There are some events you attend, enjoy, take a few pictures at, and talk about for a day or two.
Ignite the Fight Dayton is not one of those events.
For those who have had the opportunity to experience it, Ignite the Fight is an incredible night filled with energy, generosity, community, and plenty of pink. But underneath the celebration is something much bigger: a room full of people coming together to make sure those impacted by breast and gynecological cancers have the support they need when they need it most.
For MSD, that mission has quickly become one we are incredibly proud to stand behind.
It Started With One Meeting
Sometimes the most meaningful partnerships begin with a simple conversation.
For MSD, it started with one meeting between Cara Salazar, Victoria Sherrock, Carlee Kremer, and Mike Workman.
Tori and Carlee left that meeting energized, inspired, and ready to find a way for MSD to become more involved with Pink Ribbon Good. Learning more about the organization, the people behind it, and the tangible difference PRG makes for families throughout our communities made it difficult not to want to be part of it.
That initial conversation led MSD to donate, get involved, and ultimately join the Pink Fleet, a community that has been every bit as impactful as we were told it would be.
The Pink Fleet brings businesses together around a mission much larger than any individual company. Through it, organizations collaborate, build friendships, create new partnerships, and use their platforms to bring awareness to a cause that affects so many of the people around us.
It also gives us an opportunity to honor those who have fought cancer, those currently walking through it, the families walking alongside them, and those whose lives and legacies we continue to remember.
No One Travels This Road Alone
Pink Ribbon Good’s Driven By Hope program began with one flatbed truck from a construction company carrying a simple but powerful message:
No One Travels This Road Alone.
Today, that idea has grown into a fleet of more than 110 co-branded vehicles on the road, representing businesses committed to supporting breast and gynecological cancer survivors in their own communities.
MSD is incredibly proud to now be part of that fleet.
But what makes the Pink Fleet so meaningful isn’t simply seeing a vehicle wrapped in pink driving down the highway.
It’s what it represents.
It represents awareness. It represents a business choosing to use something it already has as a moving reminder that there are people in our communities fighting battles we may know nothing about.
Most importantly, it represents a promise: you do not have to travel this road alone.
What Pink Ribbon Good Really Provides
It’s easy to talk about supporting a great cause. Pink Ribbon Good takes that support and turns it into practical help for people navigating some of the most difficult days of their lives.
PRG provides free healthy meals, rides to treatment, housecleaning essentials, peer support, and other resources to individuals and families impacted by breast and gynecological cancers.
Those services may sound simple until you think about what they mean to the person receiving them.
A ride to treatment means one less transportation problem to solve.
A meal means one less decision to make after an exhausting appointment.
Housecleaning support means one less responsibility waiting at home.
Peer support means having someone who understands when the people around you may not know what to say.
These are not just services. They are ways of giving someone a little time, relief, comfort, dignity, and hope when those things can mean everything.
That is what makes the work of Pink Ribbon Good so special.
They don’t simply raise awareness about cancer. They show up for the people experiencing it.
Ignite the Fight Dayton
And then there is Ignite the Fight.
Year after year, the PRG team takes the mission that drives them every day and brings an entire community together to celebrate it, support it, and fund it.
Ignite the Fight Dayton is undoubtedly one of the most exciting nights of the year. The room is full of energy. People show up ready to have fun, connect, celebrate survivors, remember loved ones, and raise money for an incredible organization.
But Ignite is more than a fantastic event.
It is an event worthy of something bigger than one night.
Because while the music eventually stops, the decorations come down, and everyone heads home, the need doesn’t end.
Treatments continue.
Families continue navigating diagnoses.
People still need rides.
Meals still need delivered.
Homes still need cared for.
People still need someone beside them reminding them that they are not alone.
As Pink Ribbon Good says, “It takes a village.”
Ignite the Fight is a beautiful reminder of just how powerful that village can be.
Supporting Something Bigger Than Ourselves
At MSD, our mission is centered around empowering our people to serve our clients and communities. Partnerships like this give that commitment an entirely different meaning.
Our involvement with Pink Ribbon Good may have started with one meeting, but it has quickly become something our team is incredibly proud to support.
We are grateful for people like Cara and the entire PRG team who pour so much of themselves into this mission. We are grateful for the survivors who share their stories. We remember and honor those we have lost. We recognize the caregivers, families, friends, volunteers, donors, sponsors, and businesses who continue showing up.
And we are proud to be one small piece of a much larger village.
Because the impact of Ignite the Fight should never end when the event does.
Keep Doing GOOD
If you attended Ignite the Fight Dayton, we hope you left with more than memories from an incredible night. We hope you left inspired by what is possible when a community decides to take care of its own.
And if you’re unfamiliar with Pink Ribbon Good, we encourage you to learn more.
Donate. Volunteer. Become a partner. Join the Pink Fleet. Share their mission. Attend an event. Or simply take the time to understand the work happening every day behind the scenes.
There are so many ways to help.
Ignite the Fight may bring us together for one night, but the fight continues every day.
MSD is proud to stand alongside Pink Ribbon Good, proud to be part of the Pink Fleet, and proud to help spread a message that deserves to be seen far beyond one event:
No One Travels This Road Alone.
Learn more about Pink Ribbon Good, their programs, upcoming events, and ways to get involved at pinkribbongood.org.
