NC State Women’s Center hosted its 12th Annual Chocolate Festival in honor of Coach Kay Yow and breast cancer research. The Wolfpack community traded in their red for pink ribbons in support of breast cancer. 

As part of parents and family weekend, the festival was a way to bring students and their beloved together, but also, on a larger scale, to welcome these families to one even bigger: The Wolfpack family.

More than 1,500 people of all ages attended the celebration, and Talley Student Union’s State Ballroom was packed with participants filling up their pink boxes with chocolate sweets. Certain chocolate vendors’ tables, such as Gigi’s Cupcakes and Insomnia Cookies, were so popular that attendants had to wait in long lines to get their pastries. Some cupcake and cookie stands ran out of supplies before 7 p.m., 30 minutes before the Chocolate Festival ended.

Catherine Miller, an NC State mom was shocked that the crowd wouldn’t stop talking and giggling when Ashley Simons-Rudolph, director of the Women’s Center was reminding the crowd of the purpose of the Chocolate Festival and presenting a video of Coach Kay Yow. She described the scene as “absolute disrespect for Coach Yow and the Wolfpack Family.” However, she said this incident shouldn’t be what she will remember of the festival and that the “wide feeling of compassion coming from the vendors and other chocoholics” was more meaningful to her.

The 12th Annual Chocolate Festival was a “moment of sharing” as Brenda Steen, a Kay Yow Cancer Fund representative explained. Some families, students, mothers and children who attended the festival shared their stories. 

“I saw [one of the children] tearing up; I just gave her a hug,” Miller said.

Simons-Rudolph said the event was “made for them.” 

In the photo booth at the Women’s Center table, attendants could take pictures with funny, original, creative and meaningful handmade props such as mustaches, pink cowboy hats, bows or crowns, but also signs that carried messages such as “supporter,” “lover,” “fighter,” “here for the chocolate,” “I love NC State” or “that’s what a survivor looks like.” Members of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund loved the idea and even took the props in the picture for further inspiration.

Pictures taken at the photo booth were displayed on big screens during the celebration and will be posted on NC State Women’s Center’s Facebook page.

The amount of donations had not yet been totaled by press time.