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.