Evansville----Organizers for the 2008 Komen Evansville Race for the Cure® announce Sunday’s Eleventh Annual Komen Evansville Race for the Cure® was a huge success. 

                        “We had an incredible day!” states Mary Beck, 2008 Race Chair.  “We hit a new record with approximately 18,000 participants.  The weather was a little cloudy and we had just a few sprinkles, but everyone was still ready to Race and ready to walk.  We couldn’t have asked for more!  We raised over $125,000 through our Friends for the Cure® pledge program and the pledges are still coming in.  In all, this Race has raised well over $730,000 although final Race numbers and money raised will not be available until late next week.”

            Kathy Dockery, President of the Board of the Greater Evansville Affiliate makes the announcement the 2009 Komen Greater Evansville Race for the Cure® will be held DOWNTOWN on SATURDAY, September 19.  Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel presented a large pink key to the City of Evansville and he and his wife, Patricia, will be the honorary chairs for the 2009 Race.  The new location and moving back to Saturday should make the next Race even bigger and better!

            Susan G. Komen for the Cure began as a promise between Nancy Goodman Brinker and her sister Susan Goodman Komen, who died from breast cancer at age 36.  Susan G. Komen for the Cure has played a critical role in every major advance in the fight against breast cancer over the past 25 years – transforming how the world talks about and treats this disease and helping to turn millions of breast cancer patients into breast cancer survivors.  The five-year survival rate for breast cancer, when caught early before it spreads beyond the breast is now 98 percent (compared to 74 percent in 1982).

            Since its inception in 1998, the Greater Evansville Affiliate has raised over $7.2 million through the Komen Evansville Race for the Cure® and other Affiliate events. Of the net proceeds raised, seventy-five percent stays in the Greater Evansville Affiliate’s 28-county service area, which encompasses southern Indiana, southern, Illinois and western Kentucky.  The remaining 25% helps fund the Komen Foundation’s Award and Research Grant Program.  Earlier this year the Affiliate funded over $1/2 million in grants to area organizations and hospitals for breast health services.   Projections reveal that approximately 100,000 women and their families in the Greater Evansville area will receive breast health services through these grant programs as well as other Affiliate sponsored programs.

                        For more information contact the Komen Greater Evansville Affiliate office at (812) 962-2202 or e-mail info@komenevansville.org.