The Twin Cities Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk is Saturday, Oct. 10, and the fundraising is still going. As of Friday, the American Cancer Society's event page showed $173,799.86 raised toward a $270,000 goal. The leading team, "My Girls," had brought in $15,091, and the top individual fundraiser, Constance Thompson, had raised $10,784.
The walk runs from 7:30 to 10 a.m. and is based in the Huntington Bank Rotunda. If you've ever done a lap of the mall before the stores open, you already know the route. Sign-up goes through the American Cancer Society's event site, and the mall's listing for the walk links straight to it. The mall says the morning is for "survivors, thrivers, caregivers, and families." Besides the walk, there will be local resources, stops run by sponsors, and activities for every age group.
The American Cancer Society calls Making Strides "the nation's largest breast cancer movement," and the walks have been running for more than 30 years. Maryann Malec is the local organizer, and you can reach her at [email protected] if you have questions before Saturday. The event page also sells event shirts and lists ways to volunteer.
Plenty of people already know the drill. At one earlier walk at the mall, more than 1,000 people showed up and raised $170,000 at the event. Anthony Bass, vice president of the American Cancer Society in Minnesota, explained what the morning is for: "We have to get the word out, that's what this is for, it's not only for a good time to rally people but just to bring awareness."
Summer Hagy, a breast cancer survivor first diagnosed in 2014, said she had walked in Making Strides with her work group the year before she got that diagnosis. "It was something fun to do," she said. That's how a lot of people end up there: you do it once for a friend or a coworker, and later it means something different to you.
Bass has also raised a newer worry at the walk: "Younger people are being diagnosed with cancer than ever before. Right now, we don't know why, and so that's concerning."
The details: Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:30 to 10 a.m., Huntington Bank Rotunda, Mall of America. Register on the American Cancer Society's site, walk your lap, then go get coffee before the weekend crowds arrive.
