Paint the Town Pink is growing.

Brownsdale is the latest community to form a Paint the Town Pink committee. The group met for the first time Wednesday night and will plan a Paint the Town Pink event for Feb. 7-9.

“Breast cancer is devastating in all our lives, and we know the only answer is research,” said Kathi Finley, new director of the Paint the Town Pink initiative, in a press release. “The Hormel Institute’s breast cancer research is world-renowned and the progress they make is for all of us. We need and welcome nearby communities and neighboring states to join our effort.  It is our hope that Paint the Town Pink will continue to grow — we’ll all benefit from more research.”

Finley has been meeting with officials in numerous towns and will continue throughout the coming months. A new, rural Paint the Town Pink logo – similar but separate from the Austin Paint the Town Pink logo —  was designed for smaller communities to use in their Paint the Town Pink fundraising efforts. The logo includes wind turbines, grain elevators and silos, and is available for any community to use with its town name added to it.

Finley said it sounds like there might be friendly competition between towns to see which can raise more money.

Austin’s Paint the Town Pink festivities — set for Feb. 14-23 — include new ideas, such as “pink” events at the Mower County Fairgrounds on Feb. 16. The festival’s cornerstone event is the Austin Bruins’ Paint the Rink Pink hockey game scheduled for Feb. 22.

Austin Bruins owner Craig Patrick started the pink fundraising with the first “Paint the Rink Pink” game in 2011.

Earlier this year, the second annual Paint the Town Pink initiative raised more than $115,000 for The Hormel Institute’s breast cancer research, topping a goal of $100,000. The 2013 total was nearly double the amount raised in 2012 by the first Paint the Town Pink, which was