The Fighting the Fight Against Breast Cancer Conference, originally scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12 was cancelled, creating a variety of constantly continuing controversy.

As with all issues, there are two sides. LMC’s stance is simple, the committee appointed by LMCAS for the event set a deadline, and the deadline was not met.

On the other side of the argument it is said that the deadline was met, and because of a processing error all of the paper applications were not input in time.

Who is right and who is wrong is not important anymore because the event was cancelled, and there is no taking it back.

The controversy continues to swirl, though, because the donations that were made for the conference were used for the Catch Pink event last weekend.

LMCAS student rep Sherrie Anderson, upset about the cancellation of the conference, called some of the people who made donations and informed them the event was cancelled.

Thanks to those phone calls, Allie Pedrotti of community relations with the San Francisco Giants, asked for the autographed Gregor Blanco jersey that was donated for the event to be returned. They asked for it back because Anderson failed to mention that the jersey would still be used to raise money for the scholarship.

The problem with Pedrotti asking for the jersey back was that it is against LMC policy to return donations once they are received.

LMCAS Student Advisor Demetria Lawrence explained the rule. “Donations cannot be returned because of tax implications,” she said.

This has caused Anderson, who was already in hot water for other issues, to be removed from her position as student rep on multiple committees. In the Oct. 28 LMCAS meeting, Anderson defended her actions.

“I wanted to step in because of the way the event was cancelled and I put a lot of time and money into it,” she said.

That doesn’t change the fact that what she did broke the rules, and Senator for Publicity and Outreach Renee Washington had one idea why it upset so many people.

For her, the problem was that everyone was worried about “I,” but the reason she joined LMCAS was to be a voice for the students.

This sums up the whole controversy about the event being handled, the people who are upset, like Anderson, are taking the cancellation of the event personally because of all of the hard work they put into the event.

The event was cancelled, though, and there is not much that can be done about that, which is why there was a plan b put in place in case the event had to be cancelled.

LMCAS President Brianna Klipp was a member of the planning committee that decided that there had to be a minimum amount of registrations and helped form a backup plan.

“The LMC faculty and planning committee decided it was best to have a minimum amount of participants due to the amount of money being funded to the conference,” she said. “This type of practice is common in the event that registrants are required.”

It is not like Klipp wasn’t upset about the cancellation of the event too. She just understood that these are common practices.

“Initially I felt disappointed, but at the same time this was a great learning experience for all of us student leaders,” she said. “I believe that we can only grow from this.”

Everyone involved will learn from this, but it doesn’t lessen the sting for those who put hard work into planning the event.

The scholarship was originally called the Breast Cancer Scholarship in Honor of Rosanna D. Clark, but at her request her name has now been removed from the scholarship.

“There’s nothing to discuss,” she said. “I don’t want to be a part of it anymore.”

Even with the conflict between the two sides, LMCAS was still able to put together a great event for the Catch Pink Tailgate event and raise money for the Breast Cancer Scholarship. The funds have not yet been calculated, but they raised more money than they planned.

Although events like this were not apart of the original plan, Klipp believes it is for the best.

“Rather than having one day of breast cancer awareness, we spread it throughout the year so that no one forgets how important it is,” she said. “We want to impact as many students as possible, and this was the best solution.”

If you would like more information about the scholarship or to donate to the scholarship you can get more information at the LMCAS page on losmedanos.edu.