DOWAGIAC — The month of October does not exist for the staff at Honor Credit Union. Instead, they celebrate “Pinktober” and wear pink every Friday to help spread awareness of breast cancer.

Over the next few weeks, the community will have its chance in joining the cause by visiting the credit union and leaving a donation for Ascension Borgess Lee Foundation’s Tree of Love Campaign. The campaign is an annual charity drive to raise money to pay for mammograms at Ascension Borgess Lee Hospital for local uninsured or underinsured women and men in Cass County.

The partnership between Honor Credit Union and Tree of Love is going on its fourth year, as the credit union helps by spreading awareness and making a $500 donation.

“We are so appreciative of Honor Credit [Union] for getting the word of Tree of Love out in our community,” said Beth Cripe, the development coordinator at the Ascension Borgess Lee Foundation. “Many people bank here, and they’ve been very gracious to put up a stand with recognizing Tree of Love and letting people make donations here.”

Cripe said the campaign has seen a boost in donations and recognition since Honor Credit Union became involved.

With a staff composed of all women, the cause is important to the group, said Janie Reifenberg, the community assistant vice president at Honor Credit Union in Dowagiac.

“It’s very near and dear that all of us get those mammograms,” Reifenberg said. “Also, that we reach everyone that is not able to afford it or just simply forgets about it.”

Reifenberg said the staff at the branch has also either personally been touched by some kind of cancer or has seen its impact on family members.

Honor Credit Union is suggesting a $10 donation be made for those interested in picking up an item off the financial institution’s pink swag stand. The stand currently sits loaded with an array of pink including Honor Credit Union hand gloves, reusable pink totes and pink sunglasses.

In past years, the stand has also sparked conversations between members of the community and the credit union’s staff surrounding cancer’s impact on people.

“We hear a lot of those stories, which cements in our hearts even more that we are in the right place, doing the right thing,” Reifenberg said.

Two new board members to the Ascension Borgess Lee Foundation were also able to offer a fresh perspective to the viable partnership between the foundation and Honor Credit Union’s goal of creating awareness.

“For being my first year, I am quite surprised by the power of the community to be able to get behind this initiative,” said Brent Brewer. “I am excited to become a part of it, be able to be at the football game on Friday and to bring some more awareness to it.”

Cathy McBride, another new foundation board member, joined the foundation because of breast cancer awareness being a cause very close to her personal life. Her wife had a preventative double mastectomy, after discovering she had an 85 percent chance of getting breast cancer.

“I love being able to help get this out to the community and get people mammograms that maybe can’t afford them,” McBride said. “It’s really exciting to have an impact.”

Immediately following the first quarter of Dowagiac Union High School’s varsity Pink Out football game against South Haven, Honor Credit Union will do an official check presentation to Ascension Borgess Lee Foundation’s Tree of Love Campaign.

Also at the game will be the Ascension Borgess Lee Hospital’s radiology department, along with the representatives from the foundation and Honor Credit Union.

“We are just about partnering, building awareness and making sure that we try to help our community be healthy,” Reifenberg said.