The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with the committee for our recent “Paint the Town Pink” would like to express our thanks to all who participated in the weekend events Feb. 2 to 5.

We guesstimate that well more than 100 local businesses, organizations, school groups, churches and service clubs were part of offering special discounts, opportunities to donate, and fundraisers within their firms. Not wanting to leave any event out, some of the highlights included the “Paint the Gym Pink” girls basketball game at AHS on Feb. 2 that raised $1,400, Fishing for a Cure on Feb. 4 at Eastside Lake that brought in $11,887, and the St. Olaf Pink Pancake breakfast added another $1,500 to this tremendous fundraiser. Of course, the main event on Saturday evening was the second Annual Austin Bruins “Paint the Rink Pink” game, where nearly $39,000 was raised.

The Bruins won 6-3 against the Alexandria Blizzard, which made for a very fun evening. Many other local fundraising efforts added to the gigantic total, and major donations came from Mickey’s Place, Old Mill Restaurant, Accentra Credit Union, Riverland Community College (plus Athletics and fans), Hy-Vee Foods, Watts Cookin’, Ameriprise Financial (Davis-Thoen-Kramer & Associates), Community Bank, Hormel Foods Corp. employees, Austin Packers Dance Team, Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin, Austin CVB, and likely many others, who sent their donations directly to The Hormel Institute. Whether you tossed in a quarter, a dollar or $20 in one of the many donation buckets that weekend, your donation counts. All the $62,548 raised went 100 percent to The Institute for cutting-edge research toward preventing and controlling breast cancer. If you have not yet had the chance to make a donation, you can still send your check to The Hormel Institute, 801 16th Ave. NE, Austin.

We want to extend special thanks, of course, to Craig Patrick and the Austin Bruins for allowing our committee to partner with them on their already successful PINK event. Thanks to Jeff and Kris Baldus for donating all the beautiful pink flags that flew proudly that weekend. Thanks to Kim Underwood of Austin Parks & Rec and family for painting all 90 of the pink ribbons that were donated by International Paper. Thanks to Walmart for the pink blankets that were used to deck out Buffy the Cow and Brewster the Rooster in their special pink scarves. Thanks to all the businesses who also donated time, talent or product to make this such a wonderful and widely visible event in Austin.

One last thanks to everyone for your involvement in PINK.  We’ve had our web designer add a new “PINK-LINK” ribbon on to our new website at www.austincvb.com for 2013 events. It will allow everyone who wants to participate next year to offer suggestions and ideas for growing the event.  We’ll be mentioning this link throughout this year and gathering all the ideas to assist in planning for 2013.  Please go to our website soon and get listed, before you forget.  Once again, I am very proud of Austin and our great community members.