Anne and I ran in the Race for the Cure at the Rose Bowl yesterday. It was a perfect day for a run: mostly cloudy, not too humid, and around 65 when we started. I haven’t run very much the last year, thanks to this stupid chronic pain in my right hip (the Miracle Balls are helping a lot. I’ll write about that another time) but I’ve been jogging and walking almost every day for the last couple of weeks, so I was able to run the entire first mile, about half of the second mile, and about 2/3 of the last mile for a time of 35:21. It’s not my best 5K time, but considering how little training I’ve done, I’ll take it. Anne jogged the entire way, and she finished right around 38:00. Go Anne!
I don’t know for sure, but I think I heard that there were about 17000 people walking and jogging in celebration of and in memory of their loved ones who have fought breast cancer. I remember this from the Avon 3 Day, the Rock N Roll Marathon, and the Race for the Cure last year: there are people of all ages, at all levels of fitness, who are walking, running, and jogging with the names and pictures of people they love pinned to their clothes, and it is impossible to be unaffected by them.
A few WWdN:iX readers sent some small contributions to me, which I’ve collected and will pass on to the Susan G. Komen foundation later this week. If anyone else wants to be added, you can send whatever you’d like to my paypal address (it’s my first name at wilwheaton.net). I’ll add it to the total I send on Friday, and I’ll post the names of everyone who contributes in a special post at the end of the week.
Did you know that 1 in 7 women in America will be diagnosed with breast
cancer sometime in her life? I had no idea it was so common, and I am proud to support the people who help women and their
families, as well as the people who are seeking a cure.
Oh, Wil. I beg you– reconsider. Susan Komen spends a whopping 12% of your money on administration costs (ie salaries). Please think about donating to someone else who is a better steward of your money… someone like The American Cancer Society. (who only spends 8% on administration costs).
12% admin costs are pretty darn good. Admin costs are necessary and ought be put in proper perspective. They fluctuate based on dollars raised, the size of your area of work and the caliber of people that you want to attract as employees. These non-profits need to keep the lights on, and this money goes to that. Also, as a non-profit professional, I can assure you that these numbers, like any other number in accounting, can be massaged into any number you’d like through legal, yet morally ambiguous accounting tactics. While this is not a slight on the American Cancer Society (who, like the Komen Foundation, does very good work) it should be noted that when you examine a non-profit for fiscal fitness, the percentage spent on admin costs is only a factor ro be considered and not the end-all on fiscal matters. Rant done.
Your first name is Richard, right? Strange that’d you pick that for your paypal account.
please do confirm that it’s wil@wil…. and not william, wilfred, winnipeg, etc…
By the way, since those greedy SOB’s at the Susan Komen Foundation take 12%, I just added 12% to the number I planned on giving. I think. Whatever. Math isn’t my strong suit.
Thanks for running and caring.
12% is darn good. Look at Rick Santorum’s charity that spends 60% on over head.
My future mother-in-law got re-diagnosed with breast cancer at her 5 year remission check-up. She’s on a new pill that’s still slightly experimental, meant to stop the growth rather than eliminate it. It’s an alternative to chemotherapy, which was devastating to her last time.
In Canada, the “Weekend to end Breast Cancer”, similar to the 3 day walk, is a great way to support breast cancer research. Volunteers can run in the honor of those affected, and raise funds in their name, which I think is admirable. All participants get personal trainers, and a whole array of professionals are made available to them.
Check it out: http://www.endcancer.ca
Thank you both for your support of the Komen foundation and people with breast cancer. My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 36 last January. She did everything ‘right’ – she doesn’t smoke or eat a lot of red meat, she had babies, breastfed, exercised, and has never been overweight. We have no one in our family that’s ever had cancer. She’s one of those rare women who don’t fit the at-risk mold.
Komen is supporting research for women and men just like my sister.
Thanks.
Head out to the Rose Bowl sometime, haynes94, and look at the sea of survivors in their pink shirts and hats. Listen to them tearfully thank organizations like Komen for helping them when they were sick. Look into their tear-filled eyes as they tell you, “I got to watch my kids grow up because people like you donated to organizations like Komen.” Watch the thousands of people who are walking “in memory of . . ”
Then see how upset you can be about the overhead that has to go into any non-profit organization. Maybe turn it around and look at it the other way: 88% of your donation goes to research and support for women and their families. Of that 88%, Komen keeps 25% right in the community where the funds were raised.
Support whatever organization you feel is most worthy, but boy is it insulting and offensive to me to hear complaints about a 4% difference (to say nothing of how widely it misses the whole point.)
Also, I’m wil in my paypal address. Thanks to those of you who have already made contribtutions!
Just to clarify: I mean no insult to the Komen Foundation or the American Cancer Society, or any non-profit. I just get to hear the “My Admin Costs are Lower than Your Admin Costs” argument a lot in my career. It’s a misleading arguement and tends to make people not familiar with how non-profits work feel that their donation is being somehow wasted in some way. Admin costs are money well spent, for without them you wouldn’t have any non-profits to do what our government cannot (or will not) do: which is a heckuva lot of good work. End rant, part two.
I don’t have to head out to the Rose Bowl, Wil. I’m a survivor myself. I just happen to know that when *I* was sick, Komen did nothing for me. However, the American Cancer Society was amazing. They had a program that provided transportation to and from my chemo treatments. They had another program “Look Good, Feel Better” which gave us free makeup and showed us how to use it. They had another program that brought in people to give free massages when we were in pain. It’s not *JUST* about 4% (which can mean millions of dollars that could find a cure for this horrible disease, by the way). It’s about what this particular foundation did for me. I walk in the Relay for Life. I walked with tons of men, women, and children affected by all kinds of cancer.
I didn’t miss your point. You obviously missed mine.
Of course I missed your point, haynes94, because you didn’t make it in your original comment.
In your original comment, you didn’t say anything about your personal experience with Komen vs. ACS, and how you were personally affected by the two different organizations. I read it, and felt like the efforts Anne and I made yesterday were just belittled and discarded. That’s why I felt insulted.
Yesterday, I had a choice between doing nothing, or showing up to support survivors and put a tiny drop in the bucket for research and services for women and their families. I chose the latter, because a few hundred dollars for any cancer-fighting organization is better than zero dollars and a morning on the couch hollering at Tim Russert.
I’d rather be one more body in a mass of thousands, so the survivors who are there and the families of those women who are sick right now can see that they are not alone, than staying home and sleeping in.
Had you shared in your original comment how the ACS was there for you in a way that Komen was not, as you did in your second comment, I would not have felt insulted; in fact, I would have immediately added the American Cancer Society to the top of my list of organizations I’d like to help out.
So I am sorry that I was so harsh with you, considering I got up at 6 yesterday and headed out there for you, your family, and the thousands of women like you.
You are right, Wil. I should have mentioned that in my original post. In my haste to hurry up and post before I had to leave, I left out the most important reason why I support ACS– because of what they did for me.
Either way, I’m glad you are doing something positive. And I forgive you for being harsh with me.
By the way, I’m proud to say that I am currently cancer free.
Wil,
I’ve never used paypal (yeah, I’m THAT guy). Can I do a transfer to you through neteller or pokerstars?
BSN
Congratulations on kicking cancer’s ass, haynes94. Thank you for your forgiveness.
BSN – Absolutely. My first three donations came from player transfers on ‘Stars.
wil, thanks to you and anne for caring enough to walk/run for ANY organization. i have a good friend that is being treated right now for IBC and is trying really hard to fight the good fight.
i wish i had not been fighting this cold for the last 4 weeks, so that i could actually visit with her, but i am paranoid about infecting her while her white blood cells are compromised. 🙁
American Cancer Society is also an excellent choice because it supports all types of cancer. The Komen Foundation has done a kick butt job of PR and public awareness, but I feel *all* forms of cancer should benefit from such a campaign.
Speaking from experience, it’s really difficult to see pink ribbons everywhere and all the press for Race for the Cure, then go home to your father who is dying from stage IV brain cancer.
Please don’t get me wrong – I know breast cancer is a terrible disease and I believe it’s very important to find a cure. I also know that there are many excellent organizations that support the rarer, less popular (if you will) forms of cancer. It’s just that, for myself, I couldn’t race for only one cure.
I never thought I’d have to worry about this sort of thing until my mother – of all people – should come down with ovarian cancer. She won round one, which started in June 2004, but her cancer was re-diagnosed last month and she is currently fighting in round number two. I’d love to see her kick cancer’s ass, and I’d also love to see progress toward the cure for any or all forms of cancer.
Wil,
Thanks to you and your wife for choosing to wake at the wee hours to run/jog for a cure as opposed to spending the morning yelling at Tim Russert. It’s really great to see so many people turn out for such an event.
Having assisted in running a non-profit for 4 years and running one for 2, I can tell you that the efforts of all who help to raise funds is very much appreciated.
Thanks for all you do and will, I am sure, continue to do for those charities on your list.
UNCLE WILLIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *hugs* I’m so proud of you for doing the race.
I’m watching Lifetime Movie network and “It Was Him or Us” is on. Aw, how cute you are with your earrings! I wanted to jump into the TV and cuddle you, after Scotty gets all beat up. And you’re saving the day and getting the little boys out and fetching the police! The hero of my crappy town (I watch too much Firefly. I’m a geektress!) Scotty’s the kind of best friend I’d love to have.
Good job, Wil! You’re a good choice for a hero. *hugs*
Hey Haynes, I wanted to congratulate you as well for kick some serious cancerass-I am always so happy when someone wins.
I wanted to talk for second about charities–When I worked in Biloxi after hurricane Katrina, I slept at a Red Cross shelter, got a burger from the Salvation Army, got ice and MREs from the US military, and worked next to people who represented 15 states, more religions than I can count all of us working on one problem. Everybody did something specific and needed. We needed every little bit of help we got. I feel this way about the fight against cancer- whether it be breast cancer, ovarian cancer, brain cancer, lung cancer etc etc. Every time someone like Wil mentions cancer in his blog people think about it and the more you think about it, the more likely you are to do something-and all of these little donations, thoughts, prayers and actions help to solve a huge problem. Will the Komen foundation singlehandedly wipe out cancer? Nope. Neither will the American Cancer Society…. but all of us, working together in all the little ways we do will somehow make a huge dent in this problem and hopefully, my children will not have to live through losing so many family members to cancer.
Rock on Wil and Anne-for getting up and showing support-and for the Avon 3-day you ran, and for the Leukemia marathon thingy, and for winning $10,000 for City of Hope! I know you have lots going on and you guys do lots to help people affected by cancer-and I know it comes from the heart.
Wil, Kudos to you and Anne.
Hope the hip is better.
I suffer from chronic back pain and its degenerative. so yea I feel ya. I plan to contribute anytime you ask on here. So yea, I’m ready 🙂 Definitely a yearly thing for me or more if I can swing it. God says we should give 10 percent , but I do what I can.
MistyB78 aka Kyhunny78 (pokerstars) 🙂
I’ll hush now.
Thank you for doing that. I know I’m hardly the only one saying so, but really, thank you for that. Breast cancer runs on both sides of my family. Both of my mother’s sisters had it (one beat it but lost both breasts, the other lost her life 2 years ago) and I am terrified that my mother will be next. I live in constant fear for her, my sister, myself, my cousins, and the millions of other women out there who are not at all related to me. Anything anyone can do to support finding a cure or even a treatment is so not nothing. Good people doing what they can is what we need — and I have no doubt that someday a cure WILL be found. Everyday people doing what they can pretty much guarantees that. So thank you.
Sent a transfer over on ‘Stars this morning.
I like Miracle Balls too. Can’t wait to see what you have to say about them.
I don’t know anything about which cancer society is better to support or not, but I think it’s awesome that you and Anne participated in the race. My maternal grandmother died from breast cancer before I was born, and one of my aunts was just diagnosed with it. So increasing awareness and supporting the organizations looking for a cure is definitely important.
If you’ve got time for a 12k run on May 7th try Bloomsday in Spokane, WA – http://www.bloomsday.org/.
It’s one of the biggest in the country with more than 40,000 participants last year.
Good job on the race. Hope you feel better as well. I hope you find something to help your hip as well. I have knee pain as well. Why are people in their 30’s having joint pain? It doesn’t make sense. Anyway, my dh and I bought a Gazelle about a month ago. It doesn’t hurt my knee and it actually feels better to walk around after I work out on it.
Feel better and keep up the good work.