Dear Friends in Prevention,As we usher in a new year, we are presented with the opportunity to look back on the tremendous progress that we made in 2017. Thanks to your sustained vision, generosity, and support, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition (MBCC) continues to work towards our mission of prevention by advancing our understanding and awareness of the environmental factors linked to breast cancer.
In 2017, we hosted an educational forum for legislators at the Massachusetts State House. To further intensify these efforts, we established an Advocacy Day, broadening the conversation so that concerned citizens could engage with legislators about the need for quality drinking water and groundwater research. On January 2nd, 2018, Governor Baker announced that he lifted the hold on earmarked funds in the state budget appropriated by the Legislature for Fiscal Year 2018. Silent Spring Institute should receive $25,000 from line item 4510-0600, Environmental Health Assessment and Compliance, under the Department of Public Health. This is a beginning.
With your support, we expanded the Let’s Talk Prevention: Reducing Toxic Exposures community education program and tour into 50 new locations across the state. We’re committed to getting out the word on prevention to all Massachusetts citizens, and to strengthening awareness of potentially harmful environmental substances across diverse populations. To that end, MBCC translated our Let’s Talk Prevention materials into Portuguese and Korean, adding to our existing offerings in Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, and English.
We also partnered with scientists and educators to develop and launch a free environmental health program for high school students as an extension of the Let’s Talk Prevention program. This new program, Let’s Talk Prevention: Actions You Can Take, comprised of supplemental, stand-alone classroom modules to enhance science, health, and environmental studies curriculums was successfully piloted in two schools in the spring and launched statewide this fall. And, with the expansion of our MBCC Webinar Series, we brought information from renowned scientists and educators about chemical exposures and their potential health effects directly to your home.
We are extremely proud of these remarkable accomplishments, but we could not have achieved them without you. Whether you have made financial contributions or donated your time as a volunteer, your dedication is key to our continued success. Yet, there is still much work to be done to make breast cancer prevention possible, and we are grateful to have you by our side in the coming year. On behalf of everyone at Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, I wish you a healthy and happy 2018.
With deep gratitude,
