According to the American Cancer Society, 40,000 American women will die from breast cancer. One in eight women in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer during her lifetime, and breast cancer will account for nearly one out of every three cancer diagnoses in women this year. The good news is treatment for breast cancer has greatly improved and survival rates are at an all-time high.
 
Mamafest, a breast cancer awareness and fundraising organization based out of Seattle, focuses on young women and the future of breast cancer awareness. Founded by Carolyn O'Neill, Mamafest (also the name of their annual major fundraising event) fights breast cancer by bringing volunteers, corporations, musicians, health educators and the ski and snowboard community together on the slopes. They also support local breast cancer research organizations and educational programs that encourage early detection of breast cancer and spread awareness to women of all ages in order to save lives.

O’Neill began snowboarding on Big Mountain “when baseless bindings and shaved down low backs were cool,” she says. Now that she's older and a little wiser, she's found a way to channel her energy for the snowboard world into something that will not come and go like the newest trend. Being genetically at-risk herself, affected by the loss of her grandmother to breast cancer in 1987 and inspired by the nationally recognized Boarding for Breast Cancer Foundation (B4BC), O’Neill created her organization aimed at educating youth and raising valuable funds for breast cancer research. O’Neill made Mamafest a family affair when she hired on her sister, Adrian, as event manager.