East Valley Non-Profits Among Groups to Receive Komen Grants

Phoenix Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Grants Record $2.6 Million to Breast Cancer Screening, Treatment, Education and Research

PHOENIX – In a time when funds are being cut from vital programs across the country, the Phoenix Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is granting $2.6 million – its largest amount ever – to breast cancer screening, education, treatment and research. More than $2.1 million will stay in the community, funding 33 nonprofit organizations throughout central and northern Arizona.  East Valley groups include:  Banner Desert Medical Center, the Catholic Healthcare West Foundation (East Valley), and the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare.

The grantees will be recognized at Komen’s annual “Fulfilling the Promise” luncheon on Thursday, March 26 at noon at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The invitation-only event will feature Arizona Governor Jan Brewer as a special guest speaker. It will also honor the organization’s dedicated volunteers and supporters.

The community grants program allows the Komen Phoenix Affiliate to carry out its mission of saving lives and ending breast cancer forever throughout medically underserved communities. Up to 75 percent of net proceeds generated by the Phoenix Affiliate’s annual Race for the Cure and other programs stay within the service area of central and northern Arizona. The remaining 25 percent funds the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer research program.

“Our grants program is the absolute juncture of where the rubber meets the road,” says Candyce Lindsay, Grants Director of the Komen Phoenix Affiliate. “The funds that are raised by the Race for the Cure by this community are going directly to the community where the need has been defined.”

The Komen Phoenix Affiliate’s annual community grants program awards funds to non-profit organizations that provide innovative, non-duplicative breast health and breast cancer services directly to the medically underserved, uninsured or underinsured. The services must be provided within the Phoenix Affiliate’s service area, which includes Apache, Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pinal and Yavapai counties. A complete list of the 2009/2010 grant recipients is attached.

In addition to the $2,133,226 in local grants, the Komen Phoenix Affiliate has also granted $550,000 to the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure Research Grants Program, bringing its 2009/2010 contribution to over $2.6 million. Of these funds, $550,000 was awarded to research programs, $150,235 to education programs, $748,660 to screening programs and $1,234,331 to treatment programs. Since its inception in 1993, the Komen Phoenix Affiliate has granted more than $16 million – making it the largest private grantor of breast cancer funds in Arizona.

The organization’s primary fundraiser is its annual Komen Phoenix Race for the Cure®, which is held each October and is the largest 5k event in Arizona. The 2008 event drew 31,500 participants and raised a record $2 million. The seventeenth annual Race will be held on Sunday, Oct. 11 in the State Capitol District in Phoenix. For more information, please visit www.komenphoenix.org.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®, it has invested more than $1 billion to fulfill that promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world. For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, breast health or breast cancer, visit http://www.komen.org/ or call 1-877 GO KOMEN. For more information about Komen for the Cure and its Phoenix Affiliate, call (602) 544-CURE (2873), or visit the organization online at http://www.komenphoenix.org/.

About the Phoenix Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
The Phoenix Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®-along with those who generously support us with their talent, time and resources-is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in our community. We join more than 100,000 breast cancer survivors and activists around the globe as part of the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting breast cancer. Through events like the Susan G. Komen Phoenix Race for the Cure®, we have invested over $16 million in local breast health and breast cancer awareness projects in the nine counties of Central and Northern Arizona, and in vital breast cancer research. Up to 75 percent of all funds generated by Komen Phoenix stay in the local area while the remaining income goes to Komen for the Cure’s Grants Program supporting research, awards and educational and scientific programs around the world. Join us by calling 602-544-CURE (2873) or visiting us online at http://www.komenphoenix.org/.

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