I remember the first charity walk I attempted. It was in 1974, and I was in eighth grade. In order to even be allowed to be part of the event, you had to get donations for each mile you walked. I asked neighbors, friends’ parents and every member of my family. I had quite the list. But the night before the walk, I babysat for a couple who stayed out until 3 a.m., and I slept through it. This was before the days of parents being responsible for waking you up and making sure you eat a nutritional breakfast and get to places on time. So when I went to listen to representatives from our local Susan G. Komen chapter talk about its upcoming More Than Pink walk, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to admit my early failure.
Most of us have heard of Race for the Cure. St. Louis used to have the largest one in the country, but as more and more charitable walks/runs were created and some bad press hit the Komen organization, participation decreased across the country. Now, normally this would not concern me since my dollars tend to go to diseases that my family members die from, which are, well, every other kind of cancer. But I recently have become involved in an organization called Pink Ribbon Girls. It provides direct services like transportation, meals and house cleaning to individuals with breast and gynecological cancers. (Not a fan of the name, to be honest. I wish it was something like Making Cancer Suck Less.) Anyway, I found out that the grant request it submitted to the local Susan G. Komen had been turned down.
So I decided to drop by the Komen offices by Hi-Pointe Theatre to find out more about the decline in participation and donations. I learned a lot. First, 75 percent of the money raised from the walk stays in the St. Louis area. The other 25 percent is sent to national headquarters, but interestingly, their grants often end up right back here in St. Louis for research at our very own Siteman Cancer Center. One of the current grant projects is to create a vaccine to prevent breast cancer.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am pretty much over the pink ribbon symbol, which seems to appear everywhere in October, from yogurt containers to packages of batteries. At this point, if women aren’t aware that they need to get mammograms, well, I don’t know what more Susan G. Komen can do except go door-to-door like census takers. But Komen is transforming awareness into action. They need dollars to fund research, provide care, support members in the community and continue to advocate for those who can’t do it themselves. Their goal is to raise $665,000 through the More Than Pink Walk June 8.
I can’t be at the race, but I did go to komenmissouri.org to donate. Some of you may want to walk, some of you may want to donate and some of you may be offended that I am telling you how to spend your money. At least I’m not asking you to wire money to a Nigerian prince. And finally, if the organization that had the walk I slept through in 1974 could contact me, I would be happy to send you a check.