Pat Sisbarro: women pushing forward

“When we started it, we really thought it was going to be a one and done,” Pat Sisbarro said about the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign.

Instead, the fundraiser lasted 10 years, ending in 2016 after raising more than $6 million for cancer awareness and research.

“It was so totally embraced by the community. It was astounding,” Sisbarro said. “And to top it off, the football team wore pink.”

Aggie players wore pink socks and pink ribbons on their helmets for the first time during their Sept. 29, 2007, game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Aggie Memorial Stadium.

“Nobody had done that before,” said Sisbarro, one of four honorary co-chairs of TETWP, along with former NMSU Board of Regents chair Laura Conniff; Magellia Boston, the wife of then NMSU athletic director McKinley Boston; and June Mumme, wife of 2005-08 NMSU head football coach Hal Mumme.

The game was nationally televised by ESPN (the Aggies won 20-17), and the TETWP phenomenon was launched.  

June Mumme brought the idea for TETWP back from a rodeo, Sisbarro said, and the women thought, “Wouldn’t this be interesting to do at a football game,” she said. “We wanted to do it in conjunction with the university, and connected with Cowboys for Cancer Research,” a New Mexico-based nonprofit that partners with NMSU and the University of New Mexico.

“It would bring awareness to breast cancer and prompt people to get checked and early detection,” said Sisbarro, a three-time cancer survivor. “Early detection is definitely the key,” she said. “It saved my life.”

Sisbarro also credited Rick Nezzer, sales director for the Sisbarro Dealerships in Las Cruces and surrounding communities, for the TETWP success.

“It became a full-time job for me and Rick,” Sisbarro said. “I’m very proud of it and very proud of Las Cruces for the way they embraced it and made it successful. I don’t think it would be as successful in any place but Las Cruces.”

Today, TETWP has morphed into Cancer Warriors, Sisbarro said, which was created by Marci Dickerson and begins its fourth year this October of supporting awareness and treatment of women’s cancers.

Pat and husband Lou Sisbarro were also founding members of the American Southwest Theatre Company, the nonprofit created by Tony winner Mark Medoff and Dr. Bruce Streett in 1984 to raise money for the NMSU Theatre Department.

Sisbarro has also been part of NMSU President’s Associates, NMSU Aggie Booster Club, Tresco Inc. and the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council. She was named Las Cruces Hispanic Chamber Citizen of the Year and received the Las Cruces Mayor’s Distinguished Service Award and Las Cruces Citizen of the Year from the Las Cruces Association of Realtors.

The Sisbarros moved west from Michigan in 1981, choosing to settle in Las Cruces in part because of NMSU.

Donations from the Sisbarros in 2015 established a major fund and a substantial legacy gift at New Mexico State. That same year, NMSU unveiled Pat and Lou Sisbarro Community Park, just east of the football stadium, and awarded the Sisbarros honorary degrees in 2016.

“TETWP, I’m definitely proud of that,” Sisbarro said. “My proudest moment is being a good wife and mom. I feel like that is my legacy; my children (three) and grandchildren (seven) will go on and do the things we taught them. That to me is what we do: Always do good and try to help others.”

“We do still have to have that battle a bit,” she said about women. “It’s gotten much better. We just have to keep pushing forward and finding a way to make it happen. We have to prove ourselves a little more than men just walking in cold. We’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s more to do. Women, we’ve got this; we can do it.”