Some former Susan G. Komen for the Cure supporters bruised over breast cancer org’s funding spat with Planned Parenthood

Title: Some former Susan G. Komen for the Cure supporters bruised over breast cancer org’s funding spat with Planned Parenthood

Author: The Associated Press

Publication: Daily News (New York)

Date: February 06, 2012

When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer — “a sea of pink” traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. — she was so moved she sat in her car and wept.

This week, after watching the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity announce plans to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, then abandon those plans amid a public furor, Twinney decided she was done with the organization. She had raised thousands of dollars for it on three-day, 60-mile walks that left her feet bloodied and blistered, but her spirits high…

The outrage clearly stunned Komen, the country’s most widely known breast cancer organization…

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The Walk Is Fun, Raising the Money Isn’t

Title: The Walk Is Fun, Raising the Money Isn’t

Author: Fran Hawthorne

Publication: New York Times

Publication Date: November 13, 2006

WALKING was something I knew I could do. I run four to five miles a day, so why not put those muscles to further use in a fund-raising walk?

But what cause should it be? The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night (two miles), in honor of a friend’s daughter who survived leukemia last year? Or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes (7.5 miles) because another friend works there? The decision was made for me when I received a diagnosis of Stage 2 breast cancer last spring, and my sister suggested that we do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (39 miles over two days).

That is how most people choose among the fund-raising walks, runs, marathons, relays and triathlons.

“Almost everybody at a relay or a walk is there for a personal reason,” said Reuel E. Johnson, a vice president at the American Cancer Society, which sponsors Relay for Life in 4,500 places and 120 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks. In these, he said, “There’s almost 100 percent odds you know someone close who’s experienced cancer.”

If the decision is that straightforward for the walkers, it is less obvious for the event organizers. Should the walk be three miles or 39? Should participants raise $100 or $1,000, or nothing at all?

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Cancer walks at a crossroads

Title: Cancer walks at a crossroads

Author: Charles Storch

Publication: Chicago Tribune

Publication Date: August 19, 2003

 

When it comes to walks or races to raise funds for breast cancer programs and research, toes sometimes get stepped on.

Amid growing criticism of the costs and corporate marketing associated with these events, now there is tension about the maneuvering of two large foundations behind the most ambitious of the walks.

In 1998, the Avon Foundation began backing three-day, 60-mile walks, which made the 5K races of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation look like little girls’ play. But in spring 2002, Avon split with the controversial producer of those popular events and said it was lopping a day and 20 miles off a new series of walks. That gave Komen an opening to set Avon back on its heels.

This May, Dallas-based Komen and another public charity, the suburban Philadelphia-based National Philanthropic Trust, said they were teaming for three walks this year, each three days in duration. All would be held this November in California — including in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where two of the revamped Avon Walks for Breast Cancer would be held in the summer.

Then on Aug. 5, Komen and the trust presented a list of 10 cities for its 2004 series of Breast Cancer 3-Days. The list included all six cities, including Chicago, on Avon’s 2004 schedule, which had been announced two weeks prior. In Chicago next year, the Avon walk is scheduled for June 5-6 and the Komen and trust’s 3-Day for Aug. 27-29.

“We certainly wish everyone well in successful fundraising and finding an end to breast cancer,” said Susan Arnot Heaney, director of the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade in New York. “We do, however, feel it is a little unfortunate that the cities are so similar in their list.”

Komen and trust officials said that the overlap was coincidental and that they will try to avoid scheduling conflicts in the future. Like Heaney, they insist they are not competing for money or influence in the field of breast cancer care. And they hope to augment, not split, the pot of donations — filled, too, by innumerable other outings sponsored by other breast cancer charities.

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