October is cancer awareness month, and to promote knowledge, the MHS Mystique is introducing an event to benefit cancer research and patient care at the Siteman Cancer Center, an international leader in cancer treatment, research, prevention, education and community outreach.

At the Varsity football game against CBC on Friday Oct. 15, Mystique will host the inaugural Kickin’ for a Cure kick-line. Mystique members are selling shirts for $10 to raise money for the event during lunch through the end of this week. Students who purchase a shirt have the option to perform a pre-game kick-line with Mystique.

At the beginning of the year, each Mystique member got a sponsor from the Siteman Cancer Center to help them promote the event and get people to donate money for the center.

“The Mystique girls have been doing an awesome job,” Michelle Boyd, Mystique coach, said. “We have raised close to $2,500 for the Siteman Cancer Center.”

Boyd said she hopes this week will be the final push that helps Mystique double the proceeds they have already raised.

Boyd said she came up with the idea of hosting a charity event to benefit the Siteman Cancer Center.

Siteman is a leading cancer research facility located within the city boundaries. The main goal of the center is to seek ways to cure cancer through the funding of programs.

“I wanted to come up with something the girls could sink their teeth in,” Boyd said. “I wanted to start last year, but we needed to fill out a lot of paperwork, get things approved by Siteman, get sponsor letters and lots of nitty gritty stuff.”

This is the first year Mystique is participating in a community outreach event. Boyd said she plans to do more events in the future.

“This is like a rough run,” Boyd said. “We have to figure out what’s going right and wrong in order to find out how to make [events] bigger.”

Mystique captain Shelley Mai, senior, said she looks forward to the event.