N.C. State’s 10th Annual Chocolate Festival took place at the Carmichael Gymnasium basketball courts last Friday. The event, put on by the N.C. State Women’s Center, was intended to educate the Wolfpack community about breast cancer and to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. 

According to Ashley Simons-Rudolph, the director of the N.C. State Women’s Center, a portion of the proceeds went to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and other breast cancer advocacy organizations. 

“The event is a celebration of breast cancer survivors and also a remembrance,” Simons-Rudolph said. 

Simons-Rudolph said N.C. State has a significant history of breast cancer. Kay Yow, N.C. State’s women’s basketball head coach from 1975 to 2009, and Jenny Chang, a former N.C. State student body president, both died from breast cancer.

Chang, who was the student body president from 1998 to 1999, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 24. She died at 28. 

Attendees of the festival dined on countless goodies, including chocolate cakes, cookies, pies, ice cream and a chocolate fountain. 

“Chocolate is something wonderful that brings people together,” Simons-Rudolph said. “We hope that by bringing people together with chocolate and having something fun, we’ll really evoke the Wolfpack school spirit around this issue of breast cancer.”

The event helped raise money for cancer research. Attendees purchased tickets to try chocolate samples from a variety of vendors. Tickets allowed for six chocolate samples of the attendees’ choice.

Diamond Jackson, a sophomore in fashion and textiles management, is a student worker for the Women’s Center. She helps plan and execute the events that the Women’s Center puts on. 

“I really like what the Women’s Center stands for and I wanted to learn more,” Jackson said. “For this event, the student workers helped contact and plan with the many vendors.”

At the event, Jackson said she enjoyed seeing all the people walk through the door because it showed that everyone was supporting the cause. 

Aaron Sugar, a junior in environmental technology and management, said breast cancer will always be an important cause to him. 

“Breast cancer is very important to me because my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was two,” Sugar said. “My mom and I have done walks for breast cancer since I was three.”

Simons-Rudolph said that a very strong team puts the Chocolate Festival together. This includes a lot of vendors and education partners that care about breast cancer and want to help. Simons-Rudolph said she encourages students to take the dangers of breast cancer to heart. 

“Although college students are typically at lower risk of developing breast cancer, we do need to check ourselves for breast cancer by doing breast self-exams,” Simons-Rudolph said.

Simons-Rudolph said she encourages students to learn the facts about breast cancer. 

“It’s possible to be diagnosed with breast cancer when you’re young,” Simons-Rudolph said. “It’s not just something that happens to our grandmothers and mothers.”