Community Corner

Susan G. Komen Ends Cancer Cure Walk Through Marin

Marin resident and regular participant Cathy Youngling urges community support for the June 21 portion of this year's walk, which will not return to Marin next year.

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day fundraising walk will not return to Marin and San Francisco next year, officials from the breast cancer organization announced this week. 

The 60-mile, three-day walk, in which participants raise money for breast cancer research and prevention, was canceled in the Bay Area and six other regions nationwide because of low participation and donation rates, Komen officials said. The 2012 walk raised $2.4 million, according to the organization.

In 2012, the walk began at the Village at Corte Madera shopping center, went down the bike path in Mill Valley and through Sausalito on its way to San Francisco.

"While the 3-Day has brought great awareness to the breast cancer cause, participation levels the last four years have made it difficult to financially sustain an event of this magnitude in 14 cities," organization officials said in a statement.

The announcement comes about a year and a half after Komen experienced intense backlash after news became public of its decision to stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood for breast screenings, according to the Associated Press. The funding was restored days later, though it didn't quell the controversy.

The walk will still be held in seven other regions – Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Michigan, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle and the Twin Cities. Participants are required to raise at least $2,300 for the cause. 

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"Many participants have reported that enthusiasm for the series remains very high, but it is more difficult for people to donate at levels they had in the past," the statement read. 

Plans for this year's San Francisco walk have not been affected, and it will be held as scheduled on June 21-23. Mill Valley resident and real estate agent Cathy Youngling, who participated in the 2012 3-day walk, urged the community to turn out in force for on June 21, when walkers will pass through the 94941.

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"For those of us who have walked this event multiple times, it makes this June 21-23 walk even more important," she wrote in an email to supporters. "In the past I have seen our community less than present during our walk through Marin. Having walked in multiple other cities the comparison wasn’t always favorable. But I am a Cancer survivor from Marin. It is my home. It is also the home of a higher rate of Breast Cancer than many other areas. I want this county to be pink on June 21."

Youngling urged residents to turn out in force from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., when walkers head "down Shell to Lomita, to Blithedale to Thockmorton to Old Mill Park to Miller to La Goma, to Sycamore on to the Middle School to the MV/Sausalito Bike path to 100 Shoreline Office Center before they reach Sausalito." 

"If we can get people to help decorate the route that would be phenomenal," she wrote. "If we (the 3 day) is to leave SF, let it be with the image of a Pink Mill Valley."

Other Susan G. Komen events and year-round health resources and services in the Bay Area will continue. The cancellations affect only the 3-Day walk, not the organization's Race for the Cure events. The next San Francisco Bay Area Race for the Cure 5K run will be held Sept. 29 along the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

–Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. – Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

What's your reaction to the walk not returning to Marin next year? Will you participate this year? Tell us in the Comments!


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