Pink ribbons are plastered throughout the B’ville Diner.
Since mid-March, the establishment has encouraged patrons to purchase pink ribbons, whether paper, pink chocolate ribbon pops, bracelets or Hershey bars, at a dollar each and workers have been very successful.
“The girls like to sell them and they are really good at it,” said Cheri Nesci, general manager of the B’ville Diner adding that the two top sellers were Moona Shehadeh and Stephanie Derochie.
Overall, the diner has raised $1,002 for Mackenzie’s Matadors, a team that participated in last weekend’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure held at the fairgrounds. Led by Baldwinsville’s Cynthia Mackenzie, a breast cancer survivor, Mackenzie’s Matadors was the second highest fundraiser for the entire event. And, thanks in part to the B’ville Diner, Cynthia was the top individual fundraiser.
“[The B’ville Diner’s support] is overwhelming. It brings tears to my eyes the people that come to the diner and buy the ribbons and chocolates. They are the ones supporting the cure,” Cynthia said.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing a mastectomy in 2004, Cynthia began walking in the race in 2005.
“Two friends were walking in my honor, so I figured I should go with them. It wasn’t what I expected,” she said. “I was so taken back [by the event] that the following year I started my own team.”
In 2006, Mackenzie’s Matadors began with 25 people and participation increased year after year. This year she had 82 people on her team and together they raised more than $9,000.
While the mother of two continues to battle her disease, she remains a fighter supporting efforts to find a cure.
“[Breast cancer] used to be a death sentence,” Cynthia said. “Now people live with it like diabetes because there are so many medicines.”
