By Blake Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

Students at Sophia P. Kingston Elementary School walked for a cure Friday to take a stand against breast cancer.

The students, dressed in pink and carrying banners around the block, wanted to take part in Breast Cancer Awareness Month like many other schools and organizations in Selma.

“We just wanted to get out and support the ones who fought, who have gotten over it and who are going through it now,” said Erica Lumpkin, the school’s physical education teacher. “We just wanted to show them that we support them.”

Principal Ozella Ford said leading up to Friday’s walk, teachers taught their students about the impact of breast cancer.

“We are preparing students and providing them with an awareness of activities that are going on around them,” Ford said. “So many of our family members are affected with breast cancer, so if we’re prepared and equipped even just to be a comfort, it just helps so much for students just to have a general background awareness.”

Both Lumpkin and Ford have had family members with breast cancer. Lumpkin’s aunt had it, and Ford said her mother is currently battling the disease.

“It means a lot to me being that my mom is actually going through the process,” Ford said. “When the students started walking in this morning with their pink shirts it just made my heart delighted to know that this community also is embracing the idea that there is a way to walk for a cure.”

Eliza Manuel, a breast cancer survivor herself, was one of many grandparents and parents that took part in the walk.

She walked alongside her granddaughter, and her grandson also participated in her honor.

“It means so much to see these kids walking for cancer,” Manuel said. “It means a lot just to see the little ones learn about what cancer means because at this age lots of them don’t understand.”

Leslie Maul, a fifth grader at Kingston, said he walked for his grandmother who passed away from breast cancer.

“It’s a special day to me because my grandma had breast cancer,” Maull said.

Ford said she couldn’t be any more proud of the support her students showed for breast cancer awareness.

“It makes me so proud because if it affects one of us, it affects all of us,” Ford said. “So often in education we just get caught up with making certain that we teach and that we’re doing all the other things that we do, and we forget the little things like making sure our students have a general awareness of cancer or any type of illness that will impact our community.”