Breast cancer awareness is a sensitive issue for young people who may not always be ready or receptive to talking about such (let’s admit: scary) things even if they know they may be at risk. So when we were invited to take part in AUB’s Annual Civic Engagement Conference and Fair, we immediately got to thinking of different ways to reach and engage the students so that we may get our message across more effectively.
Less than two years ago, we teamed up with Worldwide Breast Cancer to adapt their brilliant flyers into Arabic (with the translation support of Samar Hajj-Ali) and so we looked no further than those “lemons” as a base for building our booth’s concept on. Lemons are fresh, lemons are fun and lemons make lemonade – we were onto something!
Source: Worldwide Breast Cancer
We decided to take the twelve signs to watch for one step further by creating plastic models to represent each one. Students had a chance to look more closely at them, ask questions and try to find a match with some of the actual lemons decorating our booth. Most weren’t aware of all the signs that may indicate breast cancer developing in the chest, besides a lump, so it was an eye-opening experience for all. 
The highlight for those visiting the booth must have been the interactive “Wheel of Lemons” game we developed that included eight different categories of questions or games to play, based on where the dial pointed. Categories including “Mythbuster”, “Celebrities” and the unexpected “Wild Card” gave participants a chance to win a cup of free, home-made lemonade (lovingly made by Teta Laurice, Loryne’s granny). 
While the questions ranged from easy to tricky (can you guess the answer of the question in the picture above without seeing the answer?), no one passed on the challenge and eagerly took turns guessing for the right answer. Even those who didn’t win a lemonade were good sports about it and left with something out of the experience, whether it was a chance to ask a question that’s been on their mind or simply learning a new breast cancer fact they didn’t know about before (such as that the left breast is more prone to developing cancer that the right one). 
The reactions and questions we received during the two days of the fair were honestly the most significant part of the experience for us. For example, the second the wheel marker would stop at “Celebrities”, Angelina Jolie would be the first thing on their mind – which is a great sign of the awareness she’s shed although her reasons for doing it (as a preventative measure rather than a treatment for cancer) wasn’t as clear for some of the students. This gave us the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with them about what she’d done and raise awareness on genetic testing.
Other students had bigger concerns on their mind which would come out in conversation before or after playing the game, including how to self-check and assess their risk if a family member had had cancer. Some even felt comfortable enough sharing a personal experience they may not have had a chance to share otherwise, which was incredibly touching for us. 
More than 200 cups of lemonade later (over a span of two days), we can safely say that our mission was accomplished and that our “Lemonista” awareness booth had a positive impact on all those who took part, making all the hard-work planning and preparing for it even more worthwhile.
View highlights of our booth in this video montage:
Whether it was a new fact learned, a question answered, a laugh shared – or maybe simply a refreshing drink received – everyone left with a little something and we look forward to spreading more awareness in this way in the future. Where should “The Lemonista” set up her awareness booth next? Keep posted!
Thank you to AUB and the CCECS team for inviting us to take part in their fair which is key to developing civic engagement for students and building a more positive future. A very big thank you goes to our amazing volunteers Aya, Myriam and Catherine for all their help and dedication, Teta Laurice for preparing all the lemonade for us, and to our talented board member, Mira for her guidance in developing the concept for the booth.
One Wig Stand 