Adorned in a baby pink chef’s coat as she bustled about the dining room of DeAngelo’s taking calls and answering her staff’s questions, general manager of the restaurant Michele Gates smiled. The busy manager, mother and wife will celebrate her second year of surviving breast cancer in January of next year. Paul Gates, her husband and WAFB news anchor, is campaigning along with four other well-known local men to raise breast cancer awareness through a Baton Rouge General program called Pink at the Polls. The five men chosen to run in Pink at the Polls are Mayor-President Kip Holden, Advocate columnist Smiley Anders, Baton Rouge Police Chief Jeff LeDuff, LSU women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor, and Paul Gates. The polls opened Monday for voters to choose who they want to see wearing pink, the signature color of breast cancer fundraisers and awareness programs, on the Nov. 17 election day. The idea is that voters will be reminded of the importance of early detection and self breast exams when they visit the voting site, pinkatthepolls.org. “It’s a not-so-serious election for a very serious cause,” Rebecca Burdette, manager of marketing and public relations at Baton Rouge General said. The program was conceived by Baton Rouge General and its Pennington Cancer Center two months ago, Burdette said. The campaigning occurs during Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the election coincides with the national primary elections. The national political season was the inspiration for creating a light-hearted election as a mode of generating breast cancer awareness. “We were looking for the most spirited guys around town, and most of them have some connection to cancer whether it be themselves, a family member or spouse,” Burdette said. Paul Gates said he felt obliged to participate in Pink at the Polls because of his wife’s experience with breast cancer. “We’re not totally bogged down in the cancer culture, but we help here and there,” he said. “Last week, I went to a cancer survivor brunch, but this is the first time I’ve heard of doing something like this. I think it’s working.” Anders has been busy putting up yard signs, distributing campaign buttons and generating votes in Clinton and Spanish Town. When explaining how the five candidates were chosen, he jokingly said the decision was based on “looks and overall sexiness.” Anders is a nine-year survivor of prostate cancer and said it’s important to detect all types of cancer early. “I’d just like to encourage people not to wait long to be checked,” he said. “If I had waited any longer, I wouldn’t be here today.” Michele Gates, whose husband was in the lead in the online polls at the time of the interview, said she appreciates what her husband and the other four participants are doing to heighten awareness. “Paul is involved in Pink at the Polls because he never wants to live through dealing with breast cancer again with our two daughters or any other family members,” she said. She also believes in the cause of Pink at the Polls, which is offering free self-breast examination cards through its Web site. “Early detection saved my life because women know their bodies, and I knew that the lump I found through a self-exam in December 2005 was not there in November,” she said.
—-Contact Olivia Hernandez at [email protected]