Milwaukee Bucks observe breast cancer awareness month

But it's also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time to promote awareness because, as I keep saying, early detection is the key. Mammograms save lives. Self-exams save lives. And getting the resources that you need to get a free ride to a mammogram and know exactly, hey, when should I get screened? What do I look for? Who do I help? It is so important. Everybody is in on this, including our Milwaukee Bucks. We've been talking sports, We can't leave them out because it's important to recognize that the Bucks are going to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And for that, we are joined by Valerie Siminski, the Bucks Vice President of Retail. You are the magic behind the merch. Hi, Valerie. How are you? Hello. It's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. I love your merchandise. You always bring it, whether it's for the playoffs or another special event or now for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. First and foremost, thank you for being behind this cause. we here at Fox 6 march in solidarity, if you will, to survivors, those who have been just diagnosed with breast cancer, and for those caring for people with breast cancer. You're really driving that home, and especially at the end of the month, there's going to be something special. So before we get to that, tell us why this is so important to you. Well, for me personally, both my mother and mother-in-law were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past, so this is a huge cause for me personally. But not only I know that I have the opportunity to influence so many others and help support great causes like ABCD, who is in our community and helping and supporting those with a diagnosis of breast cancer. So super huge importance, not only just personally, but also being able to help all these people get that support they need. Yeah, exactly. And you really hit on it Valerie, you know we all know somebody who has been diagnosed or going through it you're remiss if you don't know somebody as you said a relative a cousin a co-worker a friend or perhaps yourself so this touches so many people um we can all touch a little bit of merchandise and there's going to be some really great merchandise and of course the pro shop uh at Fiserv Forum um i always like to say you know how much can you tell us without giving too much away but get our mouths watering, tickle our fancy, give us a little tease well this is actually already available we had it out for the start of October so i'm wearing the sweatshirt if you can see it for um oh the pink there you go so this is the sweatshirt from the collection we also have um different hats as well as we do a t-shirt so lots of different choices um you know if you want to support in other ways we have things like water bottles and socks so lots of just different you know men women anybody who can kind of wear this product for us as well so just super excited oh great stuff and you know everybody's thinking oh how can i get in on that but also boy it's kind of nice if you get a little free merch as well and oh wait there's an opportunity to do that opportunity to do that coming up on October 28th when you do a great partnership with Fraeter and the medical College of Wisconsin what's that all about yep so we have a game on October 28th and then they're giving away to the I believe it's to the first 10,000 I gotta look at that exactly but they are giving away a free t-shirt at that at that game and that's sponsored by Fraeter so very excited about that game we're also doing right now if you buy any of the breast cancer items as well currently in the stores you get a um just a tote bag that we're also giving away for free with the purchase of any of these items oh hold that up again if you don't mind just hold that yeah that's a that's a good looking tote we all need a tote for grocery shopping or just to throw a sweater in if you're headed out for a night out to a basketball game or to a Brewers game those are really cute did you did you come up with some of the ideas for that special merchandise um yeah i work with i have a group of buyers that we work with on our team and we really just kind of look at what can we do to give a portion of these proceeds to the charity and so we come up with different ideas whether it's keychains we have lanyards um really just to give a good variety of items um so that like i said you know whether you know you're a man or woman um whatever you would like to um you know ways to support you can it doesn't have to be buying the sweatshirt or anything like that could just be small, like a water bottle. Oh, okay. Yeah. Wonderful. So they play the Houston Rockets on the 28th and that's a great way to get in on that giveaway. Of course, tickets are still available, but again, stopping by the merch, we love that some of those proceeds help support people because we talk all about getting to mammograms and all the things that you need to do with a physician, but the emotional support that you need, not only if you are somebody struggling, but to provide care is absolutely huge. Yeah. And ABCD is such an incredible organization. Um, you know, they, I, they started here, but they will help anyone anywhere. So that's really great that, you know, they can offer that emotional support to those who need it. Um, and you know, they do a big pairing program and a mentoring program. So they're really, truly an incredible organization. Oh, and well, before I let you go, what, can you tell me a little bit of the mentoring program that they do with that? Is that mentoring just overall, or is that specifically for breast cancer? I don't want to speak for him totally, But I do know what they do is they match you up with somebody who has very similar, you know, breast cancer diagnosis. So a lot of them, the mentors actually have had breast cancer as well. So they're able to match you up so that you're, you know, I only know this from my mother. She was able to talk to somebody about what her diagnosis was, what it meant for that, you know, that mentor. And they were able to give them information on, you know, who to contact, places to go, just different information that really helps them make decisions. So, you know, I think they like to match them up and they go through a process to get that created. But it's just an amazing organization. Oh, it certainly is. That's fantastic. Thank you for all of that info. And we're looking forward to getting our hands on some of that beautiful merch that will really go well with everything all year. And, you know, we think about October, all things pink. well valentine's day is right around the corner i say every season is a good reason to wear pink but you get multiple uses out of this so that's good to know yeah it's amazing and it is available on our website at shop.bucks.com so if you know someone can't make it down they live out of town or out of you know the country even um they can shop there as well as stop down at our pfizer forum store to get it yeah i mean a lot of birthdays coming up it'd be a great birthday gift you can even keep something if you can keep it tucked away as a great mother's day gift or like i said valentine's day coming up so this is just the gift that keeps on giving all year absolutely all right well valerie thank you so much it was so good to have you on it love to see you again for the next big event or giveaway you guys are always doing something special we really appreciate your connection to milwaukee and all you do for our community