We all know the colors of awareness: pink for Breast Cancer, green for sustainability, red for HIV/AIDS and the other colors of the rainbow for various causes. While extremely successful in raising money and awareness for many causes, one must wonder where the point of oversaturation is. Is buying a colored item for awareness really making an effort to help those in need?

Americans spend millions of dollars every year buying these color-coded products to raise awareness for issues, but never engage themselves with the causes.

For example, Google searching “Breast Cancer Awareness” brings up millions of hits for pink products for consumers to buy, but little about getting involved with prevention and activism. Some of these products are merely for profit – not for the benefit of the cause. If you’re going to buy a colored product as a donation, make sure that what you are purchasing gives a sizable portion to the cause, and double check that the charitable society is legitimate.

In our society, it seems as though buying a colored product for awareness is a way to feel like you’ve helped a cause, without the emotional investment. It takes 30 seconds to buy a product, but even a few hours volunteering with one of these causes can make much more of a difference.

Think about it; a 30-second and $10 purchase of a colored awareness item is but a fraction of the health care costs and emotional price that the people affected pay every day. Give those affected a little of your time and a piece of your heart by getting involved without your debit card.

Although it is good to donate to these causes, getting active and giving support can be much more of a worthy donation to those affected. Strike a balance — donate money, give your time, lend a helping hand to those in need. But make sure that what you are doing actually helps the cause.

While amusing, efforts such as changing your Facebook status to your bra color or location of your purse do nothing for breast cancer awareness; you’re not giving a tangible effort or donation to the cause.

Amidst the pink ribbons, the bracelets and the mile-walking, it’s pretty easy to forget just how horrible cancer can be — on a humanistic level. We’d write obligatory sentences like “We’ve all lost someone,” but “lost” hardly begins to cover it.

The worst thing about cancer is watching someone you love fight a losing battle. Technology has made substantial leaps in the past 20 years — we have new treatments, new drugs, new surgeries, all without the slightest drop in mortality rates. You’d be hard-pressed to say we’re winning the war on cancer, especially if you’re unfortunate enough to know someone currently fighting for their lives.

November is just around the corner, and with it, the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink-themed news media and the headlines about the “I heart boobies” bracelet scandal will give way to breaking news on the latest Christmas trends. Cancer, however, will stick around.

If you felt so inclined to donate some of your time and money to the cause this month, give it another try over the next 11. Remember, it doesn’t just have to go toward said pink products — there are plenty of good causes with less publicity.

Don’t take that as a knock against breast cancer, but let’s be fair — the exposure for, say, Alzheimer’s disease, pales in comparison. We don’t want to put any medical condition on a pedestal above another, but we would like to see people’s altruism going toward other less-publicized causes.

Beyond money, though, it’s important to be aware of the very human aspect of these diseases. The very effective campaign by those that want to raise breast cancer awareness is definitely something for them to take pride in.

It’s important to stay cognizant of what the pink ribbon stands for, for individual cancer patients and also for chronic diseases in general. Don’t lose sight of the big picture while holding the aspects of humanity in your mind.

We challenge you to find the most effective and meaningful ways to get involved with awareness causes. Set down your wallet and use a little elbow grease to help move the causes forward. Causes like these benefit more from hard work: research, kind words and social activism.

Put your mouth where your money is, and find ways to get active in these causes.