Tampa Bay Komen affiliate fears backlash will hurt local fundraising

Title: Tampa Bay Komen affiliate fears backlash will hurt local fundraising

Author: Jessica Vander Velde

Publication:  Tampa Bay Times

Date: February 10, 2012

When Susan G. Komen for the Cure decided to cut future grants to Planned Parenthood, its Tampa Bay-area affiliate was swept into a controversy that still could cripple its fundraising despite Komen’s reversal. Some Komen supporters had a bad aftertaste from the episode, including Tampa’s Rebecca Schrader. She plans to withhold donations to Komen for a year to make sure the organization continues to fund breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood…

Gina Kravitz, director of the Suncoast Komen affiliate, has been hearing that kind of talk, and she is worried. So on Thursday, she embarked on damage control, speaking out for the first time to distance her group from the national furor…

“We, locally, would not have made that decision,” Kravitz said of the funding cutoff. “We are completely apolitical at the Suncoast affiliate, and we are here to serve anyone who needs us.”

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