A day of inspiration

Danette Goulet

Last year, she inspired hundreds of women with her stirring words and

the brave way she continued to fight her battle with breast cancer.

This year, after losing that four-year battle in June, Rosalind

Williams continued to be an inspiration Sunday to more than 1,000 cancer

survivors at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s ninth annual

Race for the Cure in Newport Beach.

“This is a symbolic day because our mother spoke at this last year and

we just think it’s important to be here and support those who continue to

fight every day,” said Jeff Williams, one of her two sons. Also attending

was her other son, Greg.

Williams’ family was joined in remembering her and in supporting the

cancer survivors by a team of 75 Newport Beach community members who

participated in the race, which began and ended at the Pacific Life

Building at Fashion Island.

Deputy City Manager Dave Kiff organized the team to walk in honor of

Williams, the former head of the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors

Bureau.

Sporting yellow T-shirts that read “CNB4ROZ” (City of Newport Beach

for Rosalind Williams), the group set out to raise $10,000 for the

foundation. Kiff said the team came pretty close to meeting the goal.

The youngest member of the team, Williams’ 8-year-old niece, Delaney

Ware, participated in a 1-mile race and then a 5K run Sunday morning,

proudly crossing the finish line well ahead of the rest of the team.

“I just felt like running,” she said, adding that she ran “because I

was helping my aunt, because she died of breast cancer.”

Although she didn’t set any speed records, Williams’ mother, Angie

Caruso, also joined the race by having her grandsons pull her in a little

red wagon.

“It just made me cry,” Caruso said of the event and the ending

ceremonies.

It was a heart-wrenching day of mourning and celebration that drew

more than 8,000 onlookers in addition to the 10,000 volunteers and 27,000

participants, 1,500 of whom were breast cancer survivors.

“It was a record for us,” said Sally Coombe, a spokeswoman for the

Orange County chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

“We started this race nine years ago with 3,800 people and now we have

nearly 30,000. It’s phenomenal.”

Although it won’t be known for sure until all the pledges come in,

Coombe said, it appears the foundation met its goal of raising $1.5

million, 75% of which will go toward fighting breast cancer locally.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the third largest

fund-raising organization in the world in the fight against breast

cancer, has 115 affiliates in the United States and abroad working to

educate people, offer screening and treatment, and eventually find a cure

for breast cancer.

“The most important thing to my mother was never to give up and fight

each day,” Greg Williams said.