benefit the Wellness Place, a Wenatchee organization that helps women battling breast cancer. The cheer team hopes to have a completely pink student section and will be collecting donations in the stands during the game, said cheer team coach and English teacher Dani Schafer-Cloke.

October is national breast cancer awareness month. Schafer-Cloke is a driving force behind this fundraiser. She hopes the cheer team will sell 1,000 face sticker and breast cancer ribbons at the game. All of the proceeds from these sales will go to benefit the Wellness Place.

“We are keeping the money local to make sure that we’re really helping the women in our community,” Schafer-Cloke said.

This month, to benefit women with breast cancer, cheer captain Melaina Cook hopes to help women not necessarily with the research aspect of breast cancer, but in other ways. “Specifically this month we’re helping women find wigs, which can be expensive,” Cook said.