newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — In October, Odette Butler and a cadre of volunteers plan to “Paint the Town Pink.”

Figuratively speaking of course.

Don’t be surprised if flag poles suddenly sprout pink ribbons. And pink signs, pink clothing and — hold your breath hockey fans — pink hockey ice will surface around Fairbanks and North Pole.

As executive director of the Breast Cancer Detection Center of Alaska, Butler is in overdrive outlining tactics to bring breast cancer awareness to the public’s attention — via the color pink — in addition to coordinating a variety of fundraising, educational and wellness events in October.

A “Paint the Town Pink” contest also is in the works to bring breast cancer awareness forward throughout the business community.

“Odette is always coming up with better ideas to help mankind and better our mission for BCDC with new and innovative ways to do things,” said Lana Assyd, BCDC board president.

Now, Butler’s energy is channeled into preparing for the BCDC’s annual Gala Hat Affair, a fundraising luncheon and fashion show slated for Oct. 3 in the Edgewood Room of the Princess Hotel.

The event started four years ago, and this is the third year Butler is pulling it together since she was hired in November 2005 to direct the nonprofit organization.

No one in Butler’s family has ever had breast cancer, although her mother did undergo a biopsy for a suspicious lump that turned out to be benign.

“That was scary enough for me,” said Butler, who is committed to promoting BCDC’s mammogram screening program both locally and in rural communities, which turns no woman away.

A transplanted New Yorker, Butler came to Alaska four years ago with her family after her husband, William, took a job here.

Butler’s work background has always included interacting with a wide variety of people. She earned a degree in vocational agriculture at Texas A & I in Kingsville, Texas, which later became part of the Texas A & M university system, and is an Army-certified drug and alcohol counselor, a job she did for eight years.

In Watertown, N.Y., Butler worked with low-income families as a community food educator with the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Service. That job involved everything from tilling soil in gardens, teaching canning, food storage and cooking as well as developing a farmers market, community garden and working with farmers and the local school lunch program.

In Fairbanks, Butler’s first worked as a Senior Services care coordinator at Fairbanks Resource Agency before she applied for the BCDC executive director position.

“They took a chance with me,” Butler said, referring to the BCDC board, since she didn’t have supervisory or budgeting experience. But Butler’s human service experience won them over.

John Dickinson, a 20-year board member at the time, wasn’t worried.

“She had the spark I knew that the organization needed at the time, and it surfaced very, very well. She really has the energy and the ability to communicate with different segments of the population, more than with any other director we ever had,” he said.

Dickinson said Butler has been able to broaden BCDC’s support base.

“She is able to go out and talk at a military base on a Wednesday night and a black church in South Fairbanks on a Sunday morning, and at the same time communicate with the rural villages. She has just about doubled the activity in the villages and under-served populations in Fairbanks,” he said.

“BCDC is about outreach, and to get those people that early detection is the key to survival,” Dickinson added.

Another board member, Carolyn Wallace, praises Butler’s dedication to her job.

“She literally puts in hundreds of hours that she does not get paid for,” Wallace said.

Since Butler took the job, the BCDC now owns its Cowles Street building, thanks to the generous donations from the Waterfall Project, Assyd said.

“Odette wears many hats; she finds herself a landlord (there is a rental unit) and the maintenance person,” Assyd said.

“I’ve seen her take a really dysfunctional office and make it a fun, functioning, efficient place to work.

“She’s a very energetic, caring, intelligent person,” Assyd said. “Her heart is in the right place. She is organized, has no second agenda, and she just goes the extra mile to fulfill our mission.”

Assyd also enjoys reading Butler’s monthly reports, which she characterizes as “like reading a book about BCDC.”

In addition to overseeing the day-to-day office intake, fundraising and figuring out creative, inexpensive ways to deliver mobile mammogram services to women on and off the road systems, Butler obtained the center’s first corporate sponsor and is working with General Electric technicians as they attempt to develop a digital mammogram machine that can withstand the rigors of being driven across Alaska’s rough roads and transported via river barge or small planes into Bush communities.

Butler spends her free time keeping up with her family, which includes three sons.

Her eldest, 19-year-old Christopher Hardy, joined the Marine Corps a year ago and will be deploying to Iraq in November.

Matthew Hardy, 17, is a West Valley High School student and football player, and Alexander Butler, age 7, is the youngest.

You’ll find Butler watching or standing by her sons as they participate in sports and school activities. Occasionally, she finds time to design and bake specialty cakes, a hobby she once ran as a small business.

“My fantasy is to have someone bake cakes for me all day, so I can just carve out and decorate cake sculptures,” she said.

In her role as executive director, Butler also has taken to wearing pink-hued clothing and accessories, especially during the month of October.

“I had never owned pink before I started working for BCDC,” Butler said with a smile.

Although each October brings new challenges and more work, Butler said, it also brings a great deal of satisfaction.

“This is not just about fundraising. It’s about women being able to share this time together and support each other.”

Wallace agrees.

“There are very heartwarming stories shared,” she said.

Wallace said one of the most dramatic moments at the galas is when the announcer asks:

“Anyone in this room who has had breast cancer, please stand.” This is followed by, “Anyone in this room who has had a family member who has had breast cancer, please stand up, and anyone in this room who has had a friend with breast cancer, please stand.”

“By then, everybody is standing up,” Wallace said.

The public response to recognizing and standing up for breast cancer awareness is an important part of BCDC’s mission, Dickinson said.

“What Odette has done is create an environment where the survivors are surviving their survival, and removing the stigma associated with breast cancer. She has done a tremendous job in that regard.”

Assyd agrees.

“Odette has been a breath of fresh air for BCDC. We appreciate her energy and dedication so much.”