The Impact of Teams - Share Your Story

Every step you take and dollar you raise brings us closer to a future without breast cancer. Because you’re taking those steps with a team, you’re multiplying your impact on the cause.

Whose Life Are You Running For? Please email us at teams@komensecolorado.org to share your story. We want to share with the community why being a part of the Race isn’t just a life changing event, but a life saving one as well.

• What inspired you to join/form a team for the Komen Race for the Cure?
• Are you participating in honor of a loved one?
• Did you achieve a fundraising goal?
• In what ways has your team made an impact for the Race? (fundraising activities, special team t-shirts, contests)

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How to Build a GREAT TEAM

My first year of participation in the Komen Race for the Cure was in 2005.  I lost a good friend that year due to multiple cancers…but the beginning was Breast Cancer.  I wanted to honor her and do something ‘special’.  I was amazed with how generous family & friends were in their donations.  I had a few friends walk with me that year…and the next…and the next.  Then I thought…I wonder if the team I work with at Dr. Betty Jo Schope’s would like to form a team and the 6 of us could all walk together.  We did that for a few years and last year as we reflected back on our outcome we brain stormed on how we could make a bigger impact. 

We came up with a great plan.  Dr. Schope contacted  4 colleagues and asked them for their financial support to cover the registration fees of 100 (yes 100) patients to walk with us.  Once we had the “Join Team Schope” sign up in our dental office it did not take long to meet our goal.  Actually as I sit here typing, we still have people joining our team and paying their own registration fee.  A special thank you needs to go out to Endodontic Specialists, Dr. Jeff Dombrowski, Dr. Matt Gaworski, Dr. Jeanne Salcetti and of course, Dr. Jo Schope.  Through their generosity Team Schope hopes to make the biggest impact ever.

Through all of the changes I have not lost my focus on why I do this…It is for Kaye.  I miss you my friend…and I will continue to honor your memory with my efforts..no matter the size of the team…but BIG is a lot of fun!!

Sue Funk
Team Schope / Captain

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Savin' the ta ta's!

On October 26, 2006, the strongest, most amazing women in my life lost her battle with cancer.  It started out as Breast Cancer and moved to bone cancer. I will never forget the day my mother told me she hurt so much she just sat and cried.  I knew it wasn't long before she would go be with God and be an Angel watching over me.  It took me a couple years to get involved with Susan G Komen for the Cure.  It really hit me when a friend of mine was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, (she is a survivor and walks with my team).  Right then and there I decided I was NOT going to lose another loved one to this horrible disease. 

2010 was my first year forming a team for the Race for the Cure, Savin' the ta ta's! I became this crazy fundraising person, almost like someone trying to find the person that murdered a loved one. I told everyone and asked everyone if they would like to donate.  I even got my Pit Bull a collar that reads "I love boobies"  My mother gave me this strength and hope to fund raise.  Last year I raised over $3000.00, I'm hoping to beat that amount this year.  I have challenged all my friends and co workers to donate $5.

In honor of my mother, I wear a pink breast cancer watch everyday with my brown UPS uniform.  I love you and miss you mom.

Tamara Crawford - August 2011

Kris and The Recycle Cans Project

     I remember my friend Kris fondly and often as a kind, quiet, caring, always-dieting-and-eating tons-of-carrots gal who had a sparkling personality.  She had a great infectious laugh that I can still hear.  Sometimes I would hear her laughter wafting over the cubicle walls and I knew where she was in the work quad.  I still miss that laugh.

     As I reflect back to those days and the many shared listening/talking times, I may not always remember a lot of things.  But I do still vividly remember the day that Kris sat in my ‘guest chair’ while I sat next to her at my desk in my big old Data Bank office.  This was my turn to listen.  We closed my office door as we chatted.  She told me that she had found a lump in her breast “a month ago”. That was the beginning of Kris’ fight.  And the beginning of the recycle cans project.  And the beginning of “my two teams”.    

     For Kris, the next 18 months or so was a fast and furious battle against this breast cancer and included many different treatment techniques and locations including Denver and a clinic in Mexico.  We lost Kris to breast cancer in the early morning hours of February 4, 1994.  She was only 33 years old.

     My friend Kris is why I became so involved in the local Komen Southeastern Colorado Race for the Cure® and I was increasingly aware of the excellent work done by Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. The first Colorado Springs Race for the Cure® was held on a beautiful sunny day in Monument Valley Park in 1995 and was, ironically enough, held on the day that Kris would have turned 35 years old. Our little team of eight raised $1,015.00 total dollars and we won the traveling Grand Prize Trophy that year!

     Now, 2010 is our SIXTEENTH ANNUAL Komen Southeastern Colorado Race for the Cure® held in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  And yes in 2010, both of my teams –Lockheed Martin and Jazzercise®, and quite a few of the same individuals are still involved and participating.  And so am I: For my friend, Kris.

Aleta K. Campbell - 26 August 2010 [edited] Happy 50th birthday to you today, Kris. See the complete story.