LAKE COUNTY — Increased community awareness about breast cancer brought a jump in sponsorship this year for a non-profit organization dedicated to helping county residents. The group”s solo annual fundraiser brought in excess of $10,000 for its mission of helping Lake County women pay medical expenses associated with breast cancer.
“I think people are so aware now,” said Sponsoring Survivorship board member Shirley Crawford. “We couldn”t have done it without the community.”
Sponsoring Survivorship held its 12th annual walk and run event Saturday. The event featured two-, five- and 10-kilometer walks and runs, all beginning and ending at Bank of America in downtown Lakeport. Over 200 participants came to show support for the group”s cause. The registration fees, sponsorships and donations go toward doctor bills, prescriptions, prosthesis and other medical equipment.
The number of patients the group helps has also increased. The organization served an average of two women at any given time in previous years. This year, Crawford said, it is helping six women.
The non-profit”s board of directors consists of three women who started Sponsoring Survivorship 12 years ago for a board member”s mother who was fighting breast cancer.
“We need research, but also need to help our neighbor,” Crawford said. Then president of Beta Sigma Phi, an international women”s sorority, Crawford said she needed a charitable activity. “I saw the need in Lake County, and I knew Julie Kelley and we started it for her mom.” The sorority Xi Upsilon Epsilon Sorority is a chapter of Beta Sigma Phi, and sponsors the non-profit.
Crawford said she”s amazed at how the effort has grown since then. The average 20 sponsors and organizations donating money for the event in previous years jumped to around 30 this year. One business awarded Sponsoring Survivorship a $5,000 grant, adding to the proceeds from the walk and run event. Pink roses were given to approximately 15 survivors as white doves were released this in lieu of the traditional pink balloons. Crawford said the intent of the annual event is to honor survivors and remember those lost to the disease. According to the American Cancer Society, the chance that a woman will develop invasive breast cancer in her life time is about one in eight, or 12 percent. It is second only to skin cancer in the leading causes of cancer deaths in women. Clear Lake senior Valeree Sullivan is raising $5,000 to help her aunt Marsha Sullivan, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. To contribute, contact Sullivan at 263-3598.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
