Pink rubber ducks go on sale in October

Proceeds benefit Puskar Breast Care Center

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – What does a rubber duck have to do with breast cancer awareness?  If you are Duck Soup, a children’s shop in Fairmont, it means that those traditionally yellow toys now come in pink. Duck Soup is selling pink ribbon rubber ducks during the month of October to support the Betty Puskar Breast Care Center at West Virginia University. 

The rubber ducks cost $1.75 each, and $1 of each one sold will be donated to the Cancer Alternative Screening and Support Indemnity Fund (CASSI) at the Breast Care Center. In addition to selling pink ribbon ducks, Duck Soup will also give customers a chance to win a retired 2009 Longaberger Horizon of Hope basket valued at $100 for each duck purchased.

Donna Gorbey, who co-owns Duck Soup with her sister, Connie Cerullo, says she and her sister have both had friends who succumbed to breast cancer at an early age. “Therefore, anything we can do which contributes to the availability of mammograms to more women is worth the effort. The ultimate goal of anyone that has witnessed the devastating effects of this disease is to do what is within your power, however small, to contribute to the eradication of this disease.”

Duck Soup is located at 325 Adams Street, across from Veteran’s Square and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.  To contact the store, call 304-366-2100.

The CASSI Fund helps the Center provide breast-imaging services to uninsured or underinsured women who do not qualify for other state or federally funded programs, with most of the money being used to support mammography services on Bonnie’s Bus, a digital mammography center on wheels. 

The Betty Puskar Breast Care Center provides state-of-the-art technology and maintains an active program of educational outreach aimed at prevention and early detection.  It is part of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

The Breast Care Center was created through the generosity of Betty Puskar, a Morgantown philanthropist, who was treated out-of-state for breast cancer.  She wanted to establish a center where West Virginia women could receive the highest quality of care close to home.  For information about the Betty Puskar Breast Care Center, see www.hsc.wvu.edu/mbrcc/bpbcc.