MSU fans encouraged to ‘Pack the Place in Pink’ for Sept. 13 football game

BOZEMAN - Montana State University will continue its annual "Pack the Place in Pink" tradition to promote breast cancer awareness at the Bobcats' home football game on Sept. 13.

Fans are invited to purchase limited-edition apparel to wear during the game against San Diego. The items for purchase include two T-shirts - one pink and one navy - featuring a special Pack the Place in Pink Bobcat logo. Both shirts will retail for $25.

Participating retailers will donate a portion of the proceeds to Pack the Place in Pink, a Billings-based nonprofit that supports breast cancer patients in Montana by providing financial assistance. The organization was founded in 2007 by Vicki Heebner Carle, an MSU alumna and retired teacher. Carle, who has twice survived breast cancer, played basketball for MSU in the 1980s and was inducted into the Bobcat Hall of Fame in 1996.

Carle said Pack the Place in Pink began in Billings Skyview High School's volleyball program, where she was a coach at the time of her first diagnosis, and has since spread statewide because of loyal partners, such as 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."

Pack the Place in Pink Bobcat merchandise is available at the MSU Bookstore in the Strand Union Building, at Bobcat Stadium and online at msubookstore.org. It also will be sold at Universal Athletic locations in Bozeman, Billings, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell and 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."