15th Annual NC Triangle Komen Race for the Cure

This past Saturday, June 11, 2011, was the Susan G. Komen of the NC Triangle’s15th annual Race for the Cure, and Coalmarch’s fifth year as a sponsor at the race. We knew there’d be a big crowd as usual, so we started planning several months ago for what we could bring to the table (literally). We decided on Coalmarch mini-frisbees, Komen Running Ribbon stickers, and Coalmarch faux-Wayfarer plastic sunglasses with hot pink sides that read, “End Cancer”. (In HTML, of course.)

But we wanted to do something creative and different to get people excited about stopping by our table besides just the free swag. C’mon, we couldn’t just give stuff away, right? We wanted to engage the race participants and make it a little more interesting, so we came up with a game. We had a pink hula hoop with a target in the middle, tied to the hula hoop with pink ribbon. We spray painted a pink line in front of our table, and had people stand behind it and try to throw the frisbees through the hoop. If they got it through the hoop, they won a frisbee. If they hit the target, they got the sunglasses.

People were really, really excited about the sunglasses. Really excited. To the point that they’d stand in line multiple times to keep trying to win them. Someone even offered us money for them. At the end of the festivities, once the Survivors’ March and ceremony started and the event came to a close, we started giving away the remaining sunglasses that hadn’t been won yet. People swarmed the tent, and the leftover sunglasses were gone in minutes.

It was great to see so many people lining up at our tent to play the game— from little kids who could barely see above the table to an elderly lady using a walker, everyone seemed to want to step up and give it their best shot. And win or lose, it seemed like everyone had fun.

But what was more interesting was to see how many different kinds of people there were at this event. There were around 25,000 race participants, not counting spectators. There were people from all walks of life at this event— families, corporate teams, survivors young and old, men and women, Hispanic, African American, Asian— the list goes on. Runners wore colorful boas, crazy hats, tutus, and gym shorts alike.

The one thing everyone had in common was that they were there to support the same great organization and cause. Everyone was unified in their inspiration to find a cure for breast cancer through research, education, prevention, and awareness. It was rare to see a runner (or walker) who didn’t have an “In Memory of” or “In Celebration of” sign on their backs. Some people had two signs, with several names. You can respond to that one of several ways— you can feel sad for all those lives affected by this disease, or you can feel inspired that so many people are fighting to overcome it. So many people are celebrating life instead of mourning lives lost. Not to say that there isn’t a time and place for mourning, but this event inspires a different sentiment. The Komen NC Triangle Race for the Cure is about a community of strong, dedicated, passionate people who refuse to give up hope and optimism, who refuse to resign to a defeatist attitude.

It reminds me of one of my favorite poems, about cancer and its inability to kill the human spirit. I think it’s a good note to end on.

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited…

It cannot cripple love.

It cannot shatter hope.

It cannot corrode faith.

It cannot eat away peace.

It cannot destroy confidence.

It cannot kill friendship.

It cannot shut out memories.

It cannot silence courage.

It cannot reduce eternal life.

It cannot quench the Spirit.