Creativity with a Purpose: Ella Hammons and the Pink Hound
For Ella Hammons, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is more than a month on the calendar.
It is personal.
Each October, the Corbin High School sophomore picks up her pencil and creates something special—a new, original Pink Hound design. Drawn entirely by Ella, each design features her own creative take on a cute pink Redhound. But what makes the Pink Hound meaningful isn't just the artwork. It's what Ella chooses to do with it.
Ella takes her designs and turns them into items that she sells throughout the community, donating every dollar raised to help breast cancer patients at the hospital.
The idea began close to home. Ella's mother is a breast cancer survivor, giving Ella a personal understanding of the fear, uncertainty, and challenges that can come with a breast cancer diagnosis. Rather than simply recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Ella found a way to turn something personal into something that could help someone else.
Since 2023, Ella has raised more than $4,200 through the Pink Hound project.
Those funds help ensure that every breast cancer patient undergoing a mastectomy at the hospital has access to a specialized mastectomy robe. The robes offer comfort during recovery while also helping patients manage drain tubes and other medical needs following surgery.
For someone going through such a difficult experience, something as simple as a robe can make an uncomfortable and overwhelming time just a little easier.
Ella saw an opportunity to help.
She created a design.
She shared it with her community.
People purchased her creations.
And together, they turned those purchases into comfort for patients who needed it.
What started with a young girl drawing a pink Redhound has grown into something much bigger. It has become a yearly tradition, a community effort, and a way for Ella to take something that touched her own family and use it to care for others.
Her story reminds us that creativity isn't always about what we make. Sometimes, it's about what our ideas can make possible for someone else.
And now, as October approaches once again, the community has another Pink Hound to look forward to. Be on the lookout this October for Ella's newest design and another opportunity to support local breast cancer patients through the Pink Hound project.
Ella took an idea and gave it purpose. She took her talent and put it to work. And she turned something deeply personal into something that brings comfort, compassion, and hope to others.
That's Creativity.
That's Transforming Ideas into Actions.
That's the Redhound Way.
