Montana State University will continue its “Pack the Place in Pink” event to raise breast cancer awareness during the Bobcats’ home football game on September 13. The initiative encourages fans to wear special apparel for the game against San Diego.
Limited-edition merchandise, including pink and navy T-shirts featuring a Pack the Place in Pink Bobcat logo, will be available for $25 each. A portion of sales from participating retailers will go to Pack the Place in Pink, a nonprofit organization based in Billings that provides financial support to breast cancer patients across Montana.
The organization was founded in 2007 by Vicki Heebner Carle, an MSU alumna and retired teacher who is also a two-time breast cancer survivor. Carle played basketball for Montana State University in the 1980s and was inducted into the Bobcat Hall of Fame in 1996.
Carle explained how the effort started at Billings Skyview High School’s volleyball program, where she coached after her first diagnosis, and has since grown with help from partners like MSU. “It started out as something pretty simple and turned into something pretty significant,” she said, noting that the charity has distributed more than $1.1 million among nearly 1,100 Montana breast cancer patients. “We empower people to help, as well as empower the breast cancer warriors to fight.”
Fans can buy Pack the Place in Pink Bobcat merchandise at several locations: at the MSU Bookstore inside Strand Union Building, at Bobcat Stadium, online at msubookstore.org, and Universal Athletic stores throughout Bozeman, Billings, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell or online at shop.msubobcats.com.
“For me, as a two-time breast cancer survivor and a lifelong Bobcat, I’m just so humbled by the support of Montana State,” Carle said. “I’m so proud of my university and everybody who is involved with it.”
