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There was nothing unfamiliar to Tuesday night’s Business After Hours at The Hormel Institute. Like so many years before, it also served as the kick-off for Paint the Town Pink and people gathered, socialized and celebrated the start of the campaign’s 15th year.

And yet, as that familiarity with the event settled in, so did the continued growth and power of what it signified — a unified front in the quest to cure cancer.

“Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Institute Executive director Robert Clarke told those gathered. “This is an amazing event. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do at the Institute without you.”

By all accounts, PTTP’s previous 14 years have been wildly successful, pushed forward from that first year by the Austin Bruins and the start of Paint the Town Pink.

To date, over $3 million dollars has been raised from the events taking part in PTTP and from that money, 43 seed grants have been distributed to the scientists at the Institute in something of a self-sustaining funding cycle that drives early research.

“I get lost for words sometimes,” Clarke said. “The most exciting thing I can do is say, ‘thank you.’”

In years past, PTTP has largely been confined to a whirlwind of activities through the latter half of January and into mid-February. But in the most recent of years, efforts have shifted to more of a year-round activity.

This includes events that have taken place in the summer and beyond and is a testament to how much the entirety of the initiative continues to grow.

“It’s all season,” said Institute PTTP Coordinator Daneka Wiechmann. “People want to jump on it. They want to help. I feel like everyone sees what’s happening and the community wants to be a part of it.”

At the same time, it’s also part of a larger effort by a variety of organizations throughout southeastern Minnesota and right here in Mower County, including The Lyle Cancer Auction, which is this weekend.

She said with so many people and organizations taking part in the same cause of finding a cure, it’s bolstering the wills of others.

“It’s just happening so much,” Wiechmann said. “More people are relating to it and are comfortable talking about the situation. People then want to help.”

Tuesday night was also about welcoming and introducing this year’s ambassador, Breanna Bortner, who took the opportunity to tell her story as part of the festivities.

There were moments of levity, like when she noted how she discovered she had cancer.

“I would like to thank the mosquitos that bit me,” she said with a sly smile, noting that it was because of the itching that she noticed the lump in her breast that denoted a particularly dangerous form of breast cancer: Triple-negative breast cancer.

This is an aggressive form of cancer, made even more daunting by the fact that common treatments generally will not work. It also grows quickly and spreads quickly.

There were also moments of strength as Bortner went through the stages of her cancer journey with the audience, including the telling of how she started Brave Beautiful Boobies, a blog that is developing into a non-profit to help others.

“It’s a way for me to support myself,” she said. “I remind myself that I can do hard things.”

Like many who have been doing this same thing in the years prior to this year, Bortner’s story is one of perseverance that she hopes will carry through to help others.

“Most of all. Most of all, we want to give people many, many, many more years of life,” she said.

These stories aren’t lost on the people and the organization that started it all. Head coach Steve Howard said that it’s important for the Bruins’ players and the organization to hear stories like Bortner as a reminder of how important the effort is.

“It’s a big deal. There are some on this team that have been directly affected,” Howard said. “To hear the personal stories, it really touches the heart and they understand that this is bigger than the game of hockey.”