DANCING FOR DOLLARS: Staffers and breast cancer survivors from the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro celebrated their second place win in the Pink Glove Dance competition last week. A total of $12,000 resulted from the competition, and all of it will go to the Breast Cancer Resource Center at YWCA Princeton.

When Barbara Christiano was asked last May if she had heard of The Pink Glove Dance, she had to plead ignorance. But since then, this five-year-old national dance video competition has become a priority — not only for Ms. Christiano, who is vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro — but for hospital staff members, physicians, service workers, volunteers, and their family members as well.

They make up the 186 pink-clad dancers in a video that has taken second place in its category of hospitals of fewer than 300 beds. After learning about the competition, Ms. Christiano and colleagues scrambled to produce a video before the July 31 deadline. Just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month last week, the hospital was informed of their win and presented with a $5,000 check from Medline, the medical supply company that sponsors the event.

Hospital staff raised another $2,000 before the video voting began, and UMCPP physicians Natasha and Alex Wolfson matched Medline with a $5,000 gift. The total of $12,000 is going to the hospital’s chosen charity, the Breast Cancer Resource Center at YWCA Princeton.

“When I learned about this last May, I found out that a few of our nurses had actually begun working on it in March,” said Ms. Christiano. “They thought it would be a great team-building project. I worked with my other colleagues in the senior executive team and we decided to go for it.”

Karyn Book, the director of Patient Care Services, took over the project. “We got a local videographer to come out and plan the theme,” she said. “Then we set up four filming dates. We put up signs in the hospital, and we used Survey Monkey to select one of two songs (Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off”).”

Nurses Ashley Palmisano and Lacey Lisner, who were on their high school dance teams, were enlisted to come up with choreography. “We had to modify a few things to make sure they’d look good, but overall everybody did a good job,” said Ms. Lisner.

The video follows the path that a breast cancer patient is likely to take during treatment, with survivors passing a baton as they pass through different areas. The first filming location was a mammography room in the hospital. Next was a radiation oncology area, followed by the outpatient infusion room where chemotherapy is administered. The final filming took place on a steamy, hot day in the hospital’s Healing Garden. Several breast cancer survivors, all employees of the hospital, are among the dancers who pass the baton.

Medline started the Pink Glove Dance competition five years ago to raise breast cancer awareness and funding for related charities. Hospitals and other organizations across the country are invited to submit videos in three categories: One for hospitals of 300 beds or more, a second for those of fewer than 300 beds, and a third for non-healthcare organizations. Voting concluded on September 23 and the results were released last Thursday, October 1. There were nine winners in all, each of which received a donation to benefit breast cancer education and prevention initiatives for their chosen charity.

The dancers in the video range from small children doing backflips down a hallway to women of a certain age shaking their hips to the beat. Physicians and technicians in scrubs and white coats are among the crowd, most of whom wear pink tee-shirts. Everyone sports a pair of pink rubber gloves.

“More and more people came to each shooting as the word got out,” said Ms. Book. “It just warmed our hearts to see so many. Now, everyone can’t wait to do it again next year.”