It started with an idea, a club project to promote awareness of a dreaded disease that has taken far too many lives.

It ended with over 600 classmates and members of the community coming together at Greenville High School last Friday afternoon for a special walk.

The GHS Tiara Club sponsored their First Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Walk on the campus October 31.

Club co-sponsor Shawnda Bell said her group’s purpose was to come up with projects that “get the whole school and community involved.”

“Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I brought the idea of a fundraiser for this cause to the group. The girls really went with the idea,” Bell said.

The Tiara Club members made and sold pink ribbons, created flyers to send home with students and made announcements concerning their planned walk.

Every student who purchased a pink ribbon was then eligible to participate in the walk, held at 2:30 p.m.

“We also have several seniors who actually work in the afternoons and couldn’t participate. They donated money anyway. I thought that was great,” Bell said.

Several local breast cancer survivors also attended the event, and were given special recognition. Each of these ladies released a white helium balloon tied with a pink ribbon in honor of victory over breast cancer.

During a moment of silence for breast cancer’s victims, more balloons were released.

“It was a very special event for everyone, I think. We had such a tremendous positive response to this,” Bell said.

The Tiara Club’s goal was to raise $500 for breast cancer research. Their grand total: $646.16.

“I’m so proud of what our club and our student body managed to achieve,” Bell said.

“This is an issue very near and dear to my own heart, having lost a grandmother to breast cancer. Other relatives have dealt with it. So to see our students embrace this cause, it meant so much on a personal level.”

Dr. Charles Farmer, principal at GHS, said he was extremely impressed by the students’ accomplishment and their conduct during last Friday’s walk.

“As adults, it does our hearts good to see students behave so respectfully at such an event,” Farmer said.

“In so many cases, we hear the worst, but in this case, we saw the best coming from our kids. It was really an uplifting event.”