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Paint the Town Pink officially kicks off on Tuesday during the Austin Area Chamber’s Business After Hours at The Hormel Institute.

The event, co-hosted by Hy-Vee, begins at 5 p.m. and will include remarks from Paint the Town Pink leaders, the Austin Bruins, and Robert Clarke, PhD, executive director of The Hormel Institute, as well as introduce the Paint the Town Pink 2025 Ambassador.

Now in its 15th year, Paint the Town Pink is a community-led campaign to raise funds for cancer research at The Hormel Institute. Since 2011, the campaign has raised more than $3 million and funded 43 seed grants for Institute researchers. Seed grants made possible by Paint the Town Pink fund innovative research projects related to cancer and provide the necessary resources for scientists to gather preliminary data that makes their research ideas more likely to receive funding from larger, national sources. Because of Paint the Town Pink, research at the Institute makes progress and takes us closer to solutions that will improve health and extend lives.

“Research is a journey of 1,000 miles and, in many ways, we are able to take the first steps of that journey because of the money raised during Paint the Town Pink,” Clarke said. “We have an obligation to do the best we can with every penny raised during these events because the Austin community are not just our neighbors and supporters, we consider them part of the research team here at The Hormel Institute.”

The event will also reveal this year’s Paint the Town Pink Ambassador, who will share their story of being diagnosed with and overcoming cancer.

Paint the Town Pink events run from January through March, and include Plunging for Pink, Paint the Rink Pink, and the Austin Bruins Black and Gold Gala, among many others. For more information visit https://hi.umn.edu/pttp.