MUNDELEIN, Ill., Sept. 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over the past three months, more than 80,000 people across the country, from health care workers and students, to firefighters, athletes and Girl Scouts, have bopped and boogied in pink gloves to star in videos supporting breast cancer awareness as part of Medline Industries, Inc.'s Second Annual National Pink Glove Dance Video Competition. Video entries are to be postmarked by this Friday, September 28. Beginning October 12, the public can go to www.pinkglovedance.com to view the videos and cast their ballot to help determine the nation's favorite Pink Glove Dance video.
Voting runs through October 26, with three winners announced on November 2. The winning organization will receive a $10,000 donation in their name to the breast cancer charity of their choice; second place will receive $5,000 and third place $2,000. Voters are required to have a Facebook® account in order to register their votes.
The national competition, sponsored by Medline — the creator of the YouTube® sensation Pink Glove Dance and makers of the pink gloves — is expected to include close to 400 submissions from throughout North America, including 43 states, Canada and Puerto Rico. That is almost three times as many entries as last year's inaugural contest.
"The response to the competition is truly overwhelming," said Andy Mills, president of Medline. "The Pink Glove Dance has become more than a fun music video; it has inspired an international movement of passionate caregivers, health care workers, students, firefighters – people from all walks of life – to show their support in fun, creative ways for people with this terrible disease."
Last year, 139 organizations from 40 states and Canadaparticipated in Medline's inaugural Pink Glove Dance video competition. To view videos from last year's competition, go to www.pinkglovedance.com. The competition quickly became a national social media phenomenon with the videos receiving more than 1.2 million views, a half million votes and thousands of tweets, blogs and texts. LexingtonMedicalCenterin West Columbia, S.C., won first place with 61,054 votes — more than four times the population of their entire city (14,061). Click here to view their 2011 winning video.
History of the Pink Glove Dance
The original Pink Glove Dance video premiered in November 2009 and featured 200 Portland,Ore. hospital workers wearing pink gloves and dancing in support of breast cancer awareness and prevention. Today the video has more than 13.6 million views on YouTube® and has inspired more than 1,000 pink glove dance videos and breast cancer awareness events across the country. Because of the overwhelming response to the original video, a sequel was produced in October 2010 featuring 4,000 health care workers and breast cancer survivors throughout North America.
"Gloves are the first point of contact between the health care worker and the patient," said Mills. "As a way to extend our breast cancer awareness campaign, we developed a pink glove called Generation Pink®, with the aim of getting people to talk about breast cancer."
Medline is donating a portion of each sale of the pink gloves to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF). To date, Medline has donated more than $1 million to the NBCF to fund mammograms for individuals who cannot afford them.
Pink Glove Dance® is registered trademark of Medline Industries, Inc.
About Medline
As the nation's largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies, Medline is focused on helping to improve the quality of care for patients and residents. Breast cancer awareness is a natural extension of Medline's corporate mission to help save lives through the early detection of breast cancer. (Visit www.medline.com/breast-cancer-awareness for details). Based in Mundelein, Ill., Medline manufactures and distributes more than 125,000 products to hospitals, extended care facilities, physician offices, surgery centers, home care dealers and agencies and other markets.
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John Marks (847) 643-3309 Ann Fahey-Widman, (847) 643-3011
jmarks@medline.com afahey@medline.com
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The following pictures are available for download:
| [Image] | Lexington Medical Center |