June Casagrande For a few weeks every...
June Casagrande
For a few weeks every year, it seems like the name Susan G. Komen
is inescapable. That’s true in about 100 cities nationwide and even
in a few foreign countries, too, where at different times of year,
the Komen name is synonymous with the Race for the Cure, the largest
series of 5K runs and fitness walks in the world.
But here in Costa Mesa, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is much more
than an annual race. It’s the hub of a well-oiled machine that has
volunteers at its very heart.
Each year, 2,200 volunteers nationwide take part in the Costa
Mesa-based organization’s fund-raisers, informational programs and
other projects to aid in the foundation’s mission to eradicate breast
cancer as a life-threatening disease through research, education,
screening and treatment.
“We have so many events and so many ways for people to get
involved at any level of commitment,” said Julie Reed, development
manager for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
In April, the local chapter holds its Spring Luncheon fund-raiser.
In May, there’s the Links to the Cure golf event, a Mammogram-a-thon
and other screening events. Throughout the year, the organization
finds countless ways to keep busy just about anyone who’s looking for
a way to get involved.
“A lot of our volunteers are cancer survivors or family members of
women with breast cancer, but a lot of them are just people looking
for a way to make a difference and to get involved in something,”
Reed said.
Mary O’Brien Pritchard had just moved to Newport Coast from
Seattle and was looking around for ways to get involved in her new
community when she first called the Komen Foundation. Less than a
year later, she has trouble recalling all the volunteer activities
she has taken part in.
“It’s always really fun. There’s a spirit of doing something good
for a really efficient organization that just makes it fun,” the
48-year-old said.
Among the jobs she recalls: driving fancy BMWs from one Orange
County dealership to another for the “BMW Challenge” and handing out
literature on breast cancer and health as part of a Ben and Jerry’s
free ice cream day event. She has also spent countless hours working
in the foundation offices, doing anything and everything that needs
to be done to pull off an event.
“It really is like a smorgasbord of opportunities: they need
people who can fill in for a few just one day, like the day of the
Race for the Cure; they need people for longer-term jobs like on the
committees,” she said. “They definitely found a way to make use out
of my availability and skills.”
Pritchard started by attending the foundation’s volunteer
orientation. An orientation will take place again on Wednesday.
Foundation representatives first offer an overview of the group’s
activities as well as the disease they are fighting, then
representatives from different committees take turns describing
opportunities for volunteers.
“Anyone who wants to get involved, we can put them to work,” Reed
said.
The formula is working. Starting as a simple promise from one
sister to another, the foundation has grown into one of the largest
and best-known weapons in the global fight against breast cancer.
In 1982, Nancy Brinker started the foundation to honor a promise
to her sister Susan Komen, who had died of breast cancer at age 36
several years earlier. Before Suzy died, her sister had promised that
someday, somehow she would find a way to make things better for other
women diagnosed with breast cancer.
Since the first Orange County Race for the Cure 11 years ago, the local event along has raised more than $9 million. The foundation
assures that 75% of locally raised funds stay in the community for
local education, outreach, screening and treatment programs.
This year’s Orange County Race for the Cure will take place Sept.
28 in Newport Beach.
FYI
For more information about the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure or
the group’s Wednesday volunteer orientation, call (714) 957-9157,
ext. 27.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.