Blue Buffalo General Manager, Erik Letson, is pictured with Julio Montanez and the check donated by the car wash to the Susan G. Komen Foundation after their October fundraiser. Submitted photo

LAKEWOOD – October is annually known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this past October local car wash, Blue Buffalo Car Wash, spent the month raising money for both Breast Cancer awareness and research.

Blue Buffalo Car Wash, 373 East Fairmount Ave., Lakewood, asked customers throughout the month of October to donate to the cause and receive a free t-shirt if they did. Erik Letson, Blue Buffalo general manager, \said this was a fundraiser they wanted to do because of breast cancer being a cause close to the company’s heart.

“We did this fundraiser because breast cancer has greatly affected several of our employees, their families, and our community,” Letson said. “The fundraiser went very well. We raised over $1,000 with donations from the community and were able to 100% match those donations for a total of $2,034 donated.”

While this is the first time the car wash has done this fundraiser, Letson said the plan is for it to become an annual event. All of the donated funds went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s website, komen.org, the foundation’s mission began 43 years ago and in that time they have focused their goals on groundbreaking research, community health outreach, advocacy and programs in more than 60 countries. The website notes that there have been 29 new breast-cancer fighting drugs made possible over the past 30 years thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and that they are the only organization “that addresses breast cancer on multiple fronts such as research, community health, global outreach and public policy initiatives in order to make the biggest impact against this disease.” Letson said the foundation being nationally recognized is why they chose to donate to them for this fundraiser.

“We went with Susan G. Komen because they are nationally recognized for their work in breast cancer research and awareness so we know they will be able to make the biggest impact with this money,” Letson said. “We would just like to thank the community deeply for their donations and look forward to donating even more next year.”