“The sad decline of Komen for the Cure.” By Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.
The streets will be a little less pink next year. One of the world’s most prominent breast cancer organizations, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, announced this week it’s canceling its annual “3-Day” fundraising event — a “60-mile walk for women and men who want to make a personal difference in the fight against breast cancer” in seven cities for 2014. It will not be returning to Arizona, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, San Francisco or Washington, D.C. The cancellations are just the latest setback for the troubled organization.
There’s so much more to fighting a devastating disease and helping the people living with it than the pleasant – but highly symbolic act — that fundraising events so often are. Walking is great. But walking was never going to cure cancer anyway. Maybe it’s time Komen remembered that.
