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Community Corner

University City Resident Fought Cancer With Knock Out Punch

Thousands of people walked, ran or wheeled through the streets of downtown to remember and celebrate those with breast cancer.

Downtown St. Louis was awash in pink on Saturday as the 13th annual Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure® took over the city. The Race for the Cure series raises awareness and funds for the battle against breast cancer.

University City resident Lottie Farahh sported pink boxing gloves to show that she fought cancer with a knock-out punch to be a survivor. Cynthia Ellison of University City also celebrated with other breast cancer survivors at the event.

With 64,088 registered participants, the St. Louis event is the largest Race for the Cure in the country.This year there were 1,000 teams with Creve Coeur-located WIL’s “Team Breadbird,” organized by radio personality Cornbread, making history with the largest team ever: 7,568 members.

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It took 1,000 volunteers to organize this race including an “I Am The Cure” cheer squad consisting of cheerleaders from Lindbergh High School and other Missouri schools. After a crowd-rousing cheer during pre-Race festivities, the Cure Leaders, as they are known, set up along the Race route to cheer on participants.

One of the most anticipated, and emotional, parts of the annual Race is the survivor procession, when a mass of women and a few men in pink moves through the crowd up to the front of the stage. Emotions ranged from tears of celebration to tears of loss and from shouts of accomplishment to battle cries to continue the fight against breast cancer.

After the procession, top-12 American Idol finalist Tim Halperin serenaded the 4,905 breast cancer survivors with his original song “We Fight Back.” Wildwood resident and singer Kim Cowell sang Melissa Ethridge’s anthem of hope about breast cancer “I Run For Life.”

One of those survivors in pink was Brenda Brockmeyer of South County. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2010, had two surgeries and had just completed radiation two weeks before the Race. 

Another participant, Linda Shugart of Normandy, was also wearing the pink shirt of a breast cancer survivor for the first time. She had completed both chemotherapy and radiation in April.

Government officials and other dignitaries kicked off the Race with motivating speeches. Among the speakers were the Race’s honorary co-chairs from the St. Louis Blues: Coach Davis Payne with his wife Jane and Cam Janssen. City of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay addressed the crowd along with Ladue resident Danny Ludeman, president and CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC. Wells Fargo Advisors was the local presenting sponsor of the Race for the fourth year. 

The Pink Tie Guys, a select group of men who are leaders in the community, were introduced to the crowd and their spokesman, Randy Weller of Creve Coeur, talked about the impact breast cancer has on everyone. Pink Tie Guys serve as ambassadors for the St. Louis Komen Affiliate throughout the year. To see the entire list of these ambassadors, click here: Pink Tie Guys.

Employees of Gold’s Gym led the crowd in an energetic exercise routine to get everyone warmed up for the actual run and walk. The first race began at 8:30 a.m. when the wheelchairs took off from 14th St. and Olive, heading west on Olive, south on 20th street and east on Market St. to finish line at 14th St. They were followed by the approximately 2,000 5K timed runners and then the 5K untimed runners. At 9 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., the 5K Walk and 1-mile Fun Walk, respectively, participants began their walk; they were able to see the runners coming down Market while they were just starting their walk up Olive.

Before and during the Race thousands of participants swarmed the sponsors’ tents to see what companies and organizations were giving away the year. Among the many sponsors participating in the Race Chamberlain College of Nursing of Maryland Heights and Missouri Baptist Medical Center of Creve Coeur distributed pink knapsacks; St. Louis Bread Company handed out free coupons for its signature ribbon-shaped bagel; national sponsor Walgreens gave out pink balloons, chapstick and pocket-sized bottles of hand sanitizer; and McAlister’s Deli served glasses of sweet tea along with coupons for free cookies. National presenting sponsor Yoplait® and national sponsor Ford distributed free yogurt and the always-popular Warriors in Pink scarf, respectively.

Many of the national sponsors were represented by local outlets such as Bank of America; New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.; and RE/MAX.

This year’s Race winners were:

Men's wheelchair: David Grassi, of Ballwin, with a time of 13:20.

Women's wheelchair: Jennifer Kaiser, of St. Charles, with a time of 27:10. 

5k timed male: Patrick Boland of Chesterfield, with a time of 16:23.

5k timed female: Meagan Hudson of Crystal City, with a time of 18:21.

5K untimed male: Dan Morran of Kirkwood, with a time of 25:00.

5K untimed female: Vivien Wadeck of Los Angeles, CA, with a time of 18:34.

5k timed female survivor: Katie Sutton of Kirkwood, with a time of 18:41.

5K untimed female survivor: Cynthia Wichelman of St. Louis, with a time of 27:00.

Last year’s Race drew close to 72,000 participants. Erica Stelling, director of public relations and marketing for the St. Louis Komen Affiliate, attributed the decreased numbers to recent events. “A lot of natural disasters have taken place and, rightfully so, they have had a lot of attention. There’s a lot of need out there and this spring has been pretty devastating.” 

By the end of the day, the total amount of money raised from the Race was just over $3 million which was short of organizers’ goal to raise $3.5 million. However, fundraising efforts continue through the month of June so people can still make donations at Susan G. Komen for the Cure® St. Louis. Seventy-five percent of the money raised stays in the area for education, support, awareness and treatment; the remaining 25 percent is used for research at the national level, with some of those research dollars coming back to area institutions for projects and studies.

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