WEST HARTFORD — After last year’s inaugural event raised more than $25,000 for Komen Connecticut, there was no question about throwing a second annual Pink Party in Blue Back Square.
“It is an amazing event,” said Barbara Lerner, marketing director for Blue Back Square. “Last year, we would’ve been happy if we had 500 or 600 people, but we were just mobbed. We had to have had 1,500 people, easily, at the event last year.”
The organizers aim to make this year’s event – scheduled for Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. – bigger and better.
Blue Back Square partners with the Courant, Fox CT, Hartford Magazine, the West Hartford Center Business Association, the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce, the Town of West Hartford and Susan G. Komen for the Cure Connecticut to put on the Pink Party, which kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
It’s an outgrowth of an initiative a few years ago where streetlights in West Hartford Center were fitted with pink bulbs for October, Lerner said.
“Three or four years ago, [Komen Connecticut] asked to do pink lights in the Center, to turn West Hartford Center pink for awareness,” she said. “So we did that, and we thought we’d take it a couple of steps forward.
“Little did we know, it would be giant leaps forward,” she said.
The Pink Party, which is free to attend, features a breast cancer survivors fashion show, food tastings from local restaurants and music from Shaded Soul. Fox CT anchors Laurie Perez and Logan Byrnes are the hosts.
All proceeds from $20 “SWAG Bags” will go to Komen Connecticut. The bags are filled with donated gift cards, cosmetics and other goodies. Last year, 300 bags were sold in the first 20 minutes of the event, Lerner said.
There will also be a raffle for $5 per ticket with 35 prizes including jewelry, restaurant gift cards, gift baskets and more.
Parking at the town hall parking lot will be free for the event. The rain date is Friday. For details on the event, visit http://www.courant.com/pinkparty.
By Julie Stagis, Hartford Courant