Local Women Were Awash in a Sea of Pink

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.

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.

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.

Employees of Gold’s Gym led the crowd in an energetic exercise routine to get everyone warmed up for the actual run and walk.

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.