Komen affiliates are seeing huge drops in support — in terms of the number of walkers participating in events and the amount of donations coming in — following its decision to re-establish funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
In Missouri, KMOX reports that one of the largest Komen walks in the country, in St. Louis, saw almost half the number of walkers this time as it did the year prior.
So far this year, Komen’s St. Louis chapter claims to have the second largest registration to this point, around 44,000 – trailing only Rome Italy’s 50,000 or so. But even this highly supportive city has seen a drop in numbers.
It’s something that Helen Chesnut, executive director of the St. Louis affiliate, says they have to move past while remaining focused on their goal of raising money for breast cancer research.
“No matter what is happening in the outside world we stay concentrated on our mission,” Chesnut tells KMOX News. “The only losers in any kind of controversy are usually those who need the help the most, and that’s the reason why we can’t be distracted.”
Two years ago St. Louis participation in the annual event hit a record of more than 71,000. Three days before Saturday’s 14th annual race, around 44,000 have signed up to take part.
And UPI indicates a New Jersey Komen chapter is hundreds of thousands of dollars shy of its goal.
The North Jersey group said it is about $300,000 shy of its fundraising target, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported. The chapter’s fiscal year ends July 1. Robin Ventura, the board president, said the local Race for the Cure, the premier fundraising event, had about 2,500 fewer registrants this year than in 2011. Last year, the chapter raised $1.5 million, for the first time bringing in more than its target. This year, it set a goal of $1.3 million.
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“This is not something that will be replaced by the federal government or anything else,” Ventura said. “This is just money that will not get to where it needs to go.”
The cure for what ails Komen is pretty simple. Spend less money funding the nation’s biggest abortion business and put more effort into finding cures for breast cancer and helping women by informing them that abortion is linked to breast cancer and responsible for killing as many as 300,000 women in the United States alone.
