"We would normally do stuff for the teachers, like they pay $10 to wear jeans and a pink shirt, or we'd let kids pay to wear a hat, then donate all the money to the Susan G. Komen Foundation," said teacher Christy Ridley. "We were trying to think of something more exciting we could do for the kids."
Hundreds of participants made the formation of the word "love" on the field with a ribbon as the "o," growing from the original formation in 2008 that only consisted of the ribbon.
"We came up with a formation on the field, we got the kids into it, and then we thought, 'well this is something we've never done and something we've never seen done, so maybe we can get a world record. So, we applied to the Guiness Book of World Records and the world record is for an awareness ribbon which had about 1,000 people, so we gave up that idea and from that came the idea of fostering community value to our children," Ridley said. "We're trying to kind of teach them a life lesson that we live here in the small community of Adairsville, but it's bigger than that, there's more out there for them and there's a bigger reason for them doing things.
"We're trying to show them you need to help and support and reach out to people in your community and help them."
She said an important element to Pink Out is involving members of the community touched by cancer.
"We always invite our cancer survivors, that's one of our main things ... so the kids can honor them and show them we are behind them in the battle they're going through," Ridley said.
A victory lap followed the event during which cancer survivors made their way around the track as those in the stands and field clapped and cheered.
"Every year it's getting bigger and bigger," Ridley said. "The first year we just did our school, the second year we invited the elementary school down the road and then last year we included our feeder schools from the fifth grade at Clear Creek, Pine Log and all of Adairsville Elementary, the pre-k class at Adairsville High, and this year we're adding in Tomorrow's Child pre-k."
In an effort to get students geared up for the event, the school held a fundraiser in which the teacher whose class raised the most money had to kiss a donkey.
Principal Brian Knuchel said although Pink Out is fun and exciting for students, he reiterated Ridley's statements on the lesson at hand.
"This school has been here for a long time. These kids' parents and grandparents went to this school and so this school is part of the community," Knuchel said. "So any time we can help the community, we want to because this community helps us out all the time.
"We want the kids to know they can make a difference in the community ... this is just one of the things we do during the school year to show kids they can make a difference in their community."
Amidst the excitement, eighth-grader Chris Blacksdon got the message.
"All week we've been raising money for a local family with a woman who's suffering from breast cancer and we're just trying to spread to people how much it means that you can do things like this, to show how much you care and that we understand what they're going through and just being able to show that we care and it just makes people feel better," Blacksdon said.