Q&A; -- Giving her time to fight breast cancer

With Orange County’s 10th annual Race for the Cure just a week away --

it’ll be held Sunday, Sept. 23, at Fashion Island -- last-minute

preparations are being made at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer

Foundation office in Costa Mesa.

On Thursday, Assistant City Editor James Meier sat down with Aletha

Anderson, now in her second year as the Orange County’s race chair, to

discuss her involvement and what it takes to prepare an event that will

bring together more than 25,000 racers.

Q: This is your second year as chair of the race in Orange County.

Where did you do it before?

A: In 1992, which was the first race in Orange County, I had a small

part on the committee and then we moved away and lived in Colorado for

five years. And I became very involved with the race committee in

Colorado Springs. And I chaired it there and co-chaired it there. So when

I moved back here, I called them up and told them “I know a lot about the

Komen Foundation and this event, what can I do?” So I ended up chairing

it as soon as I moved back.

Q: How did you get involved in the event initially?

A: I knew someone . . . who was one of the founding chairs who brought

it here and she invited someone she knew to an organizing meeting. There

was a woman there who had breast cancer who spoke about it and said “OK,

before everyone leaves, you’re all going to sign up to be on a committee,

and we all did.

Seeing the event, it’s just a positive, upbeat event that it’s just

great to be involved with. When I was in Colorado Springs, they were just

bringing the event in and it was really fabulous to be involved with

something new and seeing it grow. That was really, really rewarding.

Q: Is that what has kept you in it?

A: I think so much of the Komen foundation and how the Komen

foundation is run both in Dallas and here in Orange County. It’s very

volunteer-driven. It’s just overwhelming -- the volunteers you meet and

what they’re willing to do for the cause. It’s just so needed. The women

you meet who are breast cancer survivors and the stories you hear really

move you.

As the race chair, I’m also on the board here, and you see the need in

the grant requests and to know how much the money is really needed and

put to good use here keeps you going. It just makes you want to raise

more money because you know it’s needed to help women and their families

here in Orange County.

Q: Is each race still as emotional as it was for you at the beginning?

A: It really is. Last year at the race, we had a parade for the first

time of breast cancer survivors. And it was just overwhelming to stand on

the stage and to hear the music and to see so many women in pink. At

first, I felt kind of sad and I almost started to cry, and then there was

so much positive energy. Most of them were so jubilant and happy and

positive that I didn’t feel sad at all. Obviously, it is very emotional

for the survivors who are there. But to watch people who have gone

through something life-threatening stronger and more positive really

lifts everybody up.

Q: How do you think this year’s race will be any different, if at all?

A: Well, it’s our 10th year so the things we do well, we are trying to

repeat again and keep it as organized as can be and with as little

crowding as can be with that many people. We’re trying to finesse the

parking and shuttle buses to make it even easier for people to get in and

out. We’re going to repeat the survivors’ parade. We have a celebrity

coming, which we haven’t done every year. We’re going to have [ice

skating legend] Peggy Fleming, who’s a survivor, there for the survivor

ceremony.

We feel that the event is pretty well put on. We try to make it fun as

well as meaningful and because it’s our 10th year, we on the committee

are just more motivated to do it well again.

Q: How many runners and spectators do you expect will attend this

year?

A: Probably between 30,000 and 35,000. Between 25,000 and 30,000 will

race. We had over 25,000 last year. And it looked like our numbers were

way ahead [this year], but with the terrorist attacks this week,

everything has slowed down just as everything has the last few days.

We’ll just see how things go as life gets back to normal.

Q: Has a fund-raising goal been set for the Orange County race?

A: We’d like to raise $1.5 million. Last year, our net profit was

$1.36 million, so we’d like to push ourselves and let people know that

that’s a lot of money, but it’s needed and if we raise more, we can spend

more on the community and treatment grants. We’ve put a lot more emphasis

on the pledge prizes that we’re offering this year as a way to motivate

people to bring in more pledge money. We definitely feel we’re in the top

10 races across the country in raising money. I believe there will be 114

Race for the Cures this year.

Q: How are the proceeds divided up?

A: Twenty-five percent of the money that we raise goes back to the

Komen Foundation headquarters in Dallas and that gets put in the pool of

money for international research. That’s one of the ways they fund the

grants and all of the research that they do. Seventy-five percent of the

money stays right here in Orange County. We have a committee that’s part

of the board that will evaluate all the requests that we get. I think the

deadline is next week for any groups that want to apply for grant money

from the Komen Foundation for next year. We’re required by the foundation

to give away the money by the end of the year. They really want us to

give the money back to the community in a pretty prompt fashion.

Q: When it comes to fund-raising, the foundation also received help

from Fashion Island and American Express this year. Is that something

new?

A: Actually, that program, Charge for the Cure, most of that money

goes to the national foundation in Dallas. Some of that money Fashion

Island will direct locally. The national headquarters have a lot of

companies that do promotions for it. October is National Breast Cancer

Awareness Month so a lot of campaigns will come out at this time. They

did it last year, but Fashion Island is really promoting the program this

year.

Q: So, tell me a little about what goes into organizing a race of this

magnitude.

A: It’s a lot of work. During the Friday night and Saturday before the

event, we basically make a city behind PacificLife and that’s a lot of

work just making sure we get the right amount of tables, chairs and

canopies. And we work very closely with the city of Newport Beach on the

roads and parking and directing traffic to make sure that goes as orderly

as possible.

We work throughout the year with our corporate sponsors. And every

year, those sponsors change to some degree and every year, they donate

services of some kind and every year, that’s different. So that just

takes a lot of time. There’s just a million details to get it right.

We use about 1,400 volunteers on race weekend, so finding those

volunteers and assigning them takes a lot of coordinating. It’s amazing

that that many people volunteer and what people do to help us. They take

vacation days to help us. It’s just fantastic.

Q: Do you have anything else you want to add that I haven’t asked

about?

A: Well, I hope everyone comes to the race this year to help us

celebrate the 10th event. It’s a real milestone and we’re very proud of

it.

I’d like to thank Orange County and the community because Orange

County has really supported this event over the past nine years. We know

it’s because breast cancer has touched so many people here and they’ve

responded. It’s not just that we put on a great event. It’s obviously a

disease that touches a lot of people and I just want to thank the

community for making us what we are, one of the largest fund-raising

events in Orange County. We’d like to share our 10th anniversary with

everyone.

You can register on our Web site,o7 https://www.ockomen.comf7 . We

have all of the details about all the different ways to register. Or you

can register on race morning.

On a personal note, I’ve spent years volunteering for the Komen

foundation and I’m not a survivor nor did I have anyone close to me who

had been diagnosed. But last year, my mother was diagnosed with breast

cancer and she’s 82. She’s fine and that gives me just one more personal

reason this year to be at the race and more motivation to do it.

BIO

Name: Aletha Anderson

Age: 49

Hometown: Coto de Caza

Occupation: Stay at home mom who never stays at home

Volunteer: Second year as chair of Orange County’s Race for the Cure

Education: University of Maryland, bachelor’s in journalism

Family: Husband of 15 years, Chris; children Paul, 13, and Amanda, 12

Hobbies: Her children’s activities, reading when possible

Activities: Bishop committee at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Rancho

Santa Margarita; not enough time for anything else