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DOWAGIAC — A campaign to help county residents gain access to breast cancer services is closer to its goal after a donation from a local business.

Honor Credit Union of Dowagiac, 56337 M-51 S., donated $2,500 to the Ascension Borgess-Lee Foundation on Tuesday, Oct. 15 to kick off a fundraising effort for the Tree of Love campaign, which since 2011 has provided mammograms and other breast cancer services for uninsured and underinsured people in Southwest Michigan.

To date, the campaign has raised more than $150,000 for uninsured and underinsured people in Cass County.

“Cancer touches everyone and we are extremely involved in our communities,” said Janie Reifenberg, Honor Credit Union’s Community Development Officer. “Our passion is to be involved in our communities and our philosophy has always been ‘see a need, fill a need’ so this is definitely a need that we see that needs to be filled. We always love building awareness in the community about anything we do so that the community can be involved and be really aware of what’s going on, especially if they can feel our passion for it. Helping to fundraise and spread awareness is really great for us.

“It makes us feel really good and it makes us feel like we’re doing our small part in what we can do for cancer to help with the free mammograms and spread the Tree of Love awareness.”

Foundation member Jeremy Truitt thanked Reifenberg, Linda Tyria and the Dowagiac Honor Credit Union team for the donation and dedication to the campaign.

“Since Honor has come on board with their sponsorship and taking donations here in the branch, our donation base has expanded significantly,” said foundation chairman Jeremy Truitt. “So many more donors giving money and raising community awareness as well. I know people that have reached out to me and say ‘I was in Honor and I saw this thing, this is awesome and they didn’t know about it before.” That has been great.”

The fundraiser kickoff will take place Friday when Dowagiac hosts Buchanan in the ninth annual Pink-Out Game. Since 2015, the Ascension Borgess-Lee Foundation has partnered with the Dowagiac Athletic Department and the varsity football team to host the game, with HCU being a major sponsor of the game since the beginning. 

Truitt thanked Dowagiac Athletic Director Brent Nate and head football coach Duane Davis for their partnership with the Pink Out Game. Every year, in addition to the other funds raised during the evening, the Athletic Department donates a portion of the proceeds from the ticket sales towards the Tree of Love.

While donations are accepted year-round, the campaign officially begins Friday and runs through the end of December. In addition to kickoff the campaign, HCU will serve as a collection location for donations. Donations to the Tree of Love campaign can be dropped at HCU’s Dowagiac location or Ascension Borgess Lee.

Readers interested in donating can also contact Beth Cripe, Ascension Borgess Lee Foundation director, at (269) 783-3026, by email at beth.cripe@ascension.org, or visit the website at www.borgessleefoundation.org.