The 107th Snake River Stampede comes to the Ford Idaho Center this week. On Wednesday, the rodeo focused its efforts on helping provide preventative breast cancer care at the Pink on the Dirt fundraiser.
The event held several fundraisers including donations and both live and silent auctions to raise money. The rodeo's goal was to bring in over 700 people and raise $150,000 in hopes to provide mammograms to under-insured and uninsured patients at St. Alphonsus and St. Luke's hospitals.
Part of the fundraiser was selling calendars. For each month of those calendars, a breast cancer survivor was featured. Most of the women featured were at the event to share their stories and sign the calendars.
Danielle Saindon, who was featured in the calendar, said she was impressed by the generosity.
"It's overwhelming, it's pretty amazing," Saindon said. "I was really fortunate going through it. I had resources, I had good insurance. But, that's helping people that probably don't and that's phenomenal. I would hate for someone to not get what they need because it wasn't there. And because of the people in this room they're going to get that. It's pretty impressive."
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer according to Cancer.gov, and the American Cancer Society suggests annual mammograms for women over 40.
Lisa Rourke, another woman featured in the calendar, was helped by her mammogram.
"My tumors were hidden and they were very aggressive," Rourke said. "They were only found out through a mammogram. So, mammograms are important."
The Snake River Stampede continues through Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center.
