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Calif. medics, hospital staff lead video dance competition

The video, where they wear pink and dance to Pharrell Williams “Happy,” is in the running for a $15,000 prize sponsored by a medical supply company

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By Monica Rodriguez
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

POMONA, Calif. — A 90-second video in which Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center personnel, some patients and La Verne firefighters wear pink and dance to Pharrell Williams “Happy” is in the running for a prize in a contest sponsored by a medical supply company.

If the video takes the grand prize in the Medline Pink Glove Dance competition, the company will donate $15,000 on the hospital’s behalf to the Los Angeles County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen. Among the affiliate’s work is providing grants to organizations that offer breast cancer screenings, education and services to women and men, particularly the uninsured and under insured.

Pomona Valley has received grants that have allowed the hospital to provide mammograms to the under insured and uninsured “so more women don’t have to face that diagnosis or (face it) by themselves,” said Leigh Cornell, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center’s vice president of administration.

This is the first time the hospital has participated in the contest, Cornell said.

“We decided this year was the right time to do it,” she said.

Pomona Valley is the only California hospital participating in the contest, Cornell said.

Hospital staff, nurses, physicians, volunteers and two firefighter-paramedics - Sam Dominick and Adrian Villarreal - with the La Verne Fire Department were among the hundreds of people who participated in the video.

The cause was a good one, said La Verne Fire Capt. Danny Montoya.

“We have a good rapport with the hospital,” Montoya said adding that when the invitation to participate was extended the department accepted.

For weeks leading up to the filming of the video “the hospital was abuzz with excitement,” Cornell said.

Participants learned their particular part of the choreography. When all was ready participants put on pink clothing, pink feather boas, pink cowboy hats and all manner of pink accessories and danced, she said.

More than 40 breast cancer survivors and even some current breast cancer patients participated, Cornell said. They appear in tiaras and sashes.

This is the fourth year that medical supply company Medline has organized the Pink Glove Dance video competition.

The competition came in response to a video that a Portland, Oregon, medical center made in support of breast cancer awareness and prevention drawing millions of views on You Tube, according to the company’s website.

This year participants entered videos in one of three categories - health care system, standalone healthcare provider and non-healthcare organization - and the winner will be selected based on the votes each video gets.

Pomona Valley’s video has been leading with the next closet vote getter being a Green Bay, Wisconsin institution.

To view the video go to pinkglovedance.com and click on Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center’s video. Voting instructions are on page. Voting closes at 10 p.m. Tuesday. The winner will be announced Oct. 2, just in time for the start of breast cancer awareness month.

Cornell said a vote for Pomona Valley’s video is not just a vote for the hospital.

“It’s a voter for California hospitals and caregivers,” she said.

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©2014 the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, Calif.)

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