Samo students "Purple" their profile pictures in honor of World Cancer Day

On a normal day, Facebook is covered with blue. So why have all your friends become purple?In honor of World Cancer Day, students across Samo edited their profile pictures to feature a purple tint, the national color of cancer. For every “purpled” profile picture, Chevrolet, which began the “Purple Roads” initiative, promised to donate one dollar to support “Roads to Recovery,” a branch of the American Cancer Society that provides transportation to and from treatment centers for cancer patients who are unable to drive themselves.“Lack of transportation can be a significant barrier to staying on track with cancer treatment,” Lin Mac Master, the American Cancer Society’s chief revenue marketing and communications officer, said in a press release. “Patients are often too sick to drive themselves, and the demands of work and family life make it difficult for caregivers to drive patients to all treatments. The need is even more acute in areas lacking reliable public transportation.”For Clara Glassman (’14), vice president of Samo’s Livestrong Club, the initiative provided a simple, time-efficient way to help counteract the side effects of cancer, and was accommodating to the hectic lives of Samo students.“One of my friends had changed her profile picture purple with a link to the [Chevrolet] website, saying they would donate $1 dollar for everyone [who] tinted their profile pictures purple,” Glassman said. “Though I do get to participate in a lot of fundraisers and walks that raise money for cancer, I still feel like I don't do as much as I could, since I spend so much time on schoolwork. Thus, I thought this was a really cool opportunity because it literally took a second.”After Glassman and others changed their profile pictures, the trend soon became popular among Samo students, many of whom have been personally affected by cancer.“I found out about the initiative after a friend of mine, who was affected by cancer herself, posted about the event on her Facebook wall,” said Nathan Shapiro (’16).  “In this day and age, there's not enough good in the world, and I would like to think that I do what I can to help the people around me in whatever way, even if it is something small.”According to the Chevrolet website, over one million Facebook users have “purpled” their profile pictures, and Chevrolet will donate $1 million to the American Cancer society in the coming weeks.