Pink pumpkins are popping up at all three Baton Rouge General campuses today as part of its Protect Your Pumpkins campaign. This surprise pop-up patch won’t last long, so head over to one of the three locations to pluck one up before they’re gone.
Baton Rouge General worked with staff and volunteers to set up over 5,000 of these pastel pumpkin patches overnight to help raise awareness for breast cancer. The campaign encourages women over 40 to schedule their annual mammograms in the hopes of detecting breast cancer early. According to BRG, East Baton Rouge Parish falls only behind Jefferson Parish with the second-highest number of new breast cancer cases each year in Louisiana.
“The Protect Your Pumpkins campaign runs the whole month, but the pumpkin patch kind of kicks it off,” Meghan Parrish, BRG’s vice president of marketing and communications says. “The goal is to get people thinking about breast cancer, and to get people to see these pink pumpkins and [be reminded] that this is breast cancer awareness month.”
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The patches, sponsored by b1 Bank, are packed with thousands of free pink pumpkins located at BRG’s Bluebonnet, Mid-City and Ascension campuses. Pink pumpkin enthusiasts have been known to head to the patch as early as 4:45 a.m. Parrish says the biggest patch will be located at Bluebonnet Boulevard and Picardy Avenue. Breast cancer survivors will also be at the patch throughout the day to share their stories. The public is encouraged to come by and pick out a pumpkin while supplies last.
As these gourds are picked up and displayed across Baton Rouge on porches and doorsteps, BRG hopes they will start conversations about breast cancer.
“The idea is that they’re now on people’s front porches and all over town so the awareness is spreading throughout town,” Parrish says. “When you see one of those pumpkins you think about breast cancer awareness and mammograms.”
These pale pumpkins are the star of the campaign with shades of peach, pastel pink and soft green. They are a rare type of gourd known as Porcelain Doll pumpkins, which were first grown to help the cause
“We found that there were several farms all over the country that grow these Porcelain Doll pumpkins,” Parrish says. “They’re grown pink and they were started by a man who had someone in his family affected by breast cancer. So it was such a cool little thing. We thought it would be fun to create a campaign around it.”
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Along with the pumpkins, there are a few new additions to this year’s surprise patches. Along with b1 Bank, the patch is also sponsored by Ambetter, a health insurance company. Both sponsors will have plenty of photo stations set up so you can get the perfect fall picture.
Though the pumpkins may not be around for the entire month, there is one pumpkin that is not to be taken from the patch. BRG has added a 15-foot inflatable pink pumpkin that will live in the vacant lot next to the Bluebonnet campus to further promote the Protect Your Pumpkins campaign.
For more information about the campaign and how to schedule your annual mammogram, go to protectyourpumpkins.com